should I buy designer foods?
Thinking about the questions lately about acai and maca, I was checking out today at The Good Earth. The woman and her daughter in front of me had clearly never been in the health food store. It was also clear that they were from the very lower middle class and of extremely limited means. On the conveyor belt were $25 worth of acai packets, and $70 worth of vitamin supplements. They had an envelope full of cash, which they counted and recounted to make sure they weren’t overpaying.
Someone had convinced these poor people that acai is worth the very little money they had. These people had NO FOOD on the conveyor belt for their $100 purchase, in a store full of food.
I put my dates, greens, sprouted wheat tortillas, and a few other items on the belt and was outta there for under $20.
To answer a question a couple of days ago, maca is an ancient food, a root, used by the Incans. It’s touted by its marketers to have many benefits, including improving sexual function and aiding in building muscle mass.
It’s one of what I call the Designer Foods, like acai, goji, chlorella, pomegranate juice, and other fruits you’ve never heard of before that compete for our attention. These $30+/lb. foods are a consequence of the confluence of three things. And those are, (a) the epidemic of health problems, (b) the people suffering in that epidemic wanting a cure that doesn’t demand much of them, and (c) a lot of discretionary income in the economy. In a capitalist economy, someone (like David Wolfe) will always step in to meet the demand.
Anyone who wants to try them should feel welcome to do so, of course. They’re interesting foods and very nutritious.
However, what I am always concerned about is keeping the focus on the basics. Are you eating 60-80 percent raw plant foods, and have you replaced refined foods with all whole foods? THAT is a much more important step than buying some kind of designer food with marketing sizzle and the lure of a better sex life or high energy. (Your libido and energy will improve with the foods that cost under $1/lb., too, especially as you bump out the bad stuff. I promise. And I make $0.00 telling you this.)
So, those with money, those on a quest for the ultimate health, those who are already well down this path and getting an A- or higher on the GreenSmoothieGirl nutrition quiz: http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/nutritionQuiz.html
Buy maca, and “hemp hearts,” and acai extracts (in bars of naturally sweetened, free traded, organic, raw dark chocolate). Just PLEASE don’t do that for an outrageously expensive little “health kick” and then say,
“I can’t afford to eat right.”
I don’t want anyone struggling to feed a family, learning about whole foods for the first time, to feel overwhelmed because she can’t afford the Designer Foods. I rarely eat designer foods myself, though I’ve tried many of them (including maca).
You can just do the things in 12 Steps to Whole Foods and then if you want more, undertake a cleanse. Designer foods are less important than those things. My advice, even for those of you with chronic health issues, is to stay the path. Be patient because it took you a while to get into the poor health, and it’ll take a while to get back to good health.
Tracy Stamatakis said,
November 11, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
Hi Rockin Robyn and all other Ra’s out there,
I agree, these superfoods are overpriced at $20 or $30 dollars a pound. But what about $8/lb? Well that is the price I am going to order it for. I want to make the most potent super smoothie on the planet. That is my goal and I am getting closer and closer.
I found this stuff at nutsonline.com. You guys check it out and tell me what you think. I am also going to order some nuts and seeds.
I love my blendtec blender! It led me to this website and it kicks. I make the best smoothies I have ever had. Also all kinds of other things.
Tonya said,
November 11, 2008 @ 7:35 pm
I totally agree with you Robyn. I get so upset when Mr. D.W. embarks at ripping off every person who comes across his website. I was just talking about this to someone else today. I bought Maca at a VERY discounted price from another website. The folks got my order wrong and gave me triple of it and didn’t seem to mind that I was given triple of it. (New person perhaps in the shipping department?)
Anyway, I would NEVER buy any SUPER food magic potion over organic greens, veges, fruit and the basic necessities of FOOD. We just need more people to speak up and say something. It happens to us all the time at Costco (we get organic carrots and spinach there if we do not get it in our local organic produce co-op share). We also get this at other stores because we always have fruits and veggies and often the kids can’t wait to get out of the store to have their fruit or even their green smoothie. We walk around with it everywhere including the kids.
We get questions all the time. We once bought Apple Cider Vinegar only and the people in front of us thought it would help them lose weight and everything on the conveyor belt was meat, milk, cheese and bread. Sounds normal for the average American….but where is the veggies and fruit?
I do LOVE your green drink and it DOES give you energy. So many people are looking for a magic pill and a quick fix to undo decades of SAD. It isn’t going to work. The green drink is amazing. It DOES give us energy. But, I don’t know how well it would have worked if we were on a SAD diet! Now that we have cleansed a lot and changed our diet we can FEEL the difference within just two days.
