Food Matters Live 2019

We have just got back from a fantastic two days at ExCel and Food Matters LIVE, a national exhibition where hundreds of innovators and speakers met thousands of visitors to find out about the latest in food ingredients and dietary nutrition.

The Watercress Company played a pivotal role showcasing in two fascinating presentations the importance of watercress to health and well being and why it really does matter in sports nutrition supported by Nutritionist Dr Lucy Williamson.

For thousands of years, anecdotal evidence from the ancient Greeks, to the Romans, Medieval monks and the Victorians suggested that watercress, uniquely grown in flowing spring water, possesses remarkable health benefits.  It was only in recent years (the noughties) that genuine scientific proof was found to corroborate these suspicions including evidence to show that watercress can protect against cancer.

The most recent findings have been related to sports industry and the exciting potential that watercress has as a natural ingredient for sports performance and recovery.  Registered Nutritionist, Lucy Williamson was able to explain how in more detail to a room of industry experts, academics and students at a seminar entitled ‘Next generation nutrition solutions to support an active lifestyle’.

Lucy was one of four speakers and explained to the audience the importance of watercress as a natural antioxidant, its role in aiding the immune system due to the high levels of vitamins A and C, how vitamin C also helps to make watercress a fantastic source of iron, by converting the plant iron to a more easily absorbed version.

She also highlighted the high levels of natural protein in watercress and touched on possible future applications of watercress protein in different formats within the sports nutrition industry.

Day 2 and a second presentation!

This time Lucy was joined by both The Watercress Company Managing Director, Tom Amery (who had introduced the topic at the seminar the day before) and James Harper for an Innovative Ingredients Live session. As the name suggests the presentation was a little more interactive; Lucy again did ‘the science bit’ and explained how watercress can help anyone to lead a more healthy lifestyle.

However, she was able to put her money where her mouth is and encourage people to see how simple and delicious it can be to add watercress to your diet as James demonstrated how to make a fabulous Watercress, Mango and Pineapple Smoothie.

This went down incredibly well (as it always does!) and people were coming back for more, eager to pick up the recipe cards.

Traditionally watercress has a very loyal consumer base amongst older people who have absorbed the health messages that were particularly well publicised when the cancer research was published in the early noughties.  The watercress industry is keen to attract a younger market who have not perhaps heard so much about the superfood potential of watercress.  Attending Food Matters Live was one step in trying to achieve this.

Fridge in Poole David Lloyd Gym.

Another step has been a campaign The Watercress Company has implemented across Dorset, with a view to extending it more widely and ultimately nationally, whereby gyms, leisure centres and health & fitness clubs can request a visit by The Grab-a-Bag unit (or fridge!).  The fridge is full of bags of watercress which club members are encouraged to take for free to introduce the salad leaf to new consumers but ones who are interested in health and fitness.  The Grab-a-Bag campaign has been running since July and so far with just one fridge available, thousands of bags have been distributed.  The Watercress Company is investing in four more fridges and so intends to up the ante and raise awareness of the campaign quite substantially.

To really push the importance of watercress as a source of iron, at Food Matters Live Lucy highlighted the importance of the inclusion of vegetables high in iron in the diets of Gen Z (11-18 year olds), 46% of whom are known not to meet the lowest RNI for iron.  In addition, many in this age group are choosing to adopt vegetarian and vegan diets for which it is difficult to source adequate levels of plant iron.  Veg such as watercress which are high in iron but also vitamin C (gram for gram watercress contains more vitamin c than an orange) which is needed to enable the body to absorb plant iron, are essential for such diets.   It is clear that for similar reasons, watercress is also a fabulous food to help prevent the huge problem of malnutrition in the elderly too.

 Tom says: “Watercress is genuinely a superfood with nutritional benefits for everyone.  Most recently watercress has been proven to aid sports performance and recovery which is excellent news for professional and amateur sports enthusiasts keen to reduce their reliance on expensive and artificial supplements.  We are keen to encourage a younger audience to experiment with watercress hence our work with the Grab-a-Bag scheme, however we highly value the continued loyalty of our older customers.  Watercress is without question a supremely healthy addition to anyone’s diet, and we hope that Lucy’s seminars helped to convey this. Certainly the feedback we have had and the inquiries we have received suggest they did!”

Click on the link here to read an interview by Katherine Durrell for Nutrition Insight at FML19

To contact The Watercress Company in the first instance, email info@thewatercresscompany.com and the most appropriate person will be in touch.