Denver Post - Healthy Food Sniping

[Kay DH]

The Denver Post had an article on Sunday that was mostly a woman whining about Whole Foods ( Open Original Shared Link ). The author was griping about people buying luxury items like gluten-free food (4th paragraph from bottom). If ignorance is bliss than the author must be very happy. The Whole Foods here is great, they even have a section devoted to gluten-free foods.

[Marz]

Pretty bad article in general, author really was just whining, wasn't she? If she doesn't like Whole Foods, why does she go there?

And yes, I'm sure she can't afford the expensive cereal for her little kiddies, but she should at least be grateful she can eat it without getting sick.

Sheesh, non-celiacs get me angry

[Takala]

You mis read the article. She wasn't criticizing gluten free foods, she was criticizing the fact that Whole Foods marketing ploy is to make them more expensive than they would be otherwise at the regular grocery competition, and that this marketing ploy of higher prices, fancy decor, and exclusiveness was showing that the impact of the economic recession was uneven.

You also ignored the comments about how the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, wrote a big WSJ editorial opposing health care reform and the Public Option while the issue was being shaped in Congress, which put him at direct odds with his supposed concern about peoples "health."

Say you are a person with an auto immune condition, which responds to diet, and this is a medically proven fact. Say that your peer group is woefully underdiagnosed because of the present way our American insurance system dictates to the doctors. Mackey of Whole Foods therefore opposed your being able to obtain a correct medical diagnosis, and opposed the concept of your being able to obtain health insurance afterwards, if the ban on insurers using pre existing conditions was not changed. This is despicable.

We see how people who don't feel well but can't figure out what is really wrong with themselves react all the time. They sort of know it might be food related because they feel miserable after they eat, so they keep going on various diets, floundering around, dabbling in vegetarianism, organic, grass fed, etc. They fall for the marketing that "organic must be better, and higher priced must be much better." This is great for John Mackey's bottom line, but it is not good for people who merely need to figure out what to eat, and then stick to that sort of diet. I've had to correct my spouse a time or two when he's picked up an item marked "organic" and assumed that would mean less chance of it having gluten, I have to remind him it's the opposite, as many organic consumers are vegetarian and eat more grain products and to never assume. A fancy "organic" chocolate bar can be badly cross contaminated on a shared line, while that commercial chocolate bar you've picked up in the baking aisle at the discount grocery can be safe. They cost the same, but one was twice as large as the other, two, it just didn't have an adorable color picture of the jungle on it.

After Mackey and his lobbyist/lawyer friend Lanny Davis (who likely ghost wrote that opinion piece) had that published, a lot of people have been not shopping at Whole Foods anymore unless it is for one specialty gluten free item that they cannot obtain anywhere else, including myself. I try to buy gluten free items at the regular grocery and then at the smaller local specialty health food stores, aka "the competition."

I see the type of shopper that the writer is noticing at her Whole Foods here in the suburban northern CA area where we have one in a very wealthy suburb. It's a really pretty store, but it's overpriced. It is also laid out so that the gluten free items are scattered ALL OVER the store to ensure a maximum shopping time, so you'd better have a lot of time if you go and don't have the layout memorized, this is inefficient and designed to get you to buy more. The supposed gluten free aisle has gluten items mixed in the last time I checked. The ready made gluten free baked goods are practically non existent, but they do have some in the freezer case.

[Kay DH]

You mis read the article. She wasn't criticizing gluten free foods, she was criticizing the fact that Whole Foods marketing ploy is to make them more expensive than they would be otherwise at the regular grocery competition, and that this marketing ploy of higher prices, fancy decor, and exclusiveness was showing that the impact of the economic recession was uneven.

You also ignored the comments about how the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, wrote a big WSJ editorial opposing health care reform and the Public Option while the issue was being shaped in Congress, which put him at direct odds with his supposed concern about peoples "health."

Say you are a person with an auto immune condition, which responds to diet, and this is a medically proven fact. Say that your peer group is woefully underdiagnosed because of the present way our American insurance system dictates to the doctors. Mackey of Whole Foods therefore opposed your being able to obtain a correct medical diagnosis, and opposed the concept of your being able to obtain health insurance afterwards, if the ban on insurers using pre existing conditions was not changed. This is despicable.

We see how people who don't feel well but can't figure out what is really wrong with themselves react all the time. They sort of know it might be food related because they feel miserable after they eat, so they keep going on various diets, floundering around, dabbling in vegetarianism, organic, grass fed, etc. They fall for the marketing that "organic must be better, and higher priced must be much better." This is great for John Mackey's bottom line, but it is not good for people who merely need to figure out what to eat, and then stick to that sort of diet. I've had to correct my spouse a time or two when he's picked up an item marked "organic" and assumed that would mean less chance of it having gluten, I have to remind him it's the opposite, as many organic consumers are vegetarian and eat more grain products and to never assume. A fancy "organic" chocolate bar can be badly cross contaminated on a shared line, while that commercial chocolate bar you've picked up in the baking aisle at the discount grocery can be safe. They cost the same, but one was twice as large as the other, two, it just didn't have an adorable color picture of the jungle on it.

After Mackey and his lobbyist/lawyer friend Lanny Davis (who likely ghost wrote that opinion piece) had that published, a lot of people have been not shopping at Whole Foods anymore unless it is for one specialty gluten free item that they cannot obtain anywhere else, including myself. I try to buy gluten free items at the regular grocery and then at the smaller local specialty health food stores, aka "the competition."

I see the type of shopper that the writer is noticing at her Whole Foods here in the suburban northern CA area where we have one in a very wealthy suburb. It's a really pretty store, but it's overpriced. It is also laid out so that the gluten free items are scattered ALL OVER the store to ensure a maximum shopping time, so you'd better have a lot of time if you go and don't have the layout memorized, this is inefficient and designed to get you to buy more. The supposed gluten free aisle has gluten items mixed in the last time I checked. The ready made gluten free baked goods are practically non existent, but they do have some in the freezer case.

Actually, I thought the article was mostly filler due to a slow news day. She did not develop any of the possible story lines, with the results that the story was weak and the finish was particularly thin. The gluten-free stuff in the Whole Foods here is in a dedicated area. Most processed gluten-free foods are more expensive, including the ones at Whole Foods.