Healthy Starts at the Store

Healthy eating starts from the source: shopping for food at the right places. Now I'm a farmer's market addict during the summer season when fresh local produce is available, but am realistic that it is not possible to obtain these all-natural ingredients straight from the source year-round. So as a backup I frequent healthy food stores.

In my area the best options of the food store "biggies" are Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Now there are merits and drawbacks to each - Whole Foods is a growing global empire (there was even one nearby when I lived in London) and thus has the resources to offer a wider selection of products, also resulting in generally higher prices a more "corporate feel" to the stores. Whole Foods is stocked will all the amenities of major grocery store chains - fresh produce; full meat, deli, and seafood counters; and an array of excellent prepared foods. Whole Foods may sell overpriced gourmet cheeses, but it's also one of the few places around that carries the hard-to-find items that epicurean foodies are looking for. They also have more specialty products, such as vegan baking ingredients, than Trader Joe's generally has. Whole Foods carries carob chips and many gluten-free baking mixes (not to mention great bulk granola!) as well as a ton of vitamins, probiotics, herbal supplements and such that other grocers lack.

Trader Joe's, on the other hand, has the "crunchy granola" feel of a neighborhood market, branding itself in a whimsical way with colorful walls and remarkably enthusiastic employees. Though Trader Joe's has less produce (and thus lacks the obscure exotic veggie finds), it still carries all the "health-food nut" essentials such as tofu in many varieties and prepackaged items like quinoa and kale. Though Trader Joe's products are limited in comparison to the competing brands at Whole Foods, resulting in fewer flavor choices to choose from in soy yogurt, for example - while Trader Joe's has soy milk, Whole Foods has that and numerous brands of almond milk and rice milk to choose from - Trader Joe's products are high quality. Their frozen food section has a great array of delicious premade meals such as Indian curry and Mexican tamales, and their low fat baked goods are excellent. By far my favorite part of Trader Joe's, I must say, is their dried fruits - from tart cherries to blueberry-golden raisin medleys, TJ's dried fruit is the perfect healthy snack to satisfy the sweet tooth's cravings.

The verdict: go to Whole Foods for lunch, indulging in their delicatessen, and peruse the shelves for a fine cheese find for later. Then stock up at Whole Foods on your basic essentials, and be sure to get some healthy snack foods! Free food samples at both stores. You can't lose.