Myth Busting Monday

If you buy it from the health food store it must be healthy!

Many times I have walked into Whole Foods and checked my brain at the door. It's so easy. You can just turn on auto-pilot and start filling your cart! Unfortunately, just because something comes from the health food store does not make what you are buying healthy. No, not everything at the health food store is organic, actually "whole food" or even good for you! If you go to Trader Joe's and buy sugar - guess what folks - it is still just as bad as any other sugar and might as well be from the discount grocer. I LOVE to shop at health food markets like Whole Foods. It is easier to find the things that actually are healthy foods, organic produce and some of those hard to find products that might not be available anywhere else. But quite often things are over priced at these grocers.

I may write more on these topics later, but just so you get the idea:

Ice cream at the health food market is STILL ICE CREAM! There may be less chemicals, but I'm betting there's still just as much sugar and fat!

Just because the vitamins come from the health food market does not make them good for you.

The "snacks" at the HFM most of the time are still junk food!

Just because the packaging says - Good for you, less fat, less calories, less salt, vegan, gluten free, raw, organic bla bla bla does not mean that it is any of the things!

Just because it is organic does not make it healthy. Come on...I can buy organic dog food, but I'm not going to eat it! On a side note, there are a few things that should always be organic, but the list is pretty short.

I can buy whatever I want from the HFM, buy some oil while I'm there, take it home and deep fry it. While this might taste like a piece of heaven it is probably not good for me.

All of that said, again - I still LOVE the health food markets and suggest that you support them! At the same time, I make it a practice to buy healthy, whole food items at the regular grocer nearest to my house. When I go into Price Chopper I make sure I buy a piece of organic fruit every time I go in. I want my local market to know that I want and will buy good, local, organic products! While the HFM already recognizes the need for these things my neighborhood grocer may not! When I'm at Wal-Mart I might buy the organic, local apple just to tell them - HEY! I want to support my local farmer! I want to support the biodynamic farmers who are growing food in a way that supports health for people and the planet.