This past week, the top suppliers and experts in supplements and raw materials gathered at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for the biggest yearly event on the subject, Supply Side West. Best in Nature attended as part of our ongoing efforts to source better and more environmentally-friendly ingredients. This includes attending conferences and presentations by suppliers as well as meeting with our existing suppliers to advocate for higher standards in quality and sustainability. 

Numerous presentations on the latest breakthroughs in health, quality-of-life and environmental impact were held that focused on these key areas: 

Sustainability

Many of Best in Nature’s products have now been switched to post-consumer recycled plastic. Supply Side 2024 presented new information on sourcing more sustainable ingredients, ways to introduce UPcycling into an organization’s sustainability plan and developing performance indicators to avoid greenwashing. 

Diversity

Diversity is another topic that Supply Side 2024 tackled by asking how we can better serve the unique needs of various communities. For example, clinical trial data often is heavily weighted towards men. As an industry, we discussed how we can provide more helpful data to serve women and people of different backgrounds. 

Another challenge is that as the US population diversifies, there are more types of diets to account for when providing health supplements or testing how things may interact. 

Quality and Manufacturing

Suppliers also focused on showing new ways to provide transparency in the supply chain. This way, companies and individuals can know more about ingredient sourcing, preventing adulteration. 

GLP-1 Patients and Their Needs

With the widespread popularity of Ozempic and other GLP-1 class drugs, several industries are looking at how to serve the needs of patients taking them given Ozempic’s effects profile. 

Experts discussed how to help patients 

• Preserve lean muscle mass
• Prevent or manage gastrointestinal side effects
• Control blood sugar
• Learn intermittent fasting to maintain weight loss after GLP-1 courses. 
• Maintaining skin integrity and elasticity to prevent “Ozempic-Face”
• Maintaining sufficient nutrients while eating fewer calories

Bark Park

To lighten things up, there was also a litter of 8 puppies guests were allowed to visit who were allowed to visit and play with who were all up for adoption.