Originally published August 27 2009
Whole Foods Revisited
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) After recently writing about Whole Foods stores in a NaturalNews article (http://www.naturalnews.com/026906_food_foods...), I decided to stop in a Whole Foods store in Florida and see if anything had changed since the last time I had visited one. Doing so allowed me to review the brands of superfoods and nutritional supplements offered by the retailer, and it turned out to be a timely reminder of some of the many valuable brands offered there.
For example, New Chapter sells its products through Whole Foods (among other channels), and it's one of the highest-quality nutritional supplements companies I've ever found. Its products are pricey, of course, due to the inevitable retailer markup, but there's no questioning the quality of New Chapter's ingredients (www.NewChapter.com).
Some other notable brands available at Whole Foods include Emerald Balance (www.SGNNutrition.com), a very tasty and nutrient-dense superfood, Jay Robb's protein powder (www.JayRobb.com), soon to be enhanced with Jay Robb brown rice protein products, Nordic Naturals (www.NordicNaturals.com), a maker of high-end fish oil products, Nutiva (www.Nutiva.com), makers of HempShake and coconut oil products, and many other high-quality product manufacturers.
That Whole Foods makes their products available to us in local retail stores is, of course, a measure of convenience that must be paid for through retail markups. And that's why these products end up seeming so expensive by the time we pay for them at Whole Foods.
How can we afford to shop at Whole Foods for the Whole Family?
I went shopping at Whole Foods recently and found I had spent $160 on two bags of groceries and nutritional supplements. It was quite a wake-up call on the cost of living a healthful lifestyle in the United States, especially after living in Ecuador and growing the vast majority of my own diet for several months. It made me wonder: How do health-conscious American families afford to feed their children if they shop at Whole Foods? Many items sold there are cost prohibitive... especially for families.
And yet, as one reader pointed out in an email, Whole Foods is still better than the alternative "mainstream" grocery stores that sell toxic, processed foods and don't even bother trying to offer truly healthful items. We love to complain about Whole Foods, in other words, and yet at the end of the day, we still go there to spend our hard-earned money because it's still the best option for buying health-conscious groceries.
That's why I haven't boycotted Whole Foods. But I am careful when I shop there not to buy products with yeast extract or refined sugars (and there are lots of such products sold at Whole Foods). I'm also not planning on visiting Whole Foods very often, as I don't get to the states very much these days. Most of my diet is now sourced from my own garden in Ecuador.
I'm glad Whole Foods is there when I need it, but I try not to need it too often. Personally, I prefer to buy nutritional supplements and superfoods directly from the manufacturers, and I work to source most of my diet from either my own garden or local farmers. While not everybody can live the way I've decided to live (in South America), we each do the best we can given the resources we have. When you shop at Whole Foods, be selective in what you buy, and don't over-pay for items just because they're sitting on the shelf at this high-priced retailer. Keep 'em honest, in other words, on prices.
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