Be Bold: Shopping for Good Quality, Healthy Food

Part 1: Health Frontier

I love food shopping.  When I have the precious opportunity, I can think of few things I like to do more on a Saturday morning than taking an early yoga class and heading straight to the store and the farmer’s market.  It is one of the few times in life that I take my time to smell the roses and relax. My enjoyment of the process has actually grown significantly as I have evolved my approach of cooking, eating, and living.  Growing up in suburban Florida, the only food shopping option I knew was the Supermarket.  Now, other than Whole Foods, I really don’t find any use for “supermarkets” and even at whole Foods, I am selective about what I buy.  I know I am extremely fortunate, that in New York City, we have a huge number of markets to choose from. However, there are health food store options relatively close in most areas of the country. I am such a health fanatic that I actually google-search towns for health food markets if I leave my area for an extended period of time and need to shop.

The obsession started in college, as I started becoming acutely aware of the impact food had on health, and the difference fresher, naturally grown and produced food made in my general well being. I became a “health food store convert.”  As Ange and I like to joke, health food stores are very easy to identify since the names always have something to do with Nature, a path, frontier, good life, a garden, etc.  Of all of the health stores, we have frequented in the past several years, the names are constantly getting jumbled.  I don’t even know any of the real names anymore.  Nature’s Garden gets confused with LifeThyme, with the cereal company Nature’s Path.  I finally gave up and now jokingly call them all Health Frontier!  Suffice it to say they are easy to identify if you know where to look. 

I prefer health food stores to supermarkets because the store is set up as I would logically shop and eat, and the majority of the space is dedicated to fresh produce. Most of the store-or at lease half- is the produce section, which is my favorite place.  They typically stock many varieties of vegetables and fruit unavailable in a traditional grocery store. The produce is much fresher. They also have a mix of locally grown produce and organic. A natural food store considers that you may actually want to buy some produce. Imagine that?!  Last time I was in a traditional grocery store, all of the lettuce except for the iceberg, was wilty and very unappetizing and it seemed like a third of the store was stocked with a myriad of frozen products.  No wonder so many people have a hard time eating vegetables.  It would be torture for me to eat them too if they looked and tasted like that.

In addition to food, most health stores also sell natural body products, supplements for those who need them, and prepared food to appeal to a variety of dietary preferences. Most of the time, you will find a section where they sell dry bulk foods like grains, beans, dried fruit, granola, nuts, and seeds.  I love the bulk concept; it saves you money and the hassle of dealing with the packaging after you use it. It is extremely environmentally considerate for the same reason. 

While it is best to get as much as you can from the farmer’s market, the health food store will supply most everything else you need (except of course soda and traditional junk food, but as far as I am concerned that a good thing.)