I want to talk to you about health food stores, in particular, how many FAIL to do anything to make you more healthy.  A bunch of overpriced JUNK, snake oils and dubious health claims. It’s disgusting. This is a rant about  my local health food store, which happens to be a small “mom and pop” kind of place, and the only health food store in the area.  I’m not going to mention names, because this isn’t going to be “kind and helpful criticism” it’s going to be a rant, and I’m not feeling particularly “kind and helpful” at the moment.

Oh how I wish this “mom and pop” place would go out of business and a Whole Foods or a food co-op would come to town. Some people might think that is a terrible thing to say, but “mom and pop” are nothing but over-priced snake oil peddlers. They deserve to have a meteor crash through the roof of their store.

And that’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of snake oil and BS peddled at the Whole Foods stores, because a stroll through the “supplements and herbs” section of any Whole Foods store will give you an eyeful of plenty of BS, however… the BS does not take up most of the space in the store, this is a significant difference from a place like Whole Foods and hole-in-the-wall snake oil shops.   When I go to Whole Foods, I can trust that they are actually going to have some stuff there that is healthy (whole grains, veggies and a section of packaged raw foods) and will contain my raging appetite in a pinch.

So today I go over there to pick up some raw buckwheat and perhaps some sort of raw packaged snack. Some idiot, or scammer, or both, has labeled their packages of toasted buckwheat grain as “raw,” and being that I’ve been mostly raw for a while now, I know these things and that grain smelled toasted and was toasted.  Even the girl at the checkout agreed it was all mislabeled and that all of the buckwheat in stock was toasted. They pulled it all from their shelves right there in front of me. Busted! But that wasn’t the first problem when I walked in there today, the first problem was that one of the store owners had this table set up to sell $100 bottles of green pills that she claimed were so finely milled on a “nanotechnology scale” that unlike the greens you eat, these greens would get “directly into your cells.” ROTFL. I didn’t have time to debate anyone today, so I just ignored it and went on with picking up some succanat I needed.  When I was at the checkout, I noticed a big sign that said “Homoeopathics are considered medicines by the FDA and cannot be returned for refund or exchange.” LOLzzzzz.  Now if that’s not a crock of crapola, I don’t know what is. If they are representing homoeopathics (placebos) as “drugs” in their store, they need to be shut down.

I happened to see the homeopathic sign they posted as I was raising a small stink over all of the toasted buckwheat in the store being labeled as “raw.”  Would you trust a place after experiencing both a fraudulent sign AND mis-labeled products? I’ll be ordering online now until a Whole Foods or something decent opens in this area.

And a question to all of those out there that think government should “step in” and take a “stand” with more Mary Poppins, since obviously, some parents aren’t doing their job correctly (ping meme! ):

If the government is subsidizing the junk food industry, can we trust them to “step in” and take a “stand” for the health of children that have clueless parents… or should I say, the government enables food ignorance and buying decisions with the subsidizing of meat and dairy?

The government not only makes it easy to select all of the wrong foods for your kids, Chuck-E-Cheese, chicken nuggets and ice cream, but they make it cheap for parents to do so. And when a household has to stretch the dollar as far as possible, these are the choices they make.

Has anyone noticed that as our country has lost wealth, our population has gained fat?

That’s it for my politics rant of the day.

But there is a darker side to “raw.” Isn’t there a “darkside” to everything, anyhow? The pharmaceutical companies make drugs that kill people.  Scam artists make up stories that their “special raw gobblydegook”  is going to “heal your cancer”.. nevermind that a a vast number of cancers just go into remission on their own when someone does absolutely nothing at all, this is nothing new.  Worst case scenario is someone giving up their cancer treatments for a snake oil cure and I certainly would not want to encourage that here on the site. What I am interested in are sensible ideas, products, foods, etc. that are helpful in staying to the path to losing weight.

Yesterday I was watching a really good raw show on YouTube, the recipes were great, the demonstrations great, the fact that people had lost weight, fantastic. Everyone was also very healthy looking, albeit a bit on the “earthy crunchy” side, lol.   Everything was going along fine until the BS of “how raw foods cured someone’s cancer” raised its’ ugly head.

Raw foods are helpful in losing weight  – check

Raw foods are nutritious –check

Raw foods are filling and satisfying  –check

Raw foods cure cancer  –BUUUUzzZZZZZ!!!!!! wrong.

We need better science education so that people do not get confused like that.

I’m calling a fail whale on this one.