So many people just don’t know how to eat right. They are so caught up in meeting that Food Pyramid and what the U.S. government has drilled into everyones head that they don’t know they aren’t suppose to eat that pretty box of bright colored food. So…I guess they see another pretty box with a wierd fruit on it and say….I guess this will take away all my sorrow! And they will throw down their $100. Sad. This is why D.W. is making a bundle. He has also started this past year a multi-level marketing business to sell more ‘SUPERFOOD’. You can find it for a fraction on the internet or make it yourself with your OWN HOME GARDEN.
I am so happy that you have this website up and running to teach people.
If you have the money and are ALREADY eating a plant based diet than Maca would most likely work for you. I have tried it and have a lot of it….but honestly, I can’t chug it down. I prefer eating lawn over it. (Literally…wheat grass and dandelion greens. Yum)
: )
Tonya said,
November 11, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
So many people are out to make a bundle off of people who really truly need help on becoming healthy individuals. A local cooking store began to have a raw food instructor three times last year. The class was packed and the price was very reasonable so that people would come. They saw that so many people came that they decided to have this instructor once a month and tripled the price of the class. They also have decided to carry a few raw food essentials like dehdryators and blenders but have put the price far higher than anywhere on the internet. To top it all off they kept telling people to shop at a nearby all organic store that is 4x higher than any other store. I just wanted to hand out flyers with web addresses on where to go and what co-ops to join and swing them to greensmoothiegirl.
The majority of the people coming to the class are elderly or very obese people wanting to learn more. This upsets me so badly. I am not surprised that the class was cancelled this month due to no one coming.
Robyn, thank you for making your site accesible to people, it is VERY affordable and I just love you! Yes, love. You are an amazing woman and there are many families out there who have much gratitude for your changing our lives and impacting us in so many ways. You not only have a step by step guide of what to do you help people avoid pitfalls and just give it them raw. You tell it like it is and that is what people need to hear and to know.
It isn’t just about food….when you change the inside you change your view on everything. My family is better for it. We are having fun getting outside and living life.
Robyn said,
November 11, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
awww, thanks Tonya. love you too
anonymous said,
November 11, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
I SOOOO agree with this!!! awhile back we were invited to a “chocolate” party—apparently I was the only one in the ward that hadn’t heard of the ploy—but it was chocolate with lost of antioxidants!! This “party” brought out a LOT of feelings in me. I donl’t beleive that any ONE food will make us “healthy”. it’s ridiculous if you think about–and yet we don’t think. I think acai berry is a big one- (and other high antioxidant things)–another TREND right now is Omega 3′s–which i still don’t think just popping some fish oil tablets is going to miracculously fix your life.
i also wanted to say (personally) that my libido is up to an all time high —becuase of the energy that I feel at the end of the day. thank you green smoothies!!!
Danette said,
November 12, 2008 @ 8:25 am
Poeple are looking for a quick “fix it” and don’t want to be bothered with the importance of eating right. Yesterday, I heard a mother complaining that her 8 year old daughter was sick all the time. She just finished another perscription of antibiotics and asked the doctor what she could give her to stop her from being sick all the time. The doctor’s answer was, “feed her more fruits and vegatables.” Yeah doctor, but get this, the mother is so mad, she’s looking for a new Pediatrician! I was floored! UNBELIEVABLE.
Jeane said,
November 12, 2008 @ 10:14 am
I have been known to checkout at Whole Foods with nothing
but 4 or 5 frozen smoothie packets of Acai. We use them in our
green smoothies and we love what it adds to the texture and taste of our green smoothies. Hopefully, there really are health benefits also.
I have gotten quite good at only buying what I planned to when I went into the store (no implulse buying). Does this make me look like I have never been in a health food store before? My DH and myself will be dressed in cotton slacks or shorts and colored T Shirts and sandals most likely, I guess we could look like lower class people??
I always shop in cash. And yes I count it very carefully, twice at least, but maybe three times if my bills are newer and stick together. It would be stupid to give someone more money than I owe!! Does this make it clear that I am poor?
Robyn said,
November 12, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Very interesting, and it brings up the chicken-or-egg question.
I don’t fault any individual doctor, although I’d love to meet and shake the hand of that pediatrician.
It’s the system within they work that is the problem, and at the ROOT of that problem is not the Rx industry or the fast food industry or anyone else.
It’s US, the people. We created the demand. Sure, there’s a vicious cycle here, but doctors are simply supplying what we want.
I was reading an article yesterday about how much pressure doctors are under to WRITE A PRESCRIPTION. Even docs who are uncomfortable writing a lot of Rx just cave in. Most people are not like those who read GSG: they are angry if they leave the pediatrician’s office without some “medicine.” (I can’t write that without the quotation marks, since to me it is a euphemism.)
