Health food stores have always been mysterious places. Back in the late 1970′s, early 1980′s, health food stores occupied a small niche in society that was close to being underground. They came along on the heels of the hippy movement of the 60′s and often served as a place for communes to sell their homegrown wares. The health food stores smelled of herbs, incense and a few other things that generally defied description. There were strange and exotic foods from all over the globe, all of them claiming to be organic or free range. There were things like granola, soymilk, goat’s milk, tofu and wheat grass juice. You could find books on such subjects as natural healing, crystal therapy and composting.
Wild Oats is a franchise in many cities and when you go into the store, you can tell right away that the basic Mom and Pop operation had changed. This particular chain began eighteen years ago in Boulder, Colorado and has expanded over the years to include more than 110 stores in 24 states and British Columbia. It is clear to see how this company became the standard for the organic market industry.
At first glance, their store looks like any other large grocery store, and you can probably find many of the same items that you would in a standard grocery store – but with one twist. Everything is organic. Usually when you hear the word organic, you might think two things; bland and expensive. However, with all the options and improvements in the way of organic foods are produced, there are many items that are very tasty, and the prices have become comparable to those of a conventional grocery store.
The overall concept of the health food store hasn’t changed. They still offer a wide range of organic foods and herbal remedies. They are filled with all kinds of products to heal the body, mind and spirit. You can find aromatherapy candles, essential oils, books, tapes, and DVD’s on meditation and yoga. You can take cooking classes and learn how to make your own herbal remedies. There are still aisles dedicated to environmentally safe products for household cleaning and recycling.
Some additions are a pleasant surprise, though. There can be four different “deli” counters. There is usually a butcher counter with free-range chicken and beef and a plethora of fresh seafood. Another counter may display an array of amazing baked goods (bagels, cakes and pastries), and in many stores there is yet another section that caters full meals for a quick healthy lunch or a dinner party. The modern health food store also had a section for wine and beer, an astounding array of cheeses, and an extensive frozen foods section.
It is good to see how far the basic health food store has come. Sure you can still find the small ones if you look for them, but like so many other things these days, big corporations have taken over and created franchises that offer more for less. Buying in bulk allows the stores to get better discounts and pass the savings on to the consumer.
Posts Tagged ‘Health’
Visit A Health Food Store Today
Category Health Food
Online Health Food Stores Provide More Details on Health Drinks
Category Health Food
It may not always be easy to determine what items are really good for you by looking at nutrition fact labels, but online health food stores often have far more details available to consumers about products such as health drinks. This can help clear up some of the confusion for online health food store shoppers who want the highest quality nutrition. In typical retail supermarkets, items such as natural foods and health drinks may have only one natural ingredient, but still be labeled as “natural”.
Online health food stores are usually very thorough in describing the true nature of their products. They assure customers that things like preservatives, isolated vitamins, artificial dyes or sweeteners are not included in their health drinks. The owners of these smaller operations may even know their suppliers personally and visit the manufacturing facilities. This can give them additional certainty that the products are processed at low temperatures to maintain whole food structures of the truly natural ingredients. Unfortunately, some of the so-called health drinks and foods at typical stores are devoid of nutrients because of the packaging processes, but consumers are never made aware of this fact.
Here are examples of a few items you may find at an online health food store that appear the same as typical store bought items on the surface, but are vastly different in the way they are processed:
· Vitamins – At an online health food store it is more likely these are whole food vitamins, not isolated, which provides the body with more effective absorption of nutrients.
· Natural low carb foods – These are not fake-food substitutes, but real, all natural food formulas prepared with your total health in mind.
· Health drinks and herbal teas – These are not enhanced vitamin waters or colored sport drinks, but herbal beverages with whole food ingredients.
Often, these online health food store products provide more effective results with fewer empty calories and less wasted money.
Many of the natural foods and health drinks from an online health food store can contain ingredients from plants grown on small farms, without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This is vastly different from mass-produced products made with so-called “natural” ingredients that have been manufactured on giant factory farms with artificial fertilizers and dangerous pesticides. You would be surprised to know how many non-organic foods, and even some labeled as “natural”, have been grown that way. The USDA defines organic products as those produced by farmers practicing soil and water conservation. In addition, organic farmers must make use of renewable resources to protect the environment. This is the type of detailed information you are likely to find in health drinks at a reliable online health food store.
