Vani Hari (a.k.a. The Food Babe) is a regular contributor on 100 Days of Real Food. To learn more about Vani check out “Our Team” page.
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If I could give one piece of health advice to everyone I meet I’d ask them to shop in a place where they can get the best quality groceries and produce available. Changing where I shop has been fundamental in changing my health for the better.
However, going to the grocery store – even natural ones – can be really daunting, especially if you are trying to avoid processed foods. Whole Foods Market stores, known for their organic and natural options, are popping up everywhere…we even got one here in my hometown just last month. People inherently trust Whole Foods because their marketing is almost spotless. Whole Foods emotionalizes the shopping experience with visions of abundant good-for-you-eats the moment you walk in the store. They greet you with an array of fresh flowers that immediately invokes a state of freshness, and the high quality standards are touted to easily make anyone believe they are shopping at the best place possible.
Whole Foods has a laundry list of chemicals, preservatives and additives they do not allow in their stores that should alleviate most of your worries – an “unacceptable” list of ingredients that I highly endorse and wish every grocery store followed (albeit, it’s missing a couple of items). Typical wholesalers and conventional supermarkets are stocked with so many questionable chemicals and ingredients it makes my head spin. This is why I’ve pretty much stopped going to conventional grocery stores all together – it’s just too exhausting to have to avoid all the chemical additives they let into their stores and to have to constantly scrutinize their ingredients.
Whole Foods is far superior to conventional grocery stores in terms of what they don’t allow in their stores, however I uncovered some facts that will shock even the most savvy consumer.
But before we get into the details, Lisa wants to quickly make sure everyone knows about their “100 Days of Real Food” meal planning sponsor, No More To Go…as in No More “To Go” Meals! Through their service you get 5 dinner recipes each week that take the guesswork out of what to cook. Corresponding grocery lists are included and so are modifications for gluten free, vegetarian, and kid-friendly. Be sure to use the discount code “100DAYS” for 30% off and to save you even more time in the kitchen also check out their free page of food tips and tricks.
Okay, so back to Whole Foods and what you need to look out for:
1. Not Everything is Organic –
Don’t let the fact that they are a certified organic grocery store fool you. Being CCOF certified means practically nothing in terms of how much organic produce they actually have to sell you. I’ve been to Whole Foods many times now, and I haven’t been able to find all of the organic produce I want – most of it is conventional and often flown in from other countries. For instance, I use cucumbers in one of my favorite smoothie recipes right now, and on the last three trips to Whole Foods, organic cucumbers were not available along with several other of my staples I buy on a weekly basis. Buying organic vegetables like cucumbers is very important because they are included in the dirty dozen list – a list of fruits and vegetables that are recommended to purchased only organic because of the high level of pesticide residue found in them. Remember that increased exposure to pesticides are in some cases linked to birth defects, nerve damage, and cancer. The President’s Cancer Panel has urged us to avoid food sprayed with pesticides and doesn’t believe any amount is safe.
Chart from Environmental Working Group
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I sometimes go to Whole Foods for a quick meal, but it’s not very often because the prepared foods and salad bar are mostly conventional, too. It’s very hard to find an organic meal available at any of their food stations – pizza, deli, sushi, soup, salad, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. Since I’m already at the store in the first place, I usually talk myself into buying the organic ingredients I need and preparing them at home rather than making a habit of eating there. On several occasions, I’ve found less than stellar ingredients hidden in their prepared foods – like GMOs, hidden MSG and the over use of cheap oils like corn, soy, and canola, which I will get to in a minute.
2. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are Everywhere –
If there was one thing I thought I could avoid by shopping at Whole Foods, it would at least be GMOs, especially looking at their quality standards. When you ask the staff about GMOs, like I did just the other day, they will tell you all sorts of different answers on the topic. The inconsistencies in their communications to customers was just recently exposed in an “Organic Spies” tell-all-video, that used hidden cameras to ask Whole Foods employees about GMOs in their stores. This video uncovered that most employees said there were no GMOs at Whole Foods, however in actuality approximately 20 – 30% of their stores’ goods contain GMOs. When I specifically asked the team leader of my store in Charlotte if I could have a list of all the non-GMO products, he said “there are absolutely no GMOs in here, we don’t have a list.” He was so pompous about his answer, that I followed up his bold statements with a couple of questions that were not answered correctly. I did not want to argue with him, so instead, I took pictures of the Kashi, Pirate Booty, Barbara’s Bakery, etc. on their shelves – all brands I’ve researched that have GMOs.