If you go to an M.D., the office staff will paper clip a prescription paper to your chart (if they’re sharp). When I’ve been to doctors, they start to tell me what drug they are going to give me, and I have to stop them as they begin writing, to say, “Thanks, I’m actually not interested in that, but I appreciate you looking in my daughter’s ears” or whatever.
Without fail, the doctor looks VERY surprised, pen poised in hand.
Tam said,
November 12, 2008 @ 11:25 am
So, So, True! Love your thoughts Robyn I have many of the same ones myself! We don’t need to make things so complicated I think some people think if it’s simple it won’t work. That or they just think if they throw enough money at it that they can have their cake and eat it too!
Robyn said,
November 12, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
Jeane, I was worried about making an impression like that . . .
I could give the details, but I can’t think how to write them. These people pretty clearly had some mental health or developmental delay issues. They were very painfully overweight. I just really wanted to give them lots of good food for their $100. They kept talking back and forth about the money; they were clearly very stressed out about the expenditure. It was killin’ me. And I’m not even describing the whole experience. (They didn’t know about the discount keychain card that everyone who shops there has–thus my perception that they’d never been there before.)
If you can afford the acai packets, go for it. Please understand that my motive here is to convince people that returning to health, through whole foods, is really doable, if we keep our focus on the basics rather than the bells and whistles.
Ra said,
November 12, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
Hi all,
I have read your posts and I agree with you. There are alot of people taking advantage of the ignorant in health foods. I had this guy at work trying to sell noni juice when it first came out.
This state is full of idiots. That is why network market scams are such a big thing in this state.
But the one thing we here are concerned with is nutrition. We want to eat the most nutritious foods that we can with the least amount of extra calories. For example, dark chocolate, I am sure it has some nutrients in there but what about all the other stuff they put in it? And what about the processing of it?
But pure unaltered cacao or cocoa whatever you want to call it allegedly has alot of nutrients. Also according to wikepedia 90% is grown without the use of chemicals. I am sure this is because the people who grow it can’t afford them. So by default you are getting an organic natural product.
So the question is how many nutrients are you getting at what price. I don’t think we should dismiss these other plants just because they are exotic. I also think we should not take for granted plants we have that are easily accessible.
Also I know from being a farmer just because its a plant doesn’t mean its wholesome. Farmers get paid by the pound. Also farmers don’t make alot of money. They reality of it is, farmers can’t afford to care or do they even have the means to know how nutritious their fruits and vegetables are.
So how nutritious is your green smootie when the things you put in it are not very nutritious in the first place. There is just no getting around it, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself or pay someone alot of money to do it for you. So everone needs to grow a garden and get back into canning.
anonymous said,
November 12, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
i hope noone was offended by Robyn’s comment—i think she was just saying that most of us–MOST in America don’t have dough just flopping around to be used—so even if those people had extra money—there are still better things they could use it on (of course assuming they didn’t just get TONZ of fruits and veggies at cosco and then stopped at the health food store.
but I know MANY many many people (in my own family included)–that are the ones spending so much money on processed foods and then go and buy mOna Vie–and fish pills and think it will al be dandy!
Frank said,
November 12, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
The following article is very interesting:
http://www.nutri-info.com/food_and_nutrition.htm
Lala said,
November 12, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
Robyn, I wanted to buy some recipes from online—do you not take CC? so do i mail you a check and then the day you receive it you notify me that I can now view the recipes? THANKS
Robyn said,
November 12, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
The GSG store takes PayPal, not cc. And you also have the option to send a check, and when it arrives, we fill the order, yes.
Lori said,
November 14, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
speaking to the dr. comments — I just took my daughter to the pediatrician yesterday and there was a notice at the front desk that said they believe in vaccines, that reports of links to autism are untrue, and if we don’t believe the same thing (at least regarding “mandatory” vaccines), please switch to a pediatrician who believes as we do. They also said to do so if we wanted to change the vaccine schedule (which I used to do because although I decided to give vaccines, I wasn’t comfortable with more than two at a time). Although I’m done with all the early childhood vaccines, there are still some left that are suggested for my age children, and I’m just happy that they’re considered optional at this point.
Tonya said,
November 14, 2008 @ 10:30 pm
HA! My in-laws have done the same. They spend so much money eating fast food EVERY SINGLE DAY and the other day when I was at their house I saw a bottle of Mona Vie. I was amazed. People want a pill, a shot, a drug anything that doesn’t require true CHANGE.
She has such bad acid reflux and was popping pills left and right trying to get it to stop. I bring her raw food often and this time brought her some chia seeds and told her to swallow a few tablespoons of that. Cured her acid reflux instantly. She now uses chia seeds. Hopefully she will listen and have a green smoothie.
The multi level marketing of Mona Vie really grates my nerves.