Robb’s Note:
This is a guest post/interview by our friend Julie Mayfield, Co-author of the best Damn Paleo cookbook ever, Paleo Comfort Foods. PCF’s will be released soon. Order a copy for yourself, and anyone you know who loves food.
One of the most amazing surprises at the Ancestral Health Symposium happened during the fabulous talk given by Sarah Fragoso and Chrissy Gower (the two hot ladies who run the wildly popular Paleo Talk podcasts and seminars). Someone had asked a question about grocery shopping and affordability. A woman stood up and introduced herself (Misty) and she stated that she is the Healthy Eating Specialist at Whole Foods Market, and shared with the group gathered for Sarah and Chrissy’s talk some of the pieces of advice that she gives on her weekly WFM tours.
Realizing the need to share even more of this information with the masses, I connected with Misty to share some of her insights, tips, stories and inspiration with you all. So many times people refer to WFM as “Whole Paycheck.” Here, Misty shares with us some of her experiences and tips to make the shopping experience more economical and healthy!
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, what it is you do for Whole Foods?
As an 85lb. weight loss maintainer, I took my “Low carbohydrate diet” to a whole new level when I attended the Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition. There, I learned the value of a whole food diet and turned my diet into not only a lifestyle but a journey I gladly share with others both in my home office as well, my position here at Whole Foods Market as the Healthy Eating Specialist. As a person who suffered ADHD, constipation, weight and other cognitive issues, I share with my clients and customers the value of transitioning from a SAD diet to that of a nutrient dense, whole foods diet. There are a few plans and challenges that are encouraged at Whole Foods but I have found that with my education and experience, my customers have great success with my advice to eliminate gluten, increase their fat and protein and decrease their carbohydrate.
What inspired you to get into this line of work?
Inspiration or obsession? I frequently tell others that I was so obsessed with how great I felt, how quickly the weight fell off and the thousands of ancedotal stories I was a witness to for the past 11 years on a variety of message boards. I was astounded with the amount of maladies disappearing as well as my own with this transition that it excited me to the point of further education. I am a Certified Holistic Nutrition Educator and am currently enrolled in Reed Davis’ Functional Diagnostic Nutrition program to further my personal practice goals.
Part of what you do is give food tours of WF and how to purchase good food for the family. Let’s pretend we’re a family, and on tour with you, and our food budget for the week is $200. What kinds of things will you make sure to point out and/or stress to us?
As I tour a family or individual through the store, I point out a variety of values. We work with many manufacturers to provide a coupon book called “The Whole Deal” where the customer can locate quite a few quality coupons not necessarily devoted to packaged and processed foods. Second, I remind all customers to review the Wednesday specials which feature a nice cross section of whole foods on sale. Our 365 brand is comparable to all major leading retailers so I always encourage customers to choose the 365 brand if no coupon or sale exists at that moment on other products. Finally, we have our Friday special where one can find a product at about 50% below retail. This sale will quite often pertain to seafood and meat. Wild Salmon, Grass Fed Ground Beef, Organic Air Chilled Chicken and of course the recent sale on prawns. So frequently, we get into the rut of serving the same dishes week after week. I encourage my customers to watch ads, be aware of the Friday special and browse the coupon book while making their choices for menu planning. Look outside the box and try something new if it’s on sale and for the lowest prices, choose local, in season products.
What purchases do you advise families against?
I’d like to begin with the gluten free lecture and store tour that I provide twice weekly. So many are attracted to the gluten free products which I am quick to remind have an equal if not higher impact on blood glucose than that of the wheat. I generally recommend they experiment with squash, zucchini and root vegetables rather than that of a low quality pasta dish. I find it’s less expensive, more filling and of course, nutrient dense. I also encourage the purchase of a quality water canteen for children and the school lunch as opposed to high sugar fruit juices.
What do you find to be the biggest challenge in educating families? I find the biggest challenge to be the resistance in home preparation of whole foods. Overcoming time objections with a busy family is difficult but I might make recommendations such as packing the picnic for a soccer game, enjoying a variety of easy to grab finger foods and of course taking one day off per month to pre-cook some animal proteins to quickly put together family meals, and we must never forget about the slow cooker. I will frequently remind the “cook of the home” that an investment of time in the human frame now will save time from illness later.
