Okay, I admit it. I still have a craving for sweet cereals. I fondly remember cocoa puffs, fruit loops and their sugary bliss. It probably tasted so good because it had a ton of sugar in it. Back when I was a kid, people didn’t really pay a lot of attention to sugar content. This was cereal…it had to be good for you…right? Not so fast. Upon further review, it seems that loading up kids with a ton of sugar in the morning — not to mention artificial colors and preservatives — was not prudent.
A few years back nutritionists and parents alike started scrutinizing the sugar content in foods designed for kids. Recently we’ve seen lots of products touting lower sugar content. Cereal was an obvious choice for new lower sugar products, but the real trick in kids’ cereals was to get them to taste good with less sugar. I remember the first iterations of low sugar cereals…they just didn’t taste enough like the products people were used to buying.
My colleague Jody Villecco and I recently spent a few days on the backroads of New England, meeting the technical folks from two of our oldest supplier partners: Tom’s of Maine and Seventh Generation. Jody, I, and our team are the official “geeks” of Whole Foods Market; we spend most of our work lives researching products and their ingredients, buried in technical food science and nutrition reports, and generally geeking out about our products as we establish standards for what we sell in our stores. Fortunately for us, there are similar technical teams working at many of the companies whose products we sell, and the time we spend talking shop with them is educational, valuable to our work, and fun.
When we asked our customers to share their favorite tips for stretching their food budget, quite a few mentioned roasting a whole chicken and turning it into several meals. So in this podcast, we asked natural foods chef and nutritionist Alana Sugar to walk us through the steps of roasting a chicken. She also suggests delicious dishes to prepare with any leftover chicken.
What are your favorite dishes using leftover chicken? Here’s a nice roast chicken recipe and some options for leftovers:
Christy Thorns is the lead coffee buyer for Allegro Coffee Company — experts in the coffee and tea business who have been part of the Whole Foods Market family for a quite a few years now.
7/11/08 Oro Verde co-op, Lamas, San Martin, Peru I am travelling through the northern Peruvian provinces of San Martin, Amazonas, and Caja Marca with our other Allegro buyer Darrin and Claudia and Angel from Sustainable Harvest Importers. Sustainable is helping build labs and train cuppers at the four cooperatives from whom we source coffee beans in this vast agricultural region situated between the Amazon and the Pacific. In the last few years we have moved our sourcing from the southern Cuzco province, which perhaps is more romantic given that it is the home of stunning Machu Picchu, to this northern coffee belt where we aim to build more direct links with growers and find more consistent quality. From Lima, we caught a flight to the bustling town of Tarapoto in San Martin, which at one time was the epicenter of the coca trade in Peru controlled by the FARC-like, MRTA (Revolutionary Movement of Tupac Amaru*). The MRTA brought a temporary prosperity to San Martin, where according to the locals, everyone benefited in some way from the coca trade and walked with their pockets stuffed with silver. It was also a time when there was very little worry about crime with the paramilitaries acting as the local law enforcement. Fear of a knock on the door by men in camouflage discouraged most lawbreakers. Supposedly the MRTA so controlled the area they used the local roads as landing strips for their airplanes that would literally land, dump bags of money out one door as people on the ground would load up bundles of coca in the other in less than a minute without stopping the plane. Those days are over now, as coca has been completely wiped out in this region by the US round-up eradication campaign that so destroyed the land which was sprayed that nothing has been able to grow there for the last 15 years. Farmers moved into new areas to plant coffee in the highlands and cacao, rice and palm in the valleys. The pockets of the locals may no longer be overflowing with silver, but Tarapoto is once again bustling as the center for legit agricultural products and noisy with the sound of the local motor taxis or tuk-tuks imported from Korea it seems.
*Tupac Amaru was a revolutionary Incan leader who led a failed revolt against the conquering Spaniards. The MRTA used him as inspiration for their movement.
If you aren’t on a vegan diet, chances are you didn’t know that all sugar isn’t considered vegan. It doesn’t come from an animal so what’s the issue? Bone char. Bet you didn’t know that many sugars are processed with bone char either. Bone char, usually made from the bones of cows, is used in the decolorization process for sugar – meaning it whitens the sugar through a filtration process. Standard sugar packages won’t explain all of this, but the process is unacceptable to many vegans and they avoid sugar as a result.
But that may be about to change when all the vegans out there find out about our 365 Everyday Value™ Vegan Cane Sugar (which retails for about $4 for a 4-pound bag). Our vegan sugar goes through a 100% animal-free carbon deactivation process to decolorize. This carbon is a mineral and therefore, a non-animal source. Great news, right?
Savor summer’s bountiful harvest with guest Peter Hoffman, chef-owner of Savoy and Back Forty. Hoffman shares his passion for seasonal flavors and local produce in this recipe featuring the best of summer ingredients.
Hi! My name is Hannah and I am a member of Teens for Safe Cosmetics: New York.
Each September, I look forward to the start of the new school year; but this September, all I can think about is the “Teens Turning Green” collection. In just a few weeks, this fabulous line of products will be available at Whole Foods Markets nationwide!