As I explained in my Chipotle Investigation, GMOs were not studied for their safety on humans before they were approved by the FDA, and they do not require labeling in the United States. A recent French Study revealed that rats fed GMOs during the course of their lifetime and exposed to the pesticide “Round Up” developed tumors all over their bodies and in their internal organs. There has been so much outrage about the alarming results that Russia just last week banned all GMO Corn imports into their country and Europe is considering banning them too.
Whole Foods sources non-GMO ingredients for their 365 store brand and supports GMO-labeling in California, where the issue will appear on the ballot as Proposition 37 in November. However, Whole Foods hasn’t donated a single cent to the campaign – a large percentage (~$2-3 billion dollars) of their profits are directly tied to the sale of GMOs after all. Their support is superficial at best and a company that makes over $10 billion dollars in revenue should put their money where their mouth is, especially since big food corporations are outspending the effort to label GMOs 11 to 1. Whole Foods has stated they haven’t donated because they do not contribute to political campaigns. Our right to know is not political – it’s a basic fundamental human right to know what we are eating. Safeguarding our organic farm land starts with labeling and eliminating GMOs – this is something Whole Foods could have a major impact in protecting and should be committed to, especially wearing the label of a CCOF certified organic grocer.
The Non-GMO project and the Institute of Responsible Technology are two resources that provide non-GMO shopping lists. Also check out a list of my favorite organic snack substitutes for popular conventional GMO snacks. (One of the non-gmo snacks I know is Lisa’s favorite!)
3. Hidden Ingredients –
I know I am preaching to the choir when I say this, but reading the ingredients on everything you buy is still critical, even when you are shopping in Whole Foods! Considering the laundry list of unacceptable ingredients Whole Foods does not allow in their stores – I find it appalling that they still allow brands they carry to use rBGH (a.k.a. recombinant bovine growth hormone) in their dairy products. rBGH has been outlawed in 27 countries and study after study links this genetically modified ingredient to many forms of cancers. It is risky buying conventional dairy products from Whole Foods- buy only organic, 365 brand, or other brands explicitly labeled “rBGH free”.
Additionally, Whole Food’s list of unacceptable ingredients does not include propylene glycol, caramel color, carrageenan and several forms of hidden MSG – ingredients that would make logical sense to ban from their stores.
Carrageenan is used as a stabilizer in dairy and non-dairy like products and consumption is linked to gastrointestinal disorders. 365 brand cottage cheese, soy milk, flax milk and rice milk all contain carrageenan. You also can find it all over the store in different brands of ice cream, sour cream, etc. (Cornucopia Institute created a helpful shopping guide to help you avoid this additive.)
I found “yeast extract,” a common hidden name for MSG, in soups, sushi, seasonings and in many packaged goods. The amount of MSG that can end up in your food is not regulated by the FDA, but Whole Foods consciously allows it throughout their store. MSG is also likely genetically modified and can be listed under several different names. MSG is an excitotoxin that, in some cases, can excite brain cells to death and cause adverse reactions in some people including “skin rashes, itching, hives, nausea, vomiting, migraine headaches, asthma, heart irregularities, depression and even seizures.” This list of hidden MSG names is helpful in understanding the various names for MSG so you can look for it on the label and avoid it.
Many of Whole Food’s prepared foods contain cheap acidic oils – like corn oil seen in this Borscht soup below. This is something I pay a great deal of attention to, because so many processed foods are using these highly refined oils (which are likely genetically modified too) and creating an imbalance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids in our bodies. Furthermore, experts are so emphatic about the unhealthy nature of oils like corn, soy, and canola, they recommend discontinuing all use and throwing them in the trash. Switching to unrefined coconut, olive and sesame oils could drastically improve Whole Foods’ prepared foods and send a loud message that they are putting the health of their customers before their profits.