If you could name one (or two) best “bang for your buck” meat/veg/fish/nuts/staples at Whole Foods Market, what would you say?
Wild Alaskan Salmon while in season is frequently on sale for $9.99 lb., our 365 brand Extra Virgin Olive Oil is $5.99 for a one liter bottle and a bunch of Kale is $1.99. I challenge anyone to find these values at their local Safeway.
No doubt you’ve met a lot of individuals and families in your work and seen some amazing changes. Are there any particular moments or experiences with customers that most resonate with you?
I have two very special stories for you:
Barbara is a 67 year old diabetic and breast cancer survivor. Barbara has been a diagnosed type 2 diabetic for 20 years. She came in to my class room one day and during our appointment she mentioned that she had been using Dr. Barnard’s vegan diabetic plan and was finding that she was utilizing a great deal of insulin which consequently was making her sleepy and ill. I recommended she try a lower carbohydrate approach. After 3 days Barbara’s blood sugars were dropping but when she entered my office she exclaimed “My Dr. doesn’t like your diet, I’m going back to Barnard’s program”. I said “I know and I’m not surprised. Barbara, you must do what makes you feel comfortable but understand you have a glucose metabolism imbalance”. I knew at that point that Barbara’s decision was made out of fear for her cancer but 4 days later, Barbara is in my office again and almost in tears because she had once again lost control of her blood sugar and with the previous information I had shared with her regarding glucose metabolism and cancer, she was scared to death. In this short period of time Barbara had felt such dramatic differences that her trust in me escalated. From over 200ml on her glucose readings now down to 120ml and dropping, Barbara wrote on her customer comment card and is not hesitant to announce in every group class “Misty has literally saved my life”. Barbara happens to be a senior citizen who has a $200 shopping budget and with some hints and tips, she is able to shop at Whole Foods primarily.
Tina brought her 8 year old son Zach in to see me after we met at an event where I was representing Whole Foods and the Wellness Center. Tina was desperately defending her son in school with his teachers because his ADHD was so extreme. Keep in mind this child is enrolled in a special education school so you can imagine her frustration. I gave Tina some information that I had studied regarding food and ADHD including gluten, food dye elimination and reduction to elimination of sugar. 2 weeks later Tina entered my office with tears in her eyes. Zach brought home his first progress report showing “All Stars” on every level. “Misty, he’s a different child” exclaimed Tina and with this information, Tina’s entire family has not only eliminated gluten but endured testing as well and have all proven to be gluten intolerant. That day, Tina and I cried together because not only was I so sympathetic to Tina’s case, I wished I had this information when both of my children and myself suffered ADHD.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I would like to share that when I began this job, there was no information on the floor regarding a Paleo lifestyle. Currently, we are carrying Loren Cordain’s books and are working to expand on this. I have a lot of customers who are finding themselves leaner, healthier and of course happier than they’ve ever been. When I first began here almost 8 months ago, my meat dept. was skeptical. I am happy to report, their sales have increased and we have a mutually beneficial relationship. Of course when there’s a great sale, they come to me and ask “how many pounds” now.
I have teamed up with a local boot camp and am excited to announce our 100lb. challenge sponsored by Live Fit Boot Camp and Whole Foods Market. In one year, with a collaborative effort, we will transform 10 Men and 10 Women in a kind and paleo manner.
We applaud Misty and the work she is doing to really make a difference out there for so many, and for sharing some great tips for all of us!
Misty- GREAT STORY! Glad to see it (and you) featured here!
Bauman College is definitely a good choice for someone who is Paleo oriented and wants to learn more of the science as well as how to actually help and educate people about nutrition. It’s not a “Paleo” centric program, but I made it through just fine writing only grain, legume & dairy free meal plans for my assignments as that’s the focus of my practice. I recommend the program as well to anyone interested and I’ll be listed in their next course catalog as their “Featured Graduate” – so there’s another point for Paleo! 🙂
I wrote about some of my advice on making nutrition into a career here: http://balancedbites.com/2011/05/my-advice-on-turning-nutrition-education-into-a-career.html
And I’ll post up more about my experience at Bauman soon on my blog as well.
diane-Please post a link to your Paleo on a Budget piece in this thread as well. We need to put this myth to fracking rest.
