I’m interested in the idea of nutritional powders that can be added to smoothies and other drinks.  I’m not sure this qualifies as a “new” fad, as I remember my mother adding protein powders to our smoothies when I was a child, but it’s new to me because it’s a product that I don’t currently use.  It seems that nutritional powders have had a resurgence in attention with the broader market focus on juicing and high-powered blenders that create drinks and dishes that are easy to add nutritional supplements to.  I’m going to do more research on these this winter when it’s harder to get all our nutrients from fresh and local produce.

I don’t remember how I first heard about it, but since I enjoy Mark Bittman’s writing and cookbooks, I was curious about his book called VB6.  I am not sure it counts as a food fad, but it does follow a food trend of trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into the diet.  The idea behind the book is that you eat a strictly vegan diet before dinner, or 6pm.  His motivation for eating this way was primarily to lose weight, but he also advocates it as a healthier approach to eating in general.

Since I have wanted to change my eating habits to reflect not only a slowing metabolism (ah, the fun of getting older), but also a general sluggishness that I am sure eating habits aren’t helping, I am planning to give the VB6 plan a longterm shot.  Shortly after reading the book, I was eating vegan during the day, but then all the summer travels began and I couldn’t maintain it.  It is one of those changes in habit that need longer than a few weeks to cement.  At any rate, with the beginning of fall I am ready to give it another try, since I did like the changes I had started to make.  Aside from not being able to eat cheese, I didn’t find it difficult to eat vegan.  I don’t think I could do it the whole day though, so the VB6 idea fits well with my own eating habits.  We’ll see how it goes!