4. High Prices –
I’m sure you’ve heard the joke that when you shop at Whole Foods you can end up spending your “whole pay check!” This joke may not be far from truth based on the total cost of some common grocery staples.
Prices turned out to only be slightly higher at Whole Foods (depending on what you are buying) when compared to one of their local competitors, Earth Fare. Luckily, you can find many of these items cheaper elsewhere, but it just takes a little effort. I like to keep shopping costs down by buying staples in bulk on the internet, going directly to local farms and visiting farmer’s markets.
[Please note: This section was edited on 10/2/12 with chicken being substituted for beef tenderloin. The original comparison list was generated prior to visiting the stores to eliminate bias, however organic beef tenderloin was not available at Earth Fare and as a result the original comparison was not "apples to apples", causing some confusion.]
In Summary -
As you can see – Whole Foods may not have all your best interests in mind. Whole Foods has a tremendous opportunity to make a historical impact on our food policy – if they do the right thing. We could all easily find non-organic products, GMOs, and other unwanted ingredients at the rest of America’s supermarkets so let’s just hope a store like Whole Foods will lead the way and eventually eliminate these items all together.
I’m cautiously still a customer because obtaining organic groceries is hard enough as it is; limiting my store choices even more would be silly. Whole Foods, Earth Fare, and other grocery stores that have eliminated laundry lists of chemicals and additives will always be better than conventional grocery stores. I am thankful they make shopping for healthier alternatives much more convenient. Besides, my husband loves having a local craft beer at Whole Foods while I shop – getting him to the grocery store with me is an absolute miracle that I’m just not willing to give up!
while Whole Foods does indeed offer more variety of organic foods, please be aware that they have admitted that they have GMOs and the products are not labeled as such, even though they claim/claimed not to sell contaminated foods.
wwwnaturalnewscom and put in the website’s search engine “whole foods.” this will shock you.
This is scary stuff, but it is also overwhelming. How am I ever supposed to feed myself and my family truly healthy foods when I’m being deceived at places I consider to carry “whole, natural foods.” I am concerned the most by the GMO issue, as it is not required to be printed on the label. I have a 2 year old son who eats his meals at daycare, and I worry every day that he’s being pumped full of chemicals and pesticides. It’s so disheartening. Especially that we are so far behind other countries when it comes to keep people safe from harmful foods. This just ignites a fire in me! It’s so disturbing. Thank you for sharing.
If you are worried about the food at daycare then you could send snacks and meals instead. They really have no choice if you do not want their food served to your child. As my husband says, “You are paying them not the other way around.”
There’s a daycare/preschool in our small town, supposedly the best one in terms of education, where I wanted to enroll my child but did not for one reason: they FORBID bringing own lunches AND/OR any snacks, strictly prohibit. They proudly state that their catered menu is USDA-approved, which makes me question the whole mentality of this particular preschool (USDA is the last item on my respect list). When I inquired about specific dietary needs and thus possible accommodation, the answer was ‘sorry, you just have to look for another school in this case’. So I did. If someone would’ve told me about the prohibition of bringing own lunch to a daycare, I’d be skeptical, but here it is, happened to me…
As a former WFM employee, I remember asking our in-store educator about GMOs. If they’re not labeled, how do we know which non-organic products might contain them? Her response: “We don’t know. We ask our vendors to adhere to specific standards, but if we found out there were GMOs in the products on our shelves, those products would be removed.”
I’m still waiting for that to happen.
Thank you so much for this helpful information. I just want to make sure I understand something….the Whole Foods 365 brand never contains anything with GMO ingredients so I can be assured it is ‘safer’ to eat? My friends and I were just discussing this topic wondering where we can get corn that is not modified/GMO. Any information would be helpful!
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Not only all the hidden stuff and the prices , but Whole Foods also supports Planned Parenthood and therefore abortion…I value life, my husbands hard earned dollars won’t be spent at Whole Foods.
How ignorant and mislead you must be. Less than 3% of Planned Parenthood’s performed services include abortion. I first went there for my annuals and birth control when I couldn’t afford health insurance. It’s pretty vague and assuming for you to state that you “value life”. I value life, too, you know, my life, my choices, not that of an unfeeling embryo/fetus.
