A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Health Starts Here tour at Whole Foods and my interest was immediately piqued.
Since I no longer live near a Whole Foods, I figured I wouldn’t be able to attend and was quite bummed since Ryan and I used to love Whole Foods events when we lived in Orlando. (We attended a number of restaurant cooking demonstrations and had a great time at a Greek cooking class! I know I’ve mentioned Whole Foods events on the blog before, but I highly recommend them for fun, inexpensive date nights!)
When I responded to the invitation, I happened to mention my travels to Jacksonville for my sister’s bridal shower last weekend and we were able to set something up since there is a Whole Foods in the area. Woo!
The Health Starts Here tour is free to everyone and I met up with Heather Olsen, the Jacksonville Whole Foods healthy eating specialist, for my tour in the late afternoon. Heather gave me a ton of information about the Health Starts Here program, which I never knew existed at Whole Foods until our tour began!
Health Starts Here is a mindful approach to healthy eating that’s rooted in simple ways to build better meals. The program is essentially an in-store guide that you can use to choose the healthiest foods.
Fun fact I learned from Heather: The average American cycles through the same 10 fruits and vegetables!
The Health Starts Here program includes the following Four Pillars of Healthy Eating:
- Whole foods: Health Starts Here foods only use recognizable ingredients in their purest, unprocessed forms.
- Plant-strong: Plant-based foods are the foundation of Health Starts Here.
- Healthy fats: Health Starts here foods does not use any extracted oils or processed fats but included healthy fats from natural sources including nuts, seeds and avocados.
- Nutrient dense: Health Starts Here meals contain a rainbow of nutritious whole plant foods with high Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) scores.
As Heather escorted me around the store, she pointed out Health Starts Here logo stickers that can be found on a number of food items within the store that follow the four pillars of health.
If you’re visiting the Whole Foods salad bar, hot bar or prepared foods section and noticed the Health Starts Here logo, you can be sure that the food you are eating is a healthy choice. It’s a great way to take some of the guess work out of healthy eating!
The program also offers a grocery list for stocking your pantry the healthy way and tips and tricks for cooking fast and healthy meals using quick-cooking whole grains, canned no-salt-added beans and frozen vegetables and fruit.
I left very impressed with the Health Starts Here program and know I’ll be looking for the logo as I select foods from the hot bar and salad bar during my next trip to Whole Foods!
Whole Foods Giveaway
When I said I’d be writing about this tour on my blog, Whole Foods was kind enough to offer a giveaway to one reader for a $50 gift certificate to Whole Foods. Since I know you guys get just as excited about food as I do, I have a feeling this one may interest quite a few of you!
To enter this giveaway, simply comment below and tell me about one healthy food you’ve recently started incorporating into your diet or a favorite healthy food that has been a staple in your diet for quite a while.
I will randomly select a winner on Friday.
Good luck!
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I love using protein powder, but if I won the $50 gift card to Whole Foods, it would definitely be spent on their cut up fruit 🙂
I have started to roast cauliflower! My new favorite side dish!
Spaghetti squash has been one of my new favorites lately and there are SO many ways you can prepare it!
More and More VEGES!!! All different colors! Quinoa with veges and organic black beans!
I have been using a lot of spegetti squash lately. I have really started to love it.
I have been adding more avocados and coconut oil to my meals lately! Love those healthy fats!
Spinach and sweet potatoes are a must!!!
I just started adding black beans to everything! Soup, eggs, salads, you name it!
I’m loving medjool dates and almond butter!
I have just been trying to ensure that I eat enough to have energy and don’t crash so proteins of different kinds. I need to eat more seafood as I tend to just always have chicken around!
Avacados!!
I have recently begun to re-incorporate quinoa into my diet! I am running my second full marathon in just under two weeks and wanted to find more ways to incorporate healthy carbs into my diet over the next two weeks to prep for the race. i have loved quinoa for a couple of years but stopped eating it for several months (not sure why!). Every Friday and Saturday night my husband gets a treat dinner like take out so it’s my time to make what I am truly craving…I had a quinoa stir fry both nights!
Fresh cherries have become my go-to “dessert”. They’re a great healthy alternative when I’m craving something sweet. They haven’t been available to buy over the winter months but I was so excited to see my grocery store carrying them again this month!
Avocados! They are so delicious and can substitute for mayo in basically anything. I also eat them with eggs, on salads, and with lean turkey/chicken slices!
I recently started incorporating Greek yogurt, because it makes for a great breakfast!
