Health-food market changes, choices abound in 2008

Those in search of health food in the southwest Missouri market are faced with a changed landscape, though industry representatives say availability is on the rise.

In the last few years, Whole Health Natural Foods, Evans Health Studio and Winslow Health and Diet Foods have all closed their doors. During the same period, mainstream grocers have increased their health food offerings.

“Wal-Mart and the grocery stores, particularly Price Cutter Pluses, have put in their own health food sections,” said Ken Ellwood, owner of Spring Valley Herbs & Natural Foods, 1738 S. Glenstone Ave., since 1981. “They are making it a lot more convenient for people to get organic and natural foods. We could kind of see the handwriting on the wall.”

Ellwood has adapted to the changing marketplace by focusing on his core business – vitamins and medicinal herbs – and expanding his offerings online at www.springvalleyherbs.com.

“When this trend started and the natural foods became mainstream, we started phasing out of our bulk foods and kind of stepping back and letting the big boys who have the room to do it kind of take that over,“ he said.

Still, Ellwood doesn’t think the added competition from “the big boys” is what caused the three other stores to close their doors. He said he’s staying plenty busy, and another store, Mama Jean’s Natural Market, is planning an expansion into the earth-friendly Green Circle shopping center at 1110 E. Republic Road.

According to former Whole Health Natural Foods employees now working for Mama Jean’s Natural Market, Whole Health closed when its owner moved to Kansas City.

For Winslow, “it was more about retirement,” Ellwood said. “Mrs. Winslow had been doing it for 42 years I think.”

Evans Health Studio owner Phyliss Harper closed her store in November. The store had been in business for 52 years and under Harper’s ownership since 1982. At the time, Harper said she was closing to lighten her work load; she also helps her husband, Ron, run Sunrise Security in Ozark.

What consumers want

For stores that are continuing to serve health-food customers, there seems to be plenty of business to go around.

“More and more people are taking probiotics and enzymes,” Ellwood said. “Those are becoming more and more prevalent.”

Probiotics, foods with active microorganisms, are a good example of a health food that’s going mainstream.

Rebecca Scritchfield, a Washington, D.C.-based health and fitness instructor and nutrition blogger who has been tracking 2008 food trends, said probiotics first showed up in mainstream grocery stores in yogurt products.

“ … DanActive was the first one I remember seeing,” Scritchfield said. “Later, Dannon launched Activia. In September, Yoplait launched Yo+. But probiotics really took off when Kraft added them to cheese under the LiveActive brand and Breakstone’s cottage cheese with probiotic fiber.”

The availability of probiotics is expected to increase, Scritchfield said.

“Expect to see probiotic frozen yogurt in 2008 and more nonyogurt foods with probiotics.” Scritchfield said. “There were more than 70 nonyogurt products introduced this year alone.”

Specialized food knowledge is one of the hallmarks of health food stores. As those specialized foods go mainstream, customers still need to be able to make informed choices. The Overall Nutritional Quality Index developed by Griffin Hospital’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center reduces a food’s nutritional potential to a single color-coded number. The Guiding Stars system developed by Hannaford Supermarkets is another, reducing food nutrition to a one-, two- or three-star rating.

“With ONQI and Guiding Stars poised to license their ratings systems, the typical consumer will probably see one of these two at a local grocery store in 2008,” Scritchfield said.

She expects emphasis on locally grown food to be another market trend in 2008.

“ … I would not be surprised to see more grocery stores carrying signs that identify the source of their fresh produce,” Scritchfield said.

Defining healthy eating

Dr. Lance Luria, medical director of health and wellness for St. John’s Health System, said there is a growing consensus as to what makes up a healthy diet, and the answer, increasingly, is Mediterranean fare. Luria said Mediterranean diets are high in fruits, vegetables, bread and other cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds, and low in red meat with moderate amounts of olive oil, eggs and wine.

“In supermarkets, (Mediterranean diets are) showing up quite a lot,” Luria said. “People are reacting in the amounts of fish and whole grain breads they eat. These foods are healthier, and they are starting to get more recognition.”

Luria said variations of Mediterranean diets are gaining popularity among those who want to eat healthy, because the diets aren’t just balanced. They’re easy to adapt to and live with as well.

Luria cites the Lyon Diet Heart Study, which looked at 302 experimental patients and 303 control subjects, all heart attack survivors.

Survival rates were higher for those on a Mediterranean diet, and according to Luria, they were more likely to stay on the diet even years after the study.

Luria notes that increased demand for healthier foods is easy to see at the supermarket, and for Spring Valley’s Ellwood, that trend is a good thing.

“I hope it continues. I hope everybody continues to be conscious of their health,” Ellwood said.