The Health Food Store
A health food store (or health food store) is a type of grocery store that primarily sells healthy foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores usually offer a wider or more specialized range of foods than traditional grocery stores to their customers, for example people with special dietary needs, such as people who are allergic to gluten found in wheat or some other substance, and for people who watch vegetarian, vegan, Raw, organic, or other alternative diets.
Healthy food
The term healthy food has been used since the 1920s to refer to certain foods that are claimed to be particularly beneficial to health, although the term has no official definition. Some of the terms associated with health foods are macrobiotics, natural foods, organic foods, and whole foods. A macrobiotic is a diet that focuses primarily on whole grains. Whole grains, along with other whole foods, are foods that are minimally processed. Whole grains contain fiber and germs and the body is healthy and 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 synthetic pesticides and must meet certain organic standards.
Nutritional supplements
Most health food stores also sell nutritional supplements, such as vitamins, herbal supplements, and homeopathic remedies. Herbal supplements were never regulated until the European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products came into force on April 30, 2004. The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, 2004/24/EC, was created to provide a regulatory approval process for herbal medicines in the European Union (EU).
History
Many foods that are now popular in grocery stores first entered the market in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The efforts of early health pioneers such as F.A. Sawall, Paul Bragg, Sylvester Graham, John Harvey Kellogg, George Ohsawa, Ellen White and others led to an interest in healthy foods. </ref> As early as the 1920s and 30s, health food stores started selling products.
Frank A. Sawall began selling mineral drink powders door-to-door and lecturing across the United States about the benefits of vitamin and mineral supplements, prior to opening Sawall Health Food Products, Inc. , in 1936. Vitamins, natural and organic foods are also sold. Frank A. Sawall, a biochemist, has been named “America’s Outstanding Health Educator and Nationally Recognized Nutrition Expert” in newspapers across the United States. Sawall Health Foods is the oldest family owned health food store in the United States, with fifth generation Sawall’s operating the business located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Health food stores in the United States became popular in the 1960s