Kale! Love it in smoothies, soups, salads, and chips!
My favorite healthy food to use is lemon. I add lemon to warm water every morning and it’s made a huge difference in my everyday. I also use it as a healthy kick to pasta sauces and vinaigrettes.
I have recently started incorporating Kale into my meals. I’ve tried it in soups, salads and smoothies, but my current favourite is Kale Chips – A little bit of olive oil with a sprinkling of Paprika on the leaves, roasted in the oven for 8-10 minutes. The result is a crunchy, slightly salty, but healthy snack or side veggie to a main!
This is such a great giveaway! I love incorporating spaghetti squash into my meals. Mixing it with tomato sauce, pesto, simple garlic and veggies or even with thai flavors. So delicious and a great alternative to pasta. Thanks!
I’ve started using coconut oil in place of olive oil for a lot of things! And even though this isn’t a food group, I’ve started to pay a lot more attention to where my protein sources come from. For example, don’t Google tilapia if you ever want to eat it again! :-/
Flax seeds–you can sprinkle them on anything! Yogurt, smoothies, overnight oats, regular oatmeal–so yummy and healthy!
I’ve really focused on eating anything and everything that’s not processed. Avocados and spinach are pretty much in everything I eat.
pumpkin seeds! put ’em on my oatmeal every morning!!
Brussel sprouts!
Ohh I would love this. Lately, I’ve been adding chia seeds to as much as I can (especially smoothies) for the extra fiber!
I use coconut oil for everything–especially when I bake!!
Kale and collards….with lots of garlic 🙂
Green smoothies, spaghetti squash, roasted veggies, lean protein. I would love a Whole Foods gift card!
Love all your posts Julie! My boyfriend only shops at whole foods and it has rubbed off on me now. We try a different fish every night and nothing beats their sea bass when you marinate it in the the Hossein Sauce. The hogfish and flounder are my second favorites. The shrimp is best with organic coconut oil and their scallops are amazing as well. We always buy the kombuche gingerade and drink it every. It is very refreshing and has a ton of probiotics in it. Love it!
Beets! They came in my CSA this week so I’ve been using them.
Avocados for president!!
Lol!!
I started drinking hot lemon water with cayenne and honey in the morning and a green smoothie instead of going straight for coffee and it feels great!!
I have started to LOVE quinoa! You can cook it so many different ways- breakfast, snack, lunch or dinner.
I have been eating a ton of cabbage lately – mostly in raw cabbage salads but also cooked in stir fries and braises, too. Also, lots and lots of cucumbers, as well.
I have been incorporating fresh blueberries in my cereal each morning. I was a bit put off by the price but they lasted over a week. Worth it!
I just started adding quinoa to my diet – so good!
I make fruit smoothies every morning for breakfast, and I recently started adding spinach to the mix! You really can’t taste it once everything is blended together, and it keeps me full all morning!
Love Whole Foods! Good to know about their cooking classes:) I have been using quinoa and other grains like buckwheat for a long time (and love them), but recently started incorporating chia seeds and brown rice protein powder for a vegan source of protein!
I’ve been incorporating more bell peppers into my diet for flavor – they come loaded with vitamins!
I have recently become obsessed with making cauliflower “rice.” A great, low-cal, alternative to brown or white rice.
My new favorite healthy food is KALE 🙂 I used to think you could only put it in salads, but lately I’ve been making kale chips, juicing kale and even throwing it in smoothies and soups. so yummy and so healthy!
I love green smoothies and edamame.
Thanks to the healthly-living blog world I’ve recently started using flax seed and chia seeds! Both have been a great healthy addition to my snacks and smoothies.
I’ve recently started drinking Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness smoothies- I plan on making my own green smoothies in the near future so I can adjust them to my taste!
Kale in everything!
My new favorite healthy food is AVOCADO! It’s tons of healthy fat 🙂
I’ve recently discovered skyr which is an Icelandic yogurt. It’s deliciously creamy, full of protein (like Greek yogurt), and has less sugar and none of the additives that some Greek yogurts still include. As for a healthy staple I’ve eaten for a while…smoked salmon! Super easy way to add protein and omega-3’s to breakfast!
I am trying to eat more fruit!! I love fruit smoothies!!! What a great giveaway.
I’m adding even more veggies to my diet in ways I didn’t try before.
I’m going to try the spinach omelette this week 😉
Brussels sprouts are my new favorite go-to side dish for dinner. I roast them in the oven with some balsamic and garlic and it’s just a quick and easy thing to add to dinner!