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 fermented foods like kimchi or sauerkraut!
I’ve been adding chia seeds to my breakfast…I’m slightly obsessed!
I love my daily dose of avocado whether it is on toast, in a sandwich or on my salad!
Strawberry, goat cheese, quinoa salad with touch of honey & lemon
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/paderno-sprializer/
This little gadget has been great to incorporate veggies into dishes like subbing zucchini for spaghetti!
I don’t know how this happened, but I’ve been obsessed with carrots for months now!
I live right around the corner from the whole Foods you visited, I’m anxious to go check this out! I’ve been on an edamame kick lately 🙂 And would of course love a $50 gift card!
I just love avocado! I eat it almost everyday 🙂
healthy food just started – carrot juice
healthy food I always eat – sweet potato
Spinach is my go-to, but I’ve also been on a bean kick lately!
I’ve been loving kale lately!
i’ve always loved spinach and i end up adding it to everything!
I have been eating a lot of chia seeds in all different forms lately, and I had never tried them until recently. I love whole foods, we order their catering platters for our events at school!
Coconut Oil!
Reading as I finish eating a container of greek yogurt!! Gotta love that staple.
The obsession is adding to my grocery bill and it is kind of a mundane one, but pears have been my recent go-to. We’ve gotten two shipments from Harry & David given that it really didn’t end up a whole lot more expensive than the $1.99/pound at the grocery store!
almond flour is a new one for me! I love putting it in smoothies, on protein pancakes, and in greek yogurt!
I just started incorporating kale into recipes a few months ago. I love sweet potatoes and actually just made a delicious sweet potato chili tonight. I also regularly make no bake energy bites to have as a healthier alternative to cookies and other desserts.
I’d be SO excited to win this giveaway! Thanks for the opportunity.
I have been rocking chia seeds in my overnight oats for years. One food I want to start incorporating is alternative sugar sources like coconut sugar I recently heard about.
I’ve cut off all artificial sweeteners and started using agave syrup!
I always enjoy fruit, but recently the blueberries here in Austin have been AMAZING, so I’ve been sure to pick some up during every trip to the grocery store 🙂
Baking and cooking with plain Greek yogurt. Such an easy and nutritionally powerful swap that actually makes stuff taste better!
Rather than subtract any foods from my diet, my New Years resolution was simply to eat more greens! It has been a great success. I try to incorporate spinach, kale, swiss chard (my fave!) or collard greens into at least one meal a day. It’s easy, delicious, and when i’m thinking about what I CAN have rather than what I CAN’T have I get more creative and feel less deprived. 🙂
One of my healthy staples is chia seeds. Love to sprinkle them on top of a piece of toast with nut butter and banana slices!
I just started making protein powder pancakes with egg whites. I was surprised at how good they were!
I have recently started eating bananas again and I can not get enough of them
I’ve been trying to add healthier foods here and there to my diet as I can! Being a crazy busy college student. Adding spinach leaves to my smoothies, healthier snacks like almonds, greek yogurt, and fresh fruit! I’m always looking for quick, easy things I can take on the go!
Quinoa
I don’t know if I can choose just one! I really LOVE vegetables, but my current go-to is a bag of snap peas! I love a good crunch.
Just recently went vegan, so I’ve been loving quinoa for protein!
I’ve been eating sweet potatoes and salads for dinner almost every night!
I love incorporating chia seeds into my meals!
greek yogurt!
I love baked eggplant with tahini on it!
I recently started using chia seeds and also been trying to incorporate quinoa- both have been pretty successful 🙂
A fermented, probiotic drink called Kevita…it’s delicious!
I just started making kimchi to add to my dinners.
Flax Milk from Whole Foods in my daily ingredient.
I have been loving butternut squash and sweet potatoes lately! Also, I LOVE Whole Foods! Just went there for breakfast today.
Nuts! I’m using them to fill me up as a snack and hopefully ward off snacking.
I have recently had an obsession with butternut squash! I roast it and eat it all day long!
I’ve rediscovered my love of chia seeds, and have been putting them on everything.
I have always loved brussels sprouts, but have always made them the same way – toasted with EVOO and rosemary and then roasted in the oven. I have recently tried experimenting with different recipes for sprouts and came across buffalo brussels sprouts – DIVINE!
Spinach will always be my favorite healthy ingredient, but I’ve made sure to beef it up in my diet lately.
I’ve been really into almonds lately. I always thought that plain almonds tasted like wood, but must taste buds must have changed and now I’m obsessed!
I am definitely guilty of eating the same fruits and vegetables! Recently, I have been loving roasted zucchini and eggplant which have been a nice addition to my dinners:)
I am loving almond butter, flaxseed, chia seed protein balls. So good!!
i LOVE baked sweet potatoes fries rubbed with coconut oil, Delish!!!
I’ve been eating tons of flaxseeds and peanut butter. I’m hoping they’ll help my dry skin! Plus they’re delicious.
coconut butter. I can’t get enough!