The girls of Teens for Safe Cosmetics, myself included, cannot wait to walk into the Whole Body section of our local Whole Foods Market and see this amazing collection sitting on the shelves. The collection is something I have always wanted: a line of products made from safe and healthy ingredients, formulated for teens! And not just for any teen, but a teen turning green! I think that becoming an educated consumer is a key aspect of turning one’s life green, and by learning about these wonderful products you are doing just that.
About three months ago, I purchased my first home – a modest one bedroom, less than a fifteen minute bike ride to work, in a safe but diverse neighborhood and with a gorgeous, gorgeous brand new kitchen. I remember when I first moved in how my enthusiasm (and lack of funds – man, closing costs add up!) drove me to cook meals for myself from scratch almost every night. I’ve since fallen out of this habit – choosing to go out with friends or just ‘grabbing something quick’ instead of enjoying my own home cooking.
So this week I started to wonder – how do other single folks to it? Whether you’re a college student, a young professional, a single parent or otherwise on your own – how do you adequately feed yourself without spending all your time and/or money on the effort? Here are some ideas from what we’re reading…
I raced home from work and had a total of 1/2 hour to feed both dogs, make dinner, and change for an Austin City Limits taping with My Morning Jacket. I impressed myself by successfully slicing some red onion, chopping a roasted red pepper and fresh parsley, slicing 1/2 a zucchini, and throwing everything together with eggs and fresh goat cheese for the perfect fresh summer dinner.
Sometimes we forget how easy it is to pull together a simple and elegant meal quickly on a weeknight. Thanks, Jodi for reminding us!
I’m very happy to announce that Whole Foods Market has signed an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) designed to help improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers.
I put together this blog entry to explain the steps we took that led us to make this agreement.
Just before Christmas of 2007 I became aware of a slavery indictment in Florida related to a contract harvesting operation and we received some questions about whether any of our Whole Foods Market suppliers were connected to the persons named in the suit. Our suppliers were not connected to the indicted parties in any way, but the story got my attention.
Bill Tolany works on the Whole Foods Market Integrated Media team, which includes digital efforts for customers and Team Members.
Greetings All!
Many of you have noticed our new website. (Those of you getting the Whole Story via RSS, come check it out!) I say it’s “our” website, but we made it for you. Some of the things you can do are:
find great recipes, which now include ratings and reviews from customers and Team Members
discover what’s happening in your local store, from specials (bottom left corner of your store page) to events (the calendar at the top right of your store page)
learn from the forums, with conversations on everything from green practices to special diets (gluten free, casein free, etc.)
And if the Whole Story and new websitestill aren’t enough for you, you can always follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
We’re going to keep working to meet your needs, so let us know what you like and what you don’t.
Welcome to Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market.
Don’t know us? In a nutshell, we are the world's leading natural and organic grocer and we’re passionate about healthy food and a healthy planet. Learn more about us.
We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of smart, passionate people doing incredible things in areas like organics, supporting local growers, green practices, fair trade, micro-lending and all kinds of food related stuff. We’ll use this blog to share some of the cool things going on around here.
Of course, what makes this blog really exciting is YOU — so join the conversation!
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Okay, I admit it. I still have a craving for sweet cereals. I fondly remember cocoa puffs, fruit loops and their sugary bliss. It probably tasted so good because it had a ton of sugar in it. Back when I was a kid, people didn’t really pay a lot of attention to sugar content. This was cereal…it had to be good for you…right? Not so fast. Upon further review, it seems that loading up kids with a ton of sugar in the morning — not to mention artificial colors and preservatives — was not prudent.
I am travelling through the northern Peruvian provinces of San Martin, Amazonas, and Caja Marca with our other Allegro buyer Darrin and Claudia and Angel from Sustainable Harvest Importers. Sustainable is helping build labs and train cuppers at the four cooperatives from whom we source coffee beans in this vast agricultural region situated between the Amazon and the Pacific. In the last few years we have moved our sourcing from the southern Cuzco province, which perhaps is more romantic given that it is the home of stunning Machu Picchu, to this northern coffee belt where we aim to build more direct links with growers and find more consistent quality. From Lima, we caught a flight to the bustling town of Tarapoto in San Martin, which at one time was the epicenter of the coca trade in Peru controlled by the FARC-like, MRTA (Revolutionary Movement of Tupac Amaru*). The MRTA brought a temporary prosperity to San Martin, where according to the locals, everyone benefited in some way from the coca trade and walked with their pockets stuffed with silver. It was also a time when there was very little worry about crime with the paramilitaries acting as the local law enforcement. Fear of a knock on the door by men in camouflage discouraged most lawbreakers. Supposedly the MRTA so controlled the area they used the local roads as landing strips for their airplanes that would literally land, dump bags of money out one door as people on the ground would load up bundles of coca in the other in less than a minute without stopping the plane. Those days are over now, as coca has been completely wiped out in this region by the US round-up eradication campaign that so destroyed the land which was sprayed that nothing has been able to grow there for the last 15 years. Farmers moved into new areas to plant coffee in the highlands and cacao, rice and palm in the valleys. The pockets of the locals may no longer be overflowing with silver, but Tarapoto is once again bustling as the center for legit agricultural products and noisy with the sound of the local motor taxis or tuk-tuks imported from Korea it seems.
Hi! My name is Hannah and I am a member of Teens for Safe Cosmetics: New York.