Yes, yes and yes, Coelis. I second your opinion. Nevertheless it is nonsence for a store to lose somebody’s business for a reason such as this one! Perhaps they are better off without your business, Lindsey, anyways.
An unfeeling embryo/fetus? How do you know it is unfeeling? Scientific research has shown many times that the baby does feel excruciating pain! It IS a human being, its a baby. If you can’t respect the life of the most defenseless, whose life are you going to respect? What “right” do you have to take the life of another, someone who can’t defend themselves? That’s murder, and I believe anyone who supports/performs abortions is guilty of it. Harsh? maybe, but I cringe every time I hear about a woman’s right to choose. Choose what? Murder? If ya didn’t want a baby, then why in the heck did you get yourself pregnant? Do some unbiased research, I know SO many women just like you who were exploited by Planned Parenthood. Their stories are horrific, just Google it.
You do realize most abortions are done before the fetus develops right? Yeah, BABIES can feel pain, but a clump of cells that has not even begun to develop a brain cannot. After it has a brain/heartbeat, then it is murder.
“Then why in the heck did you get yourself pregnant?” Right, because condoms never break and hormonal birth control never fails and rape never happens and medical problems with a pregnancy never arise. Oh, wait. ACTUALLY, THINGS LIKE THAT HAPPEN. Welcome to reality.
Then there the fact that there is an abundance of kids ALREADY BORN that want a home. If there are so many couples looking for children, why are so many kids still in foster care and the system is beyond full? You forcing women that can’t take care of these kids to have them will just cause them both unnecessary suffering.
Planned Parenthood provides sex ed/contraceptives/and tons of other things beside abortions and they are usually the ONLY place that does in most states in the US. How are you against sexual education and contraceptives? How exactly can you stop people from having access to birth control and an education about preventing pregnancy, and then blame them for getting pregnant?
Not to mention the fact that no amount of laws will actually stop abortions. Anti-choicers who want to ban abortion would simply bring back dangerous back alley abortions that would kill the mothers as well as the fetus, not to mention the removal of a women’s right to her own body. If you were really pro-life, then you wouldn’t want hundreds of thousands of women dying from botched abortions as well as the fetuses.
You cringe at hearing about pro-choice, I cringe at ignorant comments like yours. I find it hilarious that you actually told someone else to do some research.
Lets stick to the topic of the food. We can all agree that this issue is a sticky topic. If it was so easy for people to make these choices, it’s not. I won’t judge or criticize people who are in this situation and was raised strict Catholic and now called myself non-denominal because of the judging and double standards many people show on this and other issues, show some compassion. Pro choice.
Here in California Sprouts Farmers Markets are popping up all over. It’s much like WF and is located closer to my neighborhood, therefore I do some of my shopping there. I would love a comparison of standards and I’m sure many people on the West coast would too.
I’m so confused with your posts!! In this post, you list Barbara’s as GMO, but then your link to the non-GMO project lists Barbara’s as verified Non-GMO…which is it? It is so hard to have such conflicting information when you are trying to make good choices!
I think only certain products from Barbara’s are verified Non-GMO as of now…others are not verified and still may contain GMO’s.
Great article. I wonder if rather than focusing on what not to eat, which at this point is very confusing. Can you provide a list that is 100% safe to eat so we can focus on the good and not worry about the bad. A specific list would be great if available.
Thanks again for the great info.
Have you done the same investigation for Trader Joes? Might be wise for informed consumers.
I can not believe that even this brand of cereal KASHI can trust.
Kashi was bought by Kellogg ten years or so ago. Don’t eat modern grains regularly, period! (see the book ‘Wheat Belly’). I find Trader Joe’s pretty good on most stuff including canned goods. You still find soybean oil in the processed stuff so just buy raw ingredients to avoid the bad stuff.
I am curious where you buy in bulk online? I am going through flour, nuts, seeds, and oil like crazy! We live in Tx and whole foods is about at “natural” as we can get around here. We do have some farmers markets but they are seasonal. However, we are getting a Trader Joes soon. And according to cornucopia WF milk is the best we can get too.