Sure thing, here it is: http://balancedbites.com/2010/10/priorities-for-eating-paleo-on-a-budget.html
My post is to help people figure out where to spend and where to save… prioritizing fats, protein then carb sources is where I put my money. If you can’t do organic veggies, fine- keep the fats high quality, then proteins next then veg/fruit.
It’s only as expensive as anyone wants to make it. Avoiding food toxins as Chris Kresser calls them or Neolithic agents of disease really isn’t as much about spending $$$ on a grass-fed filet mignon as it is NOT eating crappy seed oils, gluten and refined sweeteners like HFCS. It’s about priorities and putting whole food first, ahead of refined foods in packages. Buy cheap chicken if you have to- is it ideal? No, but is it going to keep you healthier than a box of All Bran Cereal? HELL YES. (Here’s what’s in All Bran, by the way: http://balancedbites.com/2009/11/guess-the-non-food-4-play-the-game.html)
ANYONE CAN EAT PALEO. AT ANY BUDGET.
To say they can’t is an excuse. Excuses are for the weak. Paleo makes you strong.
🙂
Thank you Diane! And thank you Robb for sharing this.
Great post! I’ll admit that I’m one of the people who rarely shops at Whole Foods because I’d figured it was too expensive. Is Barbara’s shopping budget of $200 for the entire month?
I believe so and I’m going to do a similar post soon.
It does say in the question the $200 was the weekly budget.
Mary,
It says $200 a week in the blog post.
Kevin
Yes Mary, in fact it is. She has my boys in the meat dept. well trained! If one doesn’t mind stocking up, the sales are just awesome.
Excellent article! I’ve really been trying to watch the sales at Whole Foods and keep on top of the weekly deals and coupons that are offered. They recently had a promotion for grass-fed ground beef and I bought the maximum amount that I could. I even got up early before work (hard for me to do, ha!) just to get in there are make sure I got what I needed. The more I look around Whole Foods the more I find that I can afford it and it is comparable to other places where I would get the same item. 🙂
Is there a way we can find out what Misty’s schedule is and perhaps where her classes are?
Thanks Robb for posting this, and for Misty’s great info!
For those of you who would like more info on Misty, or would like to ask her questions, please check out her site at http://healthy-transitions.com
Robb and Julie, thanks for a great post! I’m curious where Misty works. If she’s down here in Austin (Whole Food’s headquarters), I’d love to attend her class, or perhaps one from another instructor who shares a similar outlook.
Jerm, I’m in Northern California. Let me know if you find another HES that shares the Paleo approach. I have a team member out of Chicago who contacted me after this posting and together he and I are going to see what changes we can make within the program.
Hi Misty!! I’m am sooooo thrilled to hear about your experience both personally AND professionally! I too am following a Paleo lifestyle AND a Healthy Eating Specialist at WFM. I’d love to chat with you more about how you managed to implement some Paleo structure into your store and try to do the same here as well. So far it seems that my perspective has raised some alarm bells at my store and is apparently a cause for concern. I’d love to chat with you sometime about this! I absolutely love my job but don’t understand the logic behind a one size fits all approach. I absolutely LOVE working at WFM but I firmly believe that there needs to be some room for individual needs.
I have had difficulty shopping at WF without it costing an arm and a leg. I do very well at Trader Joe’s and feel I’m getting pretty good quality food. Can anyone comment on the difference between TJ and WF?
My son works at WF in Denver and manages pretty well – of course, he gets an employee discount. He is also in yoga teacher training, so along with the WF propaganda, he gets a lot of pressure to “go vegan.” He had his 1 year employment anniversary in which they do biometrics testing and if you get all gold stars, you get an increase in your discount. Since he is a long-term low-carber, his numbers were stellar, except for a slightly elevated LDL level (according to their standards, and of course, they don’t do a particle analysis), so he didn’t get the increased discount and was pretty bummed out. He took a 50-day vegetarian pledge, which made him miserable, unfocused, and cranky. His co-workers commented on how irritable and easily annoyed he seemed when he is usually so “zen.” He is another young man who had his childhood/adolescent destroyed by ADHD and clueless parents who were trying to prevent “giving their family diabetes by getting fat,” and believed the way to keep from getting fat was to eat low fat. Dhaiv became convinced to try my low-carb diet (I began in 2000) when he had a terrible Red Bull reaction his sophomore year in college. He now realizes that his worst episodes as a kid were from drinking red Kool-aid or Hawaiian Punch – sugar plus red dye. How I wish I knew then what I know now! But, Thank God, both of my children are now low-carb/paleo and are enjoying excellent health, physical and mental.
