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Ahealth food store (orhealth food shop) is a type ofgrocery store that primarily sellshealthful foods,organic foods,local produce, and oftennutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of foods than conventional grocery stores for their customers, for example people with special dietary needs, such as people who areallergic to thegluten in wheat or some other substance, and for people who observevegetarian,vegan,raw food, organic, or other alternativediets.
The termhealth food has been used since the 1920s to refer to specific foods claimed to be especially beneficial tohealth, although the term has no official definition. Some terms that are associated with health food aremacrobiotics,natural foods,organic foods andwhole foods. Macrobiotics is adiet focusing primarily onwhole cereals. Whole cereals, along with otherwhole foods, are foods that are minimally processed. Whole cereals have their fiber, germ and hull intact and are considered more nutritious. Natural foods are simply foods that contain no artificial ingredients. Organic foods are foods that are grown without the use of conventional and artificial pesticides and must meet certainorganic standards.
Most health food stores also selldietary supplements, like vitamins, herbal supplements and homeopathic remedies. Herbal supplements have never been regulated until theEuropean Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products came into force on 30 April 2004. The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, 2004/24/EC, was established to provide a regulatory approval process for herbal medicines in the European Union (EU).
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One of the early health food stores, "Thomas Martindale Company" is thought to be founded in 1869 by English immigrantThomas Martindale inOil City, Pennsylvania.[1][2][3] Martindale advocated for healthy living and physical exercise through education and a series of books he authors.[2] In the 1920s and 1930s health food stores gained popularity.[4]
Health food stores in the United States became more common in the 1960s.[5]
Media related toHealth food stores at Wikimedia Commons
