Natural News Blogs Whole Foods Bans 54% of Food from Wal-Mart » Natural News Blogs
It is amazing to me that the whole world seems to be waking up and
realizing the problem with our food industry. It seems that
conversations we couldn’t have just 10 years ago for fear our friends
would think we were total “granola hippies” are happening more
frequently. The awareness and connection between the rise in chronic
illnesses and obesity is finally sinking in. In a recent and very
interesting study, Ben Blatt of Slate Magazine revealed some interesting
statistics about offerings at Wal-Mart vs. Whole Foods.
According to Blatt’s research, Whole Foods bans roughly 54% of Wal-Mart’s fare due to the presence, in its words, of “unacceptable ingredients for foods.”
These 78 banned ingredients include everything from recognizable
sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup to the tongue-tying
dimethylpolysiloxane.
The choices being made by Whole Food and other natural grocers are
now becoming much more mainstream and as a result, places like Wal-Mart
may begin losing ground.
For example, it’s no surprise that shoppers would be hard-pressed
to find a liter of Coke or bag of Doritos at Whole Foods, but Blatt
discovers that even household brands ranging from Minute Maid lemonade
to Cracker Barrel cheese are deemed unworthy for Whole Foods’ choosy
clientele. Whole Foods claims these foods fall short of “safety,
necessity, manufacturing methods and compatibility with our overall core
values.”
97% of the soft drinks sold at Wal-Mart contain ingredients that
Whole Foods considers “unacceptable.” If you ever wondered why a Whole
Foods drink aisle makes you feel like you’re in a foreign country, well,
there’s your explanation.
Wal-Mart’s “Great Value 100% Whole Wheat Bread” contains seven
ingredients that Whole Foods scoffs at, including everything from
high-fructose corn syrup to calcium propionate. Not one or two
“unacceptable” items, but seven. All in a staple product that you have
to imagine just flies off the shelves. We’re not talking about an
obscure frozen dinner here; we’re talking about sandwich bread.
If consumers continue to become more educated through channels such
as Natural News and other great sources of healthy living information,
we can continue to demand real food from our stores and not ever have to
settle for less. Let’s celebrate the wins and keep fighting the good
fight for our health and the health of our friends and families.
Resource: Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by T. Colin Campbell
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