I don’t always see local in-season produce, either at WFs or a farmer’s market to be the Lowest in Cost. It is always stated that it is but since the demand is up – so has the prices ( but that is how the system works) This season my local farmer markets have been quite high as well as my fish shop, one block in from the docks on the Jersey coast, just caught fish cost more than even WFs – who in fact buys from the same company in the Philadelphia region and a tad cheaper.
I shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s (they are across the street from each other where I live on Long Island) I never knew about the Wed and Fri sales! Great to know. I think Friday will be protein shopping day.
I wish there was a list somewhere of seasonal fruits and vegetables in my area.
It’s what is on sale…
How would someone get a similar job at their local Whole Foods? Is this something the individual stores have to approve?
Ankit
Ankit, understand that what I’m doing is not a nationally approved program. I have spoken with my Team Leader and based on my knowledge, she and I agree that Whole Foods does not need to dictate dietary choices and my customer commenting has been incredibly positive which dictates my little atmosphere here. I have taken a huge risk just by putting myself out here in this manner but at the end of the day, my convictions will always drive my decisions.
For those commenting on the prices of Whole Foods, honestly, the only other place you’ll find a comparable or higher quality at a lower price of 100% grass fed beef is directly through the farmer.
The difference between Trader Joes and WF grass fed beef is the distance in which it traveled. The grass fed beef from TJ’s comes from Uruaguay and ours is generally locally sourced.
Each store is also a bit different in their sourcing. We work independently with local farmers and producers so region to region, you will see different product.
No, not every family has $200 a week for groceries and that family is the one shopping at their Super Walmart. If that’s how that family survives, great. We all do what we can with what we’ve got but when I speak to someone who has every gadget and 10,000 cable channels, there’s priority issues there.
There was once a time when 30% of our monthly budget was spent on our food supply.
Great post.
I’ve always prided myself on being a frugal shopper, and I’m pretty good at eating healthy for as cheap as possible. One thing I’ve always wondered about, however, is exactly what to skimp on when you’re on a budget. Do I buy the $20 pasture-raised chicken or the local/organic vegetables?
I guess it’s hard to quantify, but it would be interesting to see a post go into detail on this subject.
Read the post I linked to above… the bottom line is to prioritize spending more on fats, then proteins then carbs for most people.
Excellent post! I search for sales, that is how I feed a family of four on one income. We will buy on sale produce/meat/veggies, and base our meals for the week off of what we bought. Keeps it fun, dynamic, as well as cheaper.
What American family in these economic times has a food budget of $200/WK.? Don’t get me wrong, I love WFM but to infer that WFM can be a place for ‘thrifty’ shoppers is ridiculous! I wish it were but it really is not!
Living Social has a coupon right now for $20 worth of groceries at Whole Foods for $10. Great deal, I bought one myself. Still 24 hours left to grab one.
https://livingsocial.com/deals/123805?ref=conf-jp&rpi=26407407
My Whole Foods prominently displays The China Study right inside the main entrance, and I believe has promoted Forks Over Knives as well.
I do like thay they have adopted the Blue Ocean Institute sustainability/contamination ratings for seafood, although they continue to sell red-flagged fish like trawled Atlantic Cod.
Sweet!
Awesome post and just what I needed. I do a health talk based on Robb’s book and this will answer the “can’t afford it” but can afford 1200 cable channels question!
Thanks!
I do about 70 pct of my food shopping at Whole foods. You can easily spend a lot of money, and several aisles are devoted to expensive junk food (cereals, soda, chips, canned foods), in addition, I’m not happy about them claiming no MSG in any products sold, even though we now know that food manufacters have learned to use different names (“Natural” flavors, Yeast extract, etc) to get around labeling any ingredients as Msg. And yes, their steaks can be very expensive. BUT, I’m grateful to have a Whole foods near my home. Their fresh chicken is worth the added cost, the ground beef isn’t too expensive, their stew meat, ground turkey, and other cheaper cuts of meat are reasonable. Their greens are the best around (and not to expensive), their selection of nuts and seeds are incomparable. If you value your health, you can spend reasonable amount of money, and eat Paleo style, no question about it.
