The Church of Whole Foods

http://news.yahoo.com/whole-foods-temple-quackery-104500898--politics.html

So I've never been to a Whole Foods. Is it really as hokey as all that?

I'd say it isn't all that hokey. They have exquisite produce and meat sections, great cheese, wine, and beer inventories, are generally friendly. But mostly, what stands out is over pricing. There was a controversy here about a Whole Foods opening at a site that had previously housed an ethnic grocery. Said ethnic grocery was dirty, suffered from under staffing, poorly stocked shelves, and was failing in part because the community itself was changing. Nevertheless, Whole Foods was given the anti-gentrification working over, and probably ultimately paid off some activists in some way or another. I have observed the transition over twenty-five years from a health food place to a health-conscious general grocery store, to a yuppy favorite to the evil scion of the one percent.

Your average grocery store has plenty of pseudo-science on its shelves, Whole Foods would have to go some to top the regular chains.
Are we talking goth witchcraft shop levels, or what?

So it's like The Fresh Market?

It's just a grocery story that focuses on natural and organic items. As gul said, it's a great place for meats and produce. You will pay more there, and I would never get items like paper towels, toilet paper, or cleaning supplies from there because there is no need to pay that premium for those things.

Never been to a Fresh Market, but probably. Whole Foods has a higher nutty/crunchy component than most places, but mostly it's just your typical high end grocer.

Pompous and overpriced.

Whole Foods is overpriced on just about everything. And only a fool would buy any non-food item from them since you can almost be 100% guaranteed to get a similar or same item for a lesser price any where else. Most of their "boxed" food tastes terrible. Their meat, fish and deli sections are great. Just expensive.

And I'd say this author is also pompous and overpriced.

No. Whole Foods is already at the top with the homeopathic silliness.

I think it's interesting that they brought up the Ezekiel 4:9 bread, since you can find that in about every major grocery chain.

I've never heard of it...unless "Ezekiel 4:9" is code for "Bunny".

I like the Ezekiel bread, and I have never purchased it at Whole Foods.

Really here's the one bit that matters in the article:

"If the Paleo diet helps you eat fewer TV dinners, that’s great—even if the Paleo diet is probably premised more on The Flintstones than it is on any actual evidence about human evolutionary history"

How can concentrating on fresh servings of fish, grass-fed meats, eggs, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and exclude stuff like grains, legumes, dairy, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, processed oils, and all the non-natural crap that is added into modern foods be a bad thing?

I want to like the article but can't get around the shitty article being shit. Try harder journalism.

I'd say you're wrong. Whole Foods is hokey and overpriced. Only douchebags shop there.

Whole Foods has great but expensive produce, meats, and cheeses. Buying anything else from them is laziness (one stop shopping) or pretentiousness wrapped in one of a few different flavors.

Their deli is the worst, most horribly priced joke I've ever seen. I stopped in once to get a certain cut of beef and decides to pick up a meat and two from the deli. It cost $25 and wasn't even that good.

I shop at Kroger. What vegetarian stuff I buy is almost always on sale. What homeopathic stuff they have, I just ignore, though I always shake my head when someone pays $25 for a small bottle of sugar pills, thinking it's going to help their cold go away faster.

Paleo/primal is just another take on "eat more vegetables and less junk food" that we've heard for decades.

Although with how thoroughly domesticated nearly everything we eat is, I wouldn't pretend that it's the sort of thing some noble savage would have eaten.

It's a little more then just "eat more vegetables and less junk food"

No soft drinks/juices/energy drinks/diet soft drinks
No dairy
No grains/gluten
No legumes (including peanuts which are not actually a nut but are a legume)
No refined sugars
No starchy tubers (white potatoes)
No processed meats
No oils (except for coconut oil/ Olive oil/macadamia oil/avocado oil)
No excessive use of salt

And the point of paleo isn't to eat what our ancestors ate. It's to eat what our bodies are optimized for. What we evolved from eating.

Paleo might be the wrong word to use IMHO since so many people think of the "caveman" silliness. They should have called it something like the Evolutionary Diet.

I disagree with no grains and legumes, but mostly that list is what I try to follow. The grains/legumes prescription regards cutting carbs, which is not a good idea if you lead an active lifestyle.

It also means no beer...amiright?

Well yes, and that's the biggest problem.

You can lead an active life without eating grains and legumes which our bodies did not evolve from eating those things. It was only 10000 years ago that as a species we figured out that cooking grains/legumes could make them edible. Are you telling me that before 10000 years ago no human led an active lifestyle?

Just do a Google search on why grain and legumes are good for you. You'll see some sites talking about the "good" but way more sites will be pointing out the problems with grains and legumes.

You can get plenty of carbs from other things then grain and legumes.

And why, exactly, would we want to try to prolong a life that would exclude such little pleasures as chocolate, beer, pizza, or even a chunk of bread for crissakes?
; )

The problem isn't eating those little pleasures. The problem is eating those little pleasures each day that leads to problems.

Diet is over rated. The body can handle a variety of "bad" foods so long as we eat them in moderation. Exercise is a far better predictor of longevity and health.

What was their average lifespan? Since the development of agriculture, lifespans have increased (unlike mastodons, vegetables don't fight back).

How many of those sites are legit - yanno, backed by research as opposed to an excuse to pitch the latest colon cleanse?

These foods qua foods aren't bad for anyone unless they're allergic. It's the processing and pigging out that are the problems.

Yep, potatoes. Lots of potatoes. Great for kicking a prediabetic smack into the diabetic camp.

http://www.active.com/fitness/articles/how-does-your-body-burn-fat?page=1

Your body is a engine. What type of fuel you put in it matters. Matters a lot more then exercise. Any qualified trainer will tell you that what you eat makes up 80%-85% of the battle in losing weight.

And you say, "The body can handle a variety of "bad" foods so long as we eat them in moderation", but you do not realize that there are a lot of other bad foods you are eating constantly because you don't realize they are bad for you.

Like grains. Wheat in particular.

But hey..... I'm not going to tell you what to eat. Eat what you want. I'll eat what I want.

Garamet if you could be half-assed to actually read instead of being your usually snarky bitchness you would see what I wrote about potatoes.