Why I shop at Whole Foods Market (from a mom’s perspective)…

by wayland, April 6, 2009 | Permalink

By Kate Blaski

At this time and age it’s almost a cliché to say I shop here because I want to eat healthy food. This statement might have sounded right back in the 90s. If I just added that I want my family to eat healthy food or even want my children to eat healthy, the phrase still sounds a bit worn out. Nowadays we hear it everywhere – from our mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, doctors, teachers and dieticians. It seems there are magazines everywhere carrying slogans such as: ”Healthy recipes,” Healthy meals”, “Ten healthiest foods” and so on. This healthy food mantra is everywhere but unfortunately doesn’t always seem to make it to our dinner plates.

Of course, I am concerned about my health and that of my family. But I’m not a health nut. Even though I put spirulina in my smoothies, I only take a probiotic and a multivitamin supplement once a day. I’m not a granola person, but I have had my share of muesli back in the day when I was a vegetarian. And although I eat a lot of green leafy vegetables and even grow my own sprouts sometimes I’ve never had juice made out of wheat grass. And I have only very recently discovered kombucha.

Putting all this aside, I shop at Whole Foods Market for more important reasons. First of all, whenever I come food shopping here with my kids I never have to fight with them over a box of cereal with a picture of one of the latest superheroes or cartoon characters on it along with its highly overly processed and overly sweetened content. Shopping at Whole Foods lets me know my kids are safe and they can pick whatever they want really, whether it’s cereal, cookies or fruit snacks.

There is also the husband issue. Late at night, after the kids are asleep and I’m settling down with my book I often hear rumblings in the kitchen from the pantry doors opening and shutting, the fridge doors slamming followed by the quiet rustling of a paper bag and the secretive munching of potato chips. After a long and tiring day week at work my husband pulls out a bag of oven baked, no-trans-fat potato chips to unwind in front of a ballgame on TV on the weekends. Even if he does this sometimes during the week I still can relax and not get mad at him as I know the food he is snacking on is healthy.

And for me?  I also know that through the types of food choices I make, it helps support producers of natural and organic foods whether it’s a smokehouse on the Cape or a coffee plantation in Kenya. I shop at Whole Foods because it saves time – I don’t have to scrutinize labels, scan tiny prints of the list of ingredients in order to avoid harmful preservatives. Simply put, I do it for peace of mind. It is obvious that Whole Foods got the title of the Healthiest Store in America for a reason.

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