Hi Misty,
Can you please work on the daily chocolate chip cookies in the Whole Foods Organic Box Lunch program? They deliver straight to our preschool, great I thought. The lunches have chocolate chip cookies every day in them!! Of course the kids just eat the cookies and pick the white bread off the sandwiches and leave the rest. I tried to get them to remove the cookies but they said daily cookies are part of a balanced diet. They claimed their ‘nutritionist’ said so. I also found out that not all the ingredients are organic even though it’s marketed as an organic lunch. Can you please please work on the cookie issue for the sake of the hundreds of children in Cupertino, CA who eat the Whole Foods “Organic” Boxed Lunch?
Thanks for every other great article. The place else may just anybody get that type of info in such a perfect manner of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I’m at the search for such information.
Hello,
I shop at Whole Foods all the time for organic produce, been doing so for the last few years. I have never seen Kale at $1.99. It has always been $2.49 a bunch.
Kamatchi.
And who the heck has a grocery budget of $200 a week?! That’s about mine for a month feeding 3 people.
My girlfriend was afraid we couldn’t do Paleo for less than our current grocery budget of about $125/week (2 adults).
I could see $200/week for a family of four (as the article mentions) being about the same level. Problem is… to do this at WF, you HAVE to find the sales… and so you’re still left picking and choosing what you’re going to buy at WF, and you can’t get all your diet’s needs for a week there on that kind of budget.
We get our vegetables (we prefer to buy bags of frozen veggies for most of our veggie needs, unless we plan to make a salad) mostly at our local Baker’s Super Market (a Kroger chain), and we’ve been buying frozen chicken breasts and fish at Trader Joe’s. I laughed when I read about Wild Alaskan Salmon on sale for $9.99. I just bought a frozen fillet of that at TJ’s for $5.99, and it wasn’t on special/sale. TJ’s oils are priced just fine, thank you! And TJ’s has the best prices on nuts I can find anywhere.
I just bought organic coconut oil for $4.99 (16 oz.) at TJ’s whereas WF’s 365 brand organic coconut oil was $1 more for a 14 oz. jar.
The only thing we really need to go to WF for is GF Beef. For some reason, our local TJ’s doesn’t carry the product. Our WF has ground GF Beef for $5.99/lb or $5.09 in bulk (> 3 lbs.). However, we plan to join a GF CSA program in the coming year, and we can get 20 lbs. of GF products (not just ground, but roasts and steaks, too) for about $120/month. That’s about $6/lb, pre-packaged in 1 lb. butcher-paper packs, delivered to a local pick-up point.
We’re also looking at a local produce CSA for 20 weeks of produce in 1/2 bushels/week for $500, and this CSA sells free-range eggs to members for $2.60/dz.
So…. I think we’ve found our Paleo diet on a nice budget, without Whole Foods.
Our local WF is crazy expensive compared to other stores in our area. We have a TJ’s, Sprouts, Sunflower, and several Asian Markets and Farmer’s Markets all who have prices far lower than WF. The Salmon mentioned is frequently on sale for $7.99/lb at Sunflower and is available frozen at TJ’s for less than that. I see fresh ginger at my WF for $2.49/lb but at my Asian Market it’s a better quality root, more meat available for use and is only 99cents/lb. I’ve never heard of these Wednesday and Friday sales but even so, I can’t see going to WF. Even our TJ’s has GF beef for $2.49/lb. And I can call a local farmer and have a whole side of organic, GF, no antibiotic and no hormone cow put in my freeze for about $3.50 lb and a pig for $5/lb. As for the personal care items those can be purchased on VitaCost for far less money.
I need to admit that this really is one excellent insight. It surely gives a company the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and truly take part in creating something particular and tailored to their needs.
I guess the issue I’m having here is that it’s talking about $200 a WEEK for a budget for groceries. ARE YOU NUTS?! $200 a MONTH is what my household gets to spend on groceries. No, I’m not kidding. How do you eat Paleo with that kind of budget? I don’t want a weekly budget scenario, I want to see a monthly one, for those of us that are barely scraping out a living.