Some individuals avoid healthy lifestyles because they believe the cost is too great or that alternative choices will rob them of modern day conveniences. However, it’s important to realize now that modern technological advances can bring those conveniences to anyone with access to the Internet. Google or other search engines now provide an easy way to locate an “online health food store with all natural health drinks”.
Don’t be stuck under the false assumption that you can’t afford natural foods or health drinks without major sacrifices. It’s easier than ever to order health drinks from an online health food store and uncover more detailed information on what you are buying than you could ever find in a typical retail store.
Small Business Health Insurance: Escaping The Catch-22
Category Health Food
As the economy continues to tank so do the number of Americans without health insurance-and the number small business owners who can afford to insure their employees.
A recent survey by the NFIB Research Foundation, a small business advocacy group, showed that only 47 percent of small business owners offer employee health benefits. Those employing 20 or more people are more than twice as likely to offer employee health benefits as those with fewer than 10.
The survey found that the low numbers are primarily the result of new small businesses opting not to cover employees. Most small businesses who offer benefits have offered them for a while and are reluctant to drop them for fear of losing good employees.
“It’s much better for employee morale if a small-business owner never offers health benefits, than it is to offer them and then be forced to take it away because it is too expensive to continue,” said William J. Dennis, NFIB’s senior research fellow. “Small-business owners experience considerable turmoil in their early years. They often experience cash flow problems and are reluctant to incur additional expenses such as health insurance. What’s new to this picture is that it appears that new small-business owners are waiting longer or choosing not to offer health insurance benefits to their employees at all.”
The fact that new small businesses are choosing not to offer benefits is a disturbing trend because of the swift turnover of the small business population. If the trend continues, the number of employers who never offer benefits will increase. And that will hurt small businesses because it will limit thet talent pool from which they draw.
What Can Be Done?
Small businesses aren’t alone in struggling with the cost of health care (and premiums) in the current economic climate. The U.S. Census Bureau reports 47 million people, or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population, were without health insurance during 2006
Unfortunately for the small business owner, new legislative approaches to help the uninsured may actually hurt them. One popular option is the “pay-or-play” mandate, in which employers are required to either provide health insurance for their employees or pay a penalty to offset costs the government incurs to provide health care for the uninsured. The rules likely would only apply to full-time employees.
Proponents say such mandates could significantly reduce the ranks of the uninsured, since the vast majority of the uninsured are in families with at least one full-time worker. Many of these are low-income families, suggesting that such measures could benefit the working poor.
Opponents argue that many low-wage workers will just be paid less, reduced to part-time or laid off to offset the insurance costs.
In their paper, “Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment,” researchers Katherine Baicker and Helen Levy found several factors affect the extent to which such mandates cost more jobs:
? Cost of the insurance.
? How much of the cost of coverage will be passed on to workers via lower wages.
? How many uninsured workers have earnings so close to the minimum wage that their wages cannot be reduced enough to offset the cost of the new coverage.
The authors found that the mandate would still leave 54 percent of American workers without coverage.
“The vast majority of those who benefit from pay or play mandate live in families with incomes twice the poverty line or more and, depending on how coverage is determined, the mandate will leave a significant share of the working poor ineligible for such benefits either because their hourly wage rate is too high or they work for smaller exempt firms,” the authors wrote.
Most experts agree that such mandates are bad for small businesses. Employers are faced with hard choices. In the NFIB poll, only 20 percent of small employers said they would simply provide the insurance as required. Many more said they would either cut jobs or move more employees to part-time status.
Moving people to part-time work is a particularly attractive option to small business owners. In fact, how part-time employees are treated is a key influencing factor on whether small businesses support pay or play legislation.
According to NFIB, “The treatment of these employees will alter relative costs in one direction or the other, providing small employers’ strong relative incentive to change.”
Small business experts agree that if part-time employees are covered by a mandate, most employers will respond by simply eliminating jobs, adding to the jobless rate and doing nothing for the rate of uninsured.
Small business owners have always faced an uncertain future but the current economy and the health care crisis make this an extremely tough time to take the startup step.