From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
A health food store is a type
of
grocery store that primarily sells natural and
organic foods, local produce, and often
nutritional supplements. Health food stores often
offer foods that attract people with special diets, such
as people with wheat and
gluten allergies,
diabetics,
vegans,
vegetarians, and
raw foodists.
Health
food
The term health food has no
official definition but many would agree that health
foods help to provide optimum nutrition. Therefore,
health foods could be defined as foods that are
beneficial for good health.
Some terms that are often associated
with health food are
macrobiotics,
natural foods,
organic foods, and also,
whole foods. Macrobiotics is a
diet focusing primarily on whole cereals. Whole
cereals, along with other whole foods, are foods
that are as close to their whole and natural state as
possible. They are minimally processed and generally
have their fiber and hull intact and are considered more
nutritious. Natural foods are simply foods that contain
no artificial ingredients. Organic foods are foods that
are grown without the use of conventional and artificial
pesticides and must meet certain
organic standards.
History of
health food stores
Many foods which are now commonplace
in groceries first entered the market in the late 1800s
and early 1900s. Efforts by early health pioneers such
as
Sylvester Graham,
Horace Greeley,
John Harvey Kellogg,
George Ohsawa,
Ellen White and others spurred an interest in health
food. As early as the 1920s and 1930s health food stores
started opening in the United States selling products
such as
blackstrap molasses and
brewer's yeast. Health food stores became much more
common in the 1960s in connection to the newly emerging
ecology movement and
counterculture.
Many health food stores are
worker owned cooperatives and
consumers' cooperatives due in part to their growth
of popularity during the counterculture movement of the
1960s and 1970s and the ability of cooperative buying
power to bring lower costs to the consumer.
Over the last decade, health food,
and especially organic food, has entered the mainstream.
Companies such as
Whole Foods Market, a large multinational
corporation, have profited greatly and grown
substantially during this expansion.
Aviva Natural Health is a prominent natural health
retailer in Canada.