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 freshly ground almond butter! Delish on bananas and oatmeal : )
Salads! I have discovered a prepared salad at my local Whole Foods that I have eaten almost every day since October for lunch. I also bought a bag of chia seeds at Costco, and I am excited to try to integrate them into my regular meals.
I’ve been loving beets recently! I had never really been a fan, but had them in a salad the other day and fell in love.
I have recently added a lot of beets to my diet (salads, juicing, etc.). I have always incorporated Greek yogurt in my diet, love it with fruit and a sprinkle of granola!
I’m absolutely in LOVE with pomegranates, so I try to eat them as often as possible!
I’ve been making a conscious effort to drink more green tea!
i’ve been eating more sheep’s milk yogurt and cheese, as i hear it’s easier for the stomach to digest than cow’s milk. i love the taste!
Beets. Love them in all forms. Had them for the first time this past August the night prior to our vacation. We started our 12 hr car ride and had to stop to use the restroom. My urine was PINK… I started to freak out googling local urgent care centers. Then decided I wasn’t in any pain so I googled pink urine. Low and behold beets can cause urine to turn pink. Lol! But I still love them just wish I had been warned!!
My new favorite is Kale, I’ve been implementing it into at least one meal per day recently and its fun to try and get creative with it!
When it comes to treats my favorite has become Arctic Zero Frozen Dessert, if I can catch it on sale I always pick up a pint for guilt free after dinner cravings!
I fell in love with smoothies again and always add spinach to them to sneak in some greens! 🙂
I love spinach. I put it in my egg white scrambles, eat it in salads, and mix it up in my daily smoothies!
I have started to eat a protein pancake for breakfast: 2 eggs, 1 banana, flax seed and vanilla. It is delicious!
I’ve started eating a lot of spaghetti squash lately and I love it! Especially tossed with lentils and arugula pesto.
Lately I have been trying to incorporate more vibrant fruits into my diet! I LOVE fresh berries 🙂
I’ve been incorporating egg whites into smoothies and other breakfast meals as a way to get more protein in my day.
I recently started cutting some dairy products and started using almond and coconut milks… delicious and refreshing!
I have been eating soooooo much Quinoa lately! It is so fun and easy to cook and play with flavors and different ways of cooking it. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner! So yummy 🙂
I’ve been using chia seeds for a while now and can’t get enough of them! They’re great in oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, etc.!
I recently took a Health Starts Here cooking class at Whole Foods to make kimchi. It’s delicious and I’ve been making my way through it since.
I love squash – spaghetti, butternut, summer… I eat some type almost every single day 🙂
I’ve recently been incorporating raw cacao nibs into my diet! They help to calm my chocolate cravings
I’ve been trying to eat more broccoli! I love it but it always gets overlooked in favor of easier-to-cook vegetables like spinach.
I’ve started incorporating quinoa into my diet. Never realized how versatile!! PS – LOVE WHOLE FOODS! : )
I have been LOVING some avocado lately. I have never been good at picking ripe ones and would be disappointed with the incorrect ripe-age, but lately I’ve been buying them again…and I have had success! I love to add them to sandwiches, salads, tacos, anything!
im currently loving quinoa in place of oatmeal
I’m currently loving quinoa!
Spinach has always been an all time favorite of mine.
A recent favorite is sweet potatoes! So so good!
Recently I haven’t been able to get enough kale! Yum!
Recently I haven’t been able to get enough of kale! YUM!
kale and and cabbage (L)
I’ve been eating more avocado lately. It’s a great substitute for mayo on sandwiches. Yummy!
I have recently learned of my love for brussel sprouts! yum! I have also been getting into broccoli sprouts…good on a salad and packed with nutrients!
Chia seeds have been in my nutrition regime for over a year now. Love them in Greek yogurt, oatmeal, protein shakes and also on salads, sweet potatoes and in a lemon, water, ACV drink I make.
I love Whole Foods! I don’t know that I have any recent loves, but I’ve always been a huge fan of green smoothies/juices! I did recently start making a protein pancake on the occasional morning, and that’s been delicious!
I have been cutting out all processed foods, sugar, and added sugars.
I have started to eat asparagus and pomegranates!
i eat pretty clean on a regular basis but something i’ve started to ear more of lately is not a food, but it’s eating MORE food throughout the day. i use to eat less thinking i would save up my calories for a bigger dinner but i realized that wasn’t doing anything good for my body and it actually made me miserable. i adore whole foods!
This sounds awesome, I’m going to look up events at the Sarasota Whole Foods. I’ve been trying to add more veggies, less fruit in my diet. It’s just so easy to grab yummy fruit for a snack! I’ve been eating more sweet potatoes lately.
We’ve started replacing dairy/cheese with cauliflower/nutritional yeast — a delicious substitute!
Avocados are definitely a staple in my house! –Guacamole, broiled with an egg on top, sliced plain..I even add avocado to my smoothies! Yum!
Love Whole Foods! I’ve been trying really hard to incorporate more fruit in my diet! I craved fruit sooooo much when I was pregnant with my daughter, but now I’m having to work to keep it up 😉
I finally tried kale and I love it!
I have been drinking coconut water lately. I find it very refreshing especially after a hard workout or spin class. I love Whole Foods because they offer such a variety. In the past I used to sprinkle crystal light or similar products into my water, but now I try to focus on clean ingredients!!!
Edamame! It is a perfect snack, side dish, or salad topper.
I am a big fan of flax seed and throw it in yogurt, smoothies and even to make healthy chicken tenders! Love Whole Foods!
I started packing a bag of veggies (carrots, cucumber slices, and celery) to snack on during my commute home from work.
I have to eat peppers, celery, spinach or kale, green beans and cauliflower everyday!! I crave them!!
My favorite is kale. I just love it and have been eating it for about a year now. I put it in smoothies, salads and soups.
I’ve started using kale in my salads instead of standard iceberg lettuce!
I used to only use chia seeds in overnight oats, but lately I’ve been putting them on just about everything – the more texture & nutrients, the better!