It seems counter productive to do this, no? If you want your fat and smoking employees to get healthy, I don’t know… it makes more sense to give the bigger discount to the employees that need it the most? Call me crazy, but this %20 for fatties and %30 for the beautiful people seems more like “punishment” rather than a genuine concern with getting people healthy.

As we all know, “punishment” does not work. The fatty or smoker employed at Whole Foods will be less likely to shop in store if the discount can’t match what they can find at a less expensive venue.  We all know that the food that is the worst for you, is the cheapest.

Not that acai is a bad thing, it’s great for all those poor people in the Amazon that get their nutrients from it; but now it has become too expensive for them due to our demand for it as a “weight loss miracle.”

Acai is not, I repeat, is NOT a “weight loss miracle” any more than blueberries are a weight loss miracle. In fact, the average antioxidant capacity is lower than pomegranate or blueberries. Sure, weight by weight compared to other proteins it’s very high in protein, and quite nutritious, and sure, if you go on the same diet of acai mush that the people in the Amazon live on you are going to lose weight. lol. There is no McDonald’s in the Amazon, folks.

But why shell out a fortune for dubious pills and expensive juices and so forth? Even the frozen mush, if you can find it at a health market, it going to take a chunk out of your wallet. You can get the same protein and better antioxidants in more commonly available foods at a much better price.

There’s no such thing as a cure for being fat, other than reducing your intake and upping your output.. that’s it, there’s no other secret or miracle. Eating good, nutritious food is extremely important in losing and maintaining that loss. I saw a tv show once where a lady had lost 100lbs just eating popcorn and drinking beer (and I guess, taking some sort of vitamin supplement, lol); but fad diets are short term solutions. If you’ve been a fatty for a while, you know just how easy it is to gain everything back plus more from a fad diet.

I picked up some Trader Joes granola/nut bars and thought they were a great deal at 150 calories each. BAH. I am D-O-N-E with any of these granola or “food bars.” I ate ONE and damned if I didn’t feel like eating the whole box!! But alas, I did not cheat, I did resist! I gave them to my skinny husband and told him to hide them in his room and eat them.

Calories can be deceiving. That’s like those little Weight Watchers desserts, you can’t eat just one if you are in possession of more than one in your house. One of my very first diet failures (and there have been many, before I learned the “never cheat no matter what” rule) happened with those Slim Fast meal bars. Let’s get something clear: all of this crap is just another form of candy bars with vitamin powders and maybe a couple of whole grains thrown in. Other than that, pure sugar, fat and salt. I don’t care whether it comes from Slim Fast, the health food store or Trader Joes, they all produce the same result after they are consumed: ravishing hunger.

And that is how the calories are deceiving. At 6 meals a day, about 150 calories a meal (my eating plan which is more than great for keeping my appetite from going completely out of control), one of these stupid bars seems like a great option. You pull it out of the box, it’s big, it’s “natural,” it’s tasty and it’s a MASSIVE FAIL. I slapped myself on the head and thought, you dork, why didn’t you think of this before and remember your Slim Fast bars experience?!?!

Ah yes, the time I attempted the Slim Fast diet. “Just one regular meal a day and two of our drinks or bars.”  Um, no. The Slim Fast diet is one huge piled up meal and an entire box of Slim Fast bars; you just can’t stop eating them once you get started! These things are not good for fat people. Don’t listen to the advertising. And honestly, with all the sugar in that stuff, I don’t see how people with 10 pounds to lose could stick to it without plowing through their chocolate shakes or bars.

Ditto the experience with the granola/nut bars. If husband wasn’t hear to eat up my potential fails, I’d have to take the things out to the dumpster, I wouldn’t even be able to throw them in my trash.

I know us fatties all have trouble with food like ice cream, cakes, fried foods, etc., but granola bars? diet bars? I can’t believe that I am the odd one out on this one.

STOP.

Before you go ahead and place an order for that next diet pill miracle, you need to read the article above.

Most of this stuff is FAKE. Fake and dangerous. There is nothing that is better for you and will fulfill all of your nutritional requirements than pure, honest to goodness, whole foods. Whole grains, fruits and vegetables, fresh fish, soy cakes and so on.

The FDA has never regulated any of these “miracle diet pills and potions.” Many of the manufacturers do not list all of the ingredients on the label or misrepresent the ingredients entirely. For example, about 10x as much “hoodia” is sold in the USA as is actually grown and available for sale.  You aren’t getting hoodia and you probably aren’t getting rainforest berries or whatever the hell they are called.

A diet of healthy, very fresh, locally available foods are the key to a well body, not a handful of pills.