There are some bulk organics, like bread-making flour and dried fruit, that we get from a health food store when we get to the "city" but I'm afraid I find them creepy places, big on food replacement therapies and supplements that are marketed by raising fear levels and promoting faddish hysteria about the horrors of trace element deficiencies.

At the same time, it's appropriate to mind your diet and recognise what happens when food is subjected to extreme levels of processing and elaborate pharmacopias of additives to keep fit marketably colourful and shiny with an infinite shelf lives .

There's good sense and healthy living, I guess, and then a continuum all the way through to morbid neurosis and paranoia.

And I'm afraid that, when I look a bit more closely at your average health foods' store and those free magazines they dish out, I find the "health food" industry pursuing a profits-driven mimicking of big pharma. It's got in a big way into extracting naturally-occurring components of various foods and packaging them as "essential" components of a healthy diet, as though non-one actually eats "food". There's a fairly heavy reliance on the demonstrated effectiveness of placebos and more than a little propagandising on their behalf. At the same time, when it comes to vitamins and herbal tonics and remedies there are real possibilities of overdosing: comfrey, for example can cause liver damage. St John's wort, for which I remember a bit of a fad as an anti-depressant, can be quite dangerous.

There are pills for this and for that, just as with big pharma, including pills for conditions that are a normal part of aging. The health foods industry is as guilty as anyone else of pumping up fear of aging and the cult of kiddy-skin complexions.

I find the idea of popping pills for every discomfort or anxiety — no matter whether they're placebos or "active" agents — culturally unhealthy. Pills become a surrogate for healthy living and the acceptance of "normal" debilitation. Males are encouraged to remain rampantly horny goats into old age, better pills are on the way to combat obesity, there are drugs to (seriously overprescribed) to control overactive children and to prolong the lives of the elderly to the point where the most significant health issues become drug interactions and side effects.

While the health food industry may lack the marketing muscle of big pharma, I do sense that it's playing the same game.

A diverse diet of foods chosen for flavour, seasonality and freshness, together with moderate age-appropriate exercise and an active intellectual and emotional life seem to provide the healthiest option for most people — and it's also, in the end, the most affordable option.

Our genes are all those of a foraging, hunting omnivore: when that's the way our bodies are built and wired, it makes sense to go along with that — in terms of exercise, diet and affective behaviours. Urban living (and urban lifestyles and attitudes are increasingly the rural norm as well), fastidious food preferences and dietary imbalances are bound to produce problems.

It's worth remembering the benefits of hormesis (a little bit of what's bad for you can do you a whole power of good).

hey penguin, whereabouts in canada are you?

I buy some stuff at Planet Organic - which is just nearby - i can walk there which is great.  They have a great variety of products, more emphasis on whole foods than supplements, although there's a good size vitamin/supplement section too.  They also sell cleaning products etc. that I like.  It definitely is a more expensive way to go.   I've found though that since PO opened, a small nearby independent grocery store has upgraded itself & is now selling many of the similar food products - interesting. 

 Mike, there is SO much fear mongering out there!! If  "They" had it their way we would be outside with the rabbits eating what they eat and nothing else. (though it says nothing about copulating like them). Kevin Trudeau's book is horrible for this.

Balance is definitely needed. First grains are good for you, now they're not. Blah blah blah. what's next, broccoli? A little common sense goes a long way.

We do have great little health food stores on the west coast and in Kitsilano, in Vancouver, the largest of them is now the size of a Safeway. 

I buy organic when I can but I am also buying local, so it is a mix and match thing. 

Yes, I try to buy organic and fair trade as much as possible.  Spending that little bit extra is one small way of expressing gratitude by giving a little bit back to the earth, and giving a little bit back to people.

I also try to find humanely slaughtered, organic meat.  That's hard to do.

I find that there is a great deal of difference in health food stores.  Some are really into things like natural grains and additive free products - but others seem to concentrate on body building, bulk-up supplements and fade diets.

I used to shop at a little health food store when I worked downtown and could walk over on my noonhour.  I would buy the crunchiest little chick peas for snacking on in the afternoon.  Now I just check out the health food section at my Coop store where I do 90 percent of my shopping.

