A healthy roster of events marks nutrition month
Montreal’s annual health-food exposition will be held Friday through Sunday at the Palais des Congrès. Talks, cooking demonstrations and tastings will be offered almost nonstop, in French, by the more than 250 exhibitors at Expo Manger Santé et Vivre Vert, now in its 17th year. Demonstrations will cover such topics as how to make various kindsof bread, and croquettes with quinoa and vegetables; cook with yogurt; and flavour your recipes with spices. Many of the talks by speakers, who will range from academics to celebrities to publicists, will cover a dietary regime or an individual product.
Some new products will be exhibited, featuring the natural sweetener stevia, organic Greek-style yogurt, various flavours of basil pesto, hot dark chocolate and brownies, organic sun-dried tomatoes, hamburger buns made with kamut, cocoa butter for cooking, and cream cheese made with cashews.
Comedian Joël Legendre will be animator for a healthy cooking contest open to amateurs, to be held Friday beginning at 1:45 p.m. Contestants will have 45 minutes to create a dish which will be judged by natural product specialists. An artisanal baking contest will be sponsored by the organic milling company Meunerie Milanaise; the contestants are from 10 bakeries in Montreal and other Quebec centres. The bakers will be required to produce three different loaves — a baguette, a loaf made with organic stone-ground flour and a loaf made with an ancient grain. The contest will start Friday at 10:30 a.m., and be judged by a panel of bakers. Baking demonstrations are planned for Saturday and Sunday.
The expo website, expomangersante.com, includes the topics, speakers and times of all presentations and classes. The expo opens daily at 10 a.m. It runs until 8 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday, and 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission: adults, $13; students and seniors, $11; children 16 and under free. Information: 450-855-1003.
Nutrition hotline
Wednesday is the day you can get free advice about what you should eat to be healthy by calling 866-233-3310 between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Both English and French questions will be answered by a registered dietitian as part of the March Nutrition Month promotion of the Ordre professionnel des diététistes du Québec. If you prefer a personal interview, visit the dietitians stationed in the lobby of Place Ville Marie during those same hours.