[staciec878]

Im wanting to start eating better of the foods I currently eat. Like no added stuff and all those other things. Ive never even been to a whole foods store, but there is one close. What kind of food do they usually have there?

[nelie]

You don't have to a whole foods store to eat whole foods.

Everything I'd consider "whole foods" could be found in a regular store. Vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, dairy (yogurt, cottage cheese), lean meats, etc.

[ladyjane]

I'm actually not a fan of Whole Foods. The store is great, and the staff are very friendly in my opinion, but I don't care for some of the people who shop there. It seems like organics and the new green way of living seems to be the It thing lately, and I get easily annoyed by pretentious rich people.

That said, I am able to get a lot of items there I can't find anywhere else (like organic coconut milk). But I sometimes worried "organic" isn't always "organic." I've noticed that local grocers tend to have more and more items. Locally I have Weis Markets, Darrenkamps and Stauffers, all locally owned businesses, and they're jumping on board with whole organic foods. I can get a lot more items now than I could just a year ago.

I also grow my own veggies; that's a big help!

[CinnamonGirl]

Here's the Wikipedia definition of what "whole foods" means:

"Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and of course refined as little as possible before being consumed.

Often confused with "organic food" (i.e., organically-grown food), whole foods aren't necessarily organic, nor are organic foods necessarily whole, although they do share a number of traits, such as an avoidance of chemically-assisted agricultural techniques. Because of the lack of even basic, organically-acceptable processing, many whole foods have a very short shelf life and are not easily sold outside of farmers' markets.

Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains; organically garden-grown fruits and vegetables; and non-homogenized milk. For some, it is preferable to eat whole foods raw to obtain the maximum nutritional benefit."

That's a fairly strict definition. I'd say for most of us a good definition is to eat foods as unprocessed as possible.

The Whole Foods chain of stores carry whole foods, organic foods and processed foods. You can't assume that if it's at Whole Foods it's totally whole.

[LindaT]

Around here we call Whole Foods Stores - Whole Paycheck stores I do like to browse through them and their bulk items can be reasonable and if you catch something on sale, it isn't so bad. If I was a weathly woman, I'd shop there more but since I am poor, I make due with Trader Joe's.

To the original poster, you don't need a specialty store for whole foods and even organic foods are becoming more mainstream, but you'll pay for it. It you have room, a healthy and cheap idea would be to grown some of your own stuff. All I have room for are basil plants and an Asian Apple pear tree.


Shop around the edges of the store. That;'s where you are going to find most of your whole foods. Exceptions will exist of course, but that's where most of the more unproicessed stuff seems to be located. Grocers wants us to walk past all the impulse and processed items before we get to the "real" stuff.