My husband works at our local health food store, so of course we buy a lot there. We were customers long before he started managing it. You can buy all your groceries except meat at our store. The couple who own it are Seventh Day Adventist, and are vegetarian, so do not sell meat. This store has a lot of organic and even local products. The eggs, honey and some other things are local. The coffee is BC roasted and wonderful. (Kicking Horse) The vitamins are high quality. I only take some basics, fish oil supplements and evening primrose oil for skin and joints, a mutli-vitamin and the occasional echanacea (sp?) and iron. Oh, I do take a green supplement and calcium/mag/vitD supplement. We tend to buy our meat at a local shop that sells locally grown and butchered meat.

I agree with you Mike. We were at the health food trade show in Vancouver in the spring. It was a wonderful show, and I learned a lot. At the same time, I did notice the similarities to big pharma. I think being choosy and informed is important.

 some of the health food stuff is downright yummy.  I just don't like some of the fear-mongering that goes on. 

Northwind, we bought a pack of Kicking Horse Coffee for Christmas and are enjoying it very much.  A bit steep in price for our usual consumption levels but for a treat it is very nice.

Ontario :]

I like to buy fair-trade and organic when I can. I live near Vancouver and as jlin said upthread, there are some great stores here. We have Capers and Choices, which are both fairly large stores with a great selection. If I'm in the area, I'll opt to shop there over Safeway or Save On.

jlin - are you a Vancouverite by chance?

if you're in the gta there are some great places:

loblaws (their selection is getting bigger and bigger, reasonably priced)

planet organic (a little expensive)

whole foods (a little expensive, but a huge selection of things makes it easy to sale shop.  my absolute favourite place to go  --- the store is breathtaking and i swear i gain 10 pounds just by breathing the air in their bakery).

i have never visited but i have heard that green organic vegetables in mississauga is a really inexpensive place to visit for organic produce.

alot of places online will deliver organics to your door as well.

let me know how your search goes.

j

I go to Whole Foods and Trader Joes for most things, and I go to a couple of local Asian stores for produce.  Whole Foods has a large selection of most things, a large bulk foods section, and it has a large vitamin/supplement section.   momsfruitcake, I know what you mean about Whole Foods bakery.  

we have a 'bulk barn' just a few blocks away, and the local 'your independent grocer' has quite a large organic food section, so its not all that hard for me.

The only thing I buy at the health food store is the black licorice...it is fabulous.  Our is more like a pharmacy and has very pale and fragile owners/shoppers.  This could be because they are not well to begin with, but I'm not taking any chances :)

LOL!!!

We try to support local food growers (and for a number of months have this available very close to our home) and we use an organic home delivery service every two weeks. We also occasionally shop at Choices and Capers (in Vancouver) as listed above. We buy only fair trade coffee and most often buy non-medicated meat and poultry.

   When I lived in the city (Vancouver) I did shop at many health food stores, local ones and bigger ones like Capers. I watched with delight as it became easier to get access to things like organic foods and other health items at regular groceries as well as the appearence of more farmers markets. About two years ago I made a life change and moved to a rural area. There's a couple of health food stores in the area one that's more like a pharmacy (pills and bottles) and one that's a mixture. I go there to buy things like bulk herbs for teas and getting supplies for making things like my own cleaning products. I make my own face cleaners and moisturizers.  

 In terms of food funnily enough even though we're surrounded by farms the local grocery stores do not sell organic foods or much in the way of whole foods. So I try to go to farmers markets and buy meats directly from the actual farmers.  A Bulk Barn just opened up in neighboring town a couple of months ago. Woo!  I was so happy to find an easy source of different types of flour, pasta as well as organic staples. When I lived in the city it was actually way easier.   The prices aren't that much different then the non-organic stuff either.

 The big thing I've done and is one of the main reasons we made the move is that I now am working at growing as much of my food as possible and hopefully become one of those people you find at a farmers market selling my extras. We're only starting out though but I did manage to grow enough potatos last year that we didn't have to buy any for 3 months.  Just used the last of them a couple of weeks ago. It was actually weird not having to regularly buy them but quite thrilling as well!  I do grow enough tomatos though and am still using preserved tomatos that I grew over a year ago.  My goal next year is working on beans and getting a stock of dried beans to last to the next years harvest.  I'm also going to be experimenting with some different grains, though I already know that we don't have enough land to supply us year round.