Try looking on the internet for things like floor and nuts that could be mailed to you or where there might be safe stores near you. How about farmers markets!
Try Vitacost (https://www.vitacostrewards.com/PEBO6kN)or amazon.com (use the subscribe and save option to save extra at either website). Honeyvillegrain.com has almond flour and seeds (not organic, but neither is Bob’s Red Mill) and some organic flours and coconut palm sugar. Nuts.com has organic and raw nuts.
Be sure to check the ingredient lists, as they may have changed….
I think the best piece of advice I recently heard, which is in direct opposition to the advise “read labels carefully” was “if it has a label, don’t eat it”. I think that would take care of 80% of the issues identified here! We try to do that as much as possible, but let’s face it, nobody is perfect 100% of the time.
We buy our bulk items from http://www.nuts.com they have a very good variety of organic nuts and dried fruits. They also carry gluten free flour.
I also wanted to add that Whole Foods signed an agreement with Monsanto about 2 years ago. This was very disappointing to me. People have contacted Whole Foods in Texas and they, of course, denied it. It’s so disheartening to try to buy good, healthy food only to be sabotaged into buying poison. Anyone who grew up in the 1950′s and 1960′s as I did, will attest to the fact that food today with all the junk attached to it just does not taste the same.
“Anyone who grew up in the 1950′s and 1960′s as I did, will attest to the fact that food today with all the junk attached to it just does not taste the same.”
Mary, totally agree.
On your list of the “clean 15″, the second product is corn, stating its safe to buy this non organic…the first thing you should ever buy organic is corn!!! You’re talking about GMOs! Corn is the number 1 genetically modified crop in the country!
Even if they did admit to having GMO’s in their food they are willing to work with the general consumer. Try to get the same response from another grocery food giant (not likely). I think they are going in the right direction let’s try and give them a chance before throwing them under the bus.
@WholeFoods Found this article and would like to know that you are taking our concerns seriously http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/10/01/food-babe-investigates-whole-foods/ … please do it right! ><
@BhattiBytes We definitely do, we think it's the consumers right to know what is in their food. Happy to help answer any ?'s you might have.
Back to the food related topic- Organic is a key word for now, but not for too long. Knowledge, Sales + coupons = affordable natural and organic food.
[...] What to watch out for at Whole Foods [...]
I have a question about the refined oils. I started buying the 365 brand Canola oil to avoild GMOs but is that not safe oil to buy? What should I use for my daily cooking?
For cooking oils use high quality olive oil, organic coconut oil, and organic walnut oil. Cook meat <=340F to greatly reduce AGE products.
OK, so how wrong is this? I work for a someone who works at Monsanto. When I look at what’s in their pantry and fridge there’s a lesson to be learned. When they buy organic – I buy organic. Period.
Could you please give some more details about this carrageenan stuff? We currently use Trickling Springs Farms milk(out of PA)that we get at our local WFM in Annapolis, MD. I searched for a local milk delivery service/farm today and found one here in MD. There is this right from their website about carrageenan(I cut and pasted):
We have had some feedback about an ingredient in our ice cream, Carrageenan. We just want to advise you on where it comes from. Carageenan is a natural carbohydrate extracted from red seaweed. It is referred to as a seaweed gelatin much like agar agar. The name Carraigin means ‘moss of the rock’ in Irish. It grows abundantly along the rocky coasts of North America and Europe. In Ireland during the 1800′s carrageenan was extracted from Irish Moss and used as a gelatin and thickener, as well as a home remedy. A tea made from Irish moss is used as a tonic, being widely used in Irish folk medicine as a trusted cure for coughs and colds.
While I know this refers to their ice cream and doesn’t specify their milk, I was hoping you could chime in here.
Thanks bunches-
Heather in MD
As a former Whole Foods Market team member we were never trained to tell customers that we do not sell GMO. In fact, I remember clearly watching the video on GMO where it states that Organic food is or was so limited that there was no way they could operate on just Organic foods. Which makes total sense because GMO is in 80% of our food. I don’t what region this is but in the Northern East region this would never happen. I do agree when you say shopping there is better than the conventional stores and that WFM can do a better job with the Non-GMO thing but they try.
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