A health food store

A health food store is a type of grocery store that primarily
 sells health food, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores often offer foods for people with special dietary needs, such as people with allergies and diabetics, and also for vegans, vegetarians, and people living entirely on raw food.
Health food




The term health food has been used since the 1920s to refer to specific foods claimed to be especially beneficial to health, although the term has no official definition. Some terms that are associated with health food are macrobiotics, natural foods, organic foods and whole foods. Macrobiotics is a diet focusing primarily on whole cereals. Whole cereals, along with other whole 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 certain

organic standards.History of health food stores
History of health food stores

Many foods which are now commonplace in groceries first entered the market in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Efforts by early health pioneers such as Sylvester Graham, Horace Greeley, John Harvey Kellogg, George Ohsawa, Ellen White and others spurred an interest in health food. As early as the 1920s and 1930s health food stores started opening in the United States and the United Kingdom selling products such as blackstrap molasses and brewer's yeast.
Perhaps the oldest health food store was founded by Thomas Martindale in 1869 as "Thomas Martindale Company" in Olde City Philadelphia. The Martindale family eventually moved the store to 10th and Filbert St. in the late 1930's and was heavily influenced by the new interest in health and wellness. The store manufactured their own coffee substitute made from dried figs called "Figco". Healthy foods were sold in the lunchroom, with all baked goods being sweetened with honey or maple syrup. Eventually the store evolved into what is known as Martindale's Natural Market which is still in existence today.