Whole foods - the most overpriced healthy food store!
Eating healthy is very important. But buying healthy, organic food unfortunately comes at a price. The more healthy it is, the less pesticides or antibiotics or whatever else is added to that food, and therefore the harder it is to produce that food. And that is what makes healthy food so expensive.
A very primitive example - a burger at McDonald’s costs a dollar (or less). A salad costs ten dollars. If you are not earning a lot of money, you will, naturally, choose cheaper foods, even if they are bad for you. I decided to start eating more healthy quite a few years ago, and I found it quite challenging to buy healthy foods that do not cost a fortune here.
One of my favourite stores for shopping for healthy food is called Whole foods, and despite the price tags that give me a headache every single time I go there, I can never resist buying at least a few of their products. In this entry, I will tell you more about my favourite products there… and their prices, so you will not have a heart attack during your first shopping trip to Whole foods.
And just a disclaimer - I only gave this place four stars instead of five because of the prices, not because the food quality is bad!
Whole foods store entrance. Even though the place looks deserted on the outside, it was full of people.
What can you buy in there?
Whole foods is a very diverse store. It sells fresh produce, organic milk, fruit juices and other healthy drinks, cereal, grains, sweets, dietary supplements and even body care products! Basically, Whole foods acts like a regular grocery store.
How much will it cost you?
Probably more than you can imagine. For example, healthy juices will cost you five dollars or more for a 500 milliliter bottle. Most pastries will cost you two or more dollars a piece, and they are bite - sized. Fresh produce costs almost double the price of buying it in a regular grocery store. And body care products will cost you ten dollars at least. Oh well, at least they smell divine.
Well, it is true that you can sometimes find coupons for Whole foods that will lower your bill a little, or you can apply for their rewards card and save some money that way.
What you really should try at Whole foods
Any of their fruits and vegetables. If you told me a few years ago, that organic fruits and vegetables taste very different from non organic ones, I would probably start laughing in your face. Well, a few years ago, I was still living in Europe, and it is known that the food regulations there are much more strict, ensuring better quality of all foods.
Well, once I moved to the United states of America, I realized that the food quality here is really not nearly as good as it is in Europe, unless you are prepared to pay much much more for it. So when I went to Whole foods for the first time, I bought some lettuce and bananas, because they were both on sale, and I could somehow justify spending almost five dollars on a few bananas. And what a difference that was!
The section with fresh produce... and some flowers.
Their healthy drinks, including drinkable vinegar. You have most likely heard all about the healthy drinks craze, including different juice cleanses, flavoured waters and drinkable vinegars. I love their cold pressed juice selection, but the only problem here is that a 500 milliliter bottle will cost you eight dollars. I tried the ginger and greens one, you know, for science, and I have to say that it was surprisingly good… but the price tag on it is just absurd, if you ask me.
It is true that they frequently have different sales and promotions at Whole foods, such as ‘buy one, get one free’, but that still means that a small bottle costs four dollars. The drinkable vinegar is not pure vinegar, and it apparently helps strengthen your immune system and make your metabolism better. Out of curiosity, I tried the blueberry flavoured vinegar, and it actually tasted surprisingly good. And it was not as expensive as other drinks - a 500 milliliter bottle ‘only’ costs around three dollars.
The blueberry flavoured vinegar had a very faint taste of a real vinegar, with added notes of blueberries and coconut. I hope there is a way to make it at home, because I really like the taste, and I also like the drink’s effects on the body.
Whole foods's healthy drinks section. if only these drinks were cheaper...
Their dessert section, including the truffles, pastries and mochi ice cream. I love sweet things, and I would pay a lot of money for some good desserts. Well, Whole foods is a great place to easily spend twenty dollars on a few pieces of sweets, and not even feel bad about it.
My favourite sweet delicacy at Whole foods is definitely the mochi ice cream. Mochi is a regular ice cream, wrapped in a rice dough, and it tastes just divine. They have several available flavours, and I would suggest you to try them all. If you buy mochi individually, a piece will only cost you one dollar, which is a surprisingly low price, keeping in mind the fact that this is Whole foods. My favourite flavours so far include coffee (the best one), ripe mango, and mint chocolate chip… and I do not even like mint chocolate otherwise!
Then, I love their cake truffles, mainly the mango and the vanilla birthday cake ones. They are bite - sized, and one piece consists almost four hundred calories, but they are good enough that I do not care about it.
Whole foods’s wood fired pizza. Every Whole foods has a small restaurant on site, with healthy, freshly made food, and one of their specialities is their wood fired pizza. Just imagine all the crunchy crust and the paper thin dough… Yummy! They are offering several pre - prepared versions, and my favourite one is the one with arugula.
Whole foods is also selling ice cream. What are you waiting for?
Grains. Notice the price tag - nothing costs under ten dollars.
Sampling the products
What I like about whole foods, is the fact that they always offer some free samples both in the food section and in the body care section. I went to Whole foods yesterday to get some organic soap and some vegetables, and their sample of the day in food section was pineapple and mango salsa with freshly made tortilla chips, and some Honey Crisp apples. I love salsa, but pineapple and mango salsa sounded like something terrible to me… until I tried it!
And now I have a new favourite type of salsa, and I think they should start offering it at Mexican restaurants all around the world! Yes, it is that good. The pineapple and mango salsa is sweet, and it actually pairs perfectly with the saltiness of the tortilla chips. They are selling it in small, 500 gram containers, and the salsa was delicious enough that I could justify spending almost fifteen dollars on it.
Despite the ‘foods’ in the store name, Whole foods also sells different body care products, and they are all organic. From sunscreen to body lotions, body washes and organic soaps… you will not be disappointed. And the section of the store with the body care products smells just like Lush.
I can never resist trying the new body care product that Whole foods constantly changes, and my favourites include body lotions and soaps. Oh, and did I mention that you can sample them? Go for it! Well, the only downside of sampling more than one body care product in one visit is that you will smell like an air refreshener when you leave the store. I mean, it is not like that is a bad thing!
A short conclusion…
In the past few years, eating healthy has became more and more important. And I could not be happier about that. And in the United states of America, food regulations are not nearly as strict as food regulations in Europe, and therefore, some people decided to pay a lot more money for healthy, natural products. And this is the Whole foods’s mission… and I have to say that they were successful! Because, despite their mind blowing prices, their stores are always full of people.