  The other new endevor is chickens! I got some chicks in the fall and they should be laying in a couple of months. I'm so looking forward to cutting eggs off of my grocery list as well.   It will be weird!   I will to work at overcoming my sentiments to get them onto the table though, if I manage I'll have a backyard supply of organic chicken as well.  Have to see how that one goes.....  I already have a list of people who will buy any extra eggs. My neighbors are excited too it seems.

 Now that I think about it the transition is interesting for years I tried to shop and support places like health food stores when they were less prominant  and now I'm growing my own store and possibly going to be able to actually supply some of those stores so other people can keep shopping!

jadespring, that's awesome.  how much property do you need for chickens?  i would love to have chickens, but don't know if i have enough room.  are they fairly easy to maintain?  do they take alot of know-how?

we tried our hand at a small garden this year.  we attempted grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, pumpkins, zuchinni and tomatoes.  my yield was 5 tomatoes *lol*.  nothing else grew.  we'll try it again next year, maybe on a larger scale.

Very little actually. An average back yard is more then adequate if you just have a few. They can easily be raised even in a city environment as you would a pet.

 Here's a great site with lots of info specifically geared for backyards and small scale chicken keeping.     http://www.backyardchickens.com/

 The biggest issue is regulations so you have to check.  Unfortunately in Canada there only three big cities that allow chickens, with smaller towns you have to check.  If you live outside of a town then there's probably no issue.  Unlike the US where you can keep them even in places like New York!  Though roosters are forbbidin in urban environments for obvious reasons.

 Here's a site that talks a little about the issue and about people who are working to change the rules in some Canadian  cities.

 http://www.torontochickens.com/Toronto_Chickens/Welcome.html

They really aren't that difficult to take care of. We have 20 right now, but we have 2 acres and plan to sell the extra eggs.  I was actually pleasantly surprised and how easy as I did expect them to be more work then they are.  They are in a secure environment and we can easily leave them on their own for a few days with enough food and water. As far a smell goes they don't stink if taken care of properly.

If you are considering it I would recommend looking into heritage breeds or rare breeds. There's lots of different types out there that have been breed for certain environments, have different temperments and for specific thingsand fare better in different situations.  I decided on one called Barred Plymouth Rock that decent for both meat and eggs, handles cold well, likes to free range but also is happy in a coop and is good with people, especially children. At one time it was a common chicken to find on farms.  So not only can you get the benefit of your own eggs but your helping to preserve the breed from extinction.  I'm also going to be using them to help with my gardening. They will be my own little work crew as well. :D 

 If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

 ----------------

 As far as tomatos go, I'm not sure where you live but where I am it was NOT a good tomato year last year so don't let that get  you down. Only about half our tomatos managed to ripen before the frost. Some years are just better then others. Not sure what happened with the rest of your garden but if you want to discuss it more I'd be up for it.  Gardening is my passion, especially food but much of that passion is also helping other people garden. I'm  starting to work at the Master Gardeners certification this year.  I have gardened in various places from a backyard patio in the city, a balconey to what I'm doing now.

Wow. Having chickens would be nice. Then I would know that the eggs are good and the chickens are taken care of properly. I don't eat meat, so I would only keep them for eggs. Also, having a food garden would be nice. My mom said we could plant some wild blackberries and raspberries in our backyard soon. They taste so much better when they are wild.

I would also like to start eating/drinking goat's milk and cheese since it's way better for you than dairy products that come from cows. I hope it doesn't taste as bad as I think it will

Jadespring, we're aiming that way too.  Trying to grow more of our own food, store it, buy local, or at least buy ingredients, not prepackaged food.  In some ways it is a lot harder in a rural community, but in other ways it's easier.  I'm in Alberta, and I bought some amazing farm raised beef this fall.  It's about to run out though, and the friend I bought it from may not have cows in the spring.  

Would love chickens, but we're in town and they're not allowed.  So we'll settle for veggies.