The tide is turning. There must be more demand these days for healthy, nutritious foods because companies are responding. I see signs of it everywhere.
Right before Christmas, I walked over to the Prudential Mall here in Boston to check out the new SWEETGREEN location (www.sweetgreen.com, the most fabulous salad place ever) and found a new juice bar, FRUITATA ORGANIC JUICE AND SMOOTHIES, just feet away. Speaking of juices, I highly recommend the fabulous REVOLUTION JUICE on Huntington Ave (www.revolutionjuice.com). I started walking over there after I found out JUGOS on Dartmouth (closer to my gym) was not organic. Yikes, it’s great to have a fresh juice in the morning but not if it’s pesticide-laden. I also saw a sign for yet another juice bar and café to open across from the John Hancock. The juicing trend is exploding around here.
Around my ‘hood alone, there’s PRESSED (www.pressedboston.com) on Charles Street, the great COCOBEET (www.cocobeet.com) just steps from City Hall, and inside my gym, a new place, NOURISH YOUR SOUL, recently opened up. They make great smoothies but they bottle their cold-pressed organic juice off-site. It is best to have your juices made in front of you. Organic and local does make a difference but if bottled is your only option, go for it. I’ve made juices at home but cannot begin to match the fun combinations that juice bars can do. The rush of anti-oxidants and vitamins are real.
Advertising “real food,” B. GOOD (www.bgood.com), with four locations in the Boston area, has been selling bottled juices for a while, but just lately they started marketing kale and grain bowls. Yes, “bowls” are the hot-new trend. A total meal in one delicious bowl.
Is there a PINKBERRY near you? They have 260 stores in 20 countries. They have one location on Newbury Street and opened a second one in the Copley Mall. Famous for their frozen yogurt, they now advertise “the beginning of a new love.” Among their four new “loves” are açai bowls (with the newly popular açai frozen berry), quinoa bowls and steel-cut oatmeal. Yes, oatmeal at Pinkberry! Didn’t I tell you healthy food is trending?!
I must add one exciting scientific note. My wife received an announcement at work that the topic of the 20th International Conference of the Functional Food Center at Harvard Medical School this coming November will be “Functional and Medical Foods for Chronic Diseases: Bioactive Compounds and Biomarkers.” This is important (really). I strongly believe that a plant-based diet can prevent (and in some cases reverse) heart disease, cancers, diabetes, stroke and hypertension, arthritis, cataracts and Alzheimer’s disease, just to mention the most known of the chronic diseases. Yes, just by food alone! I know a lot of people do not want to or cannot believe this. But it is true. And now Harvard is putting it out there and calling for scientists to submit papers to prove and discuss what is in food that can keep us healthy and prevent disease. Who would oppose this information? All the zillions of people who make tons of money by selling, for example, cheese burritos, all kinds of fast food, diet books, not to mention the beef industry, the dairy industry and pharmaceutical companies. But lets’ get back to the happy news.
Look around your neighborhoods. I bet you have more healthy food choices as well. My grocery store just added a fresh juice bar. The bagel place near me sells whole wheat bagels, a coffee shop added hummus to their menu, my favorite cupcake place (Georgetown cupcake, www.Georgetowncupcake.com) sells a variety of vegan cupcakes. And, oh yes, the word vegan, is no longer taboo. If I didn’t have dozens of cookbooks from which to choose recipes, I could google vegan … well you name it … and find choices from dozens of chefs. Try it, you’ll see. If I lived in LA or NY, I could eat out in vegan restaurants three times a day. I read that vegan restaurants are spreading to cities all over the US and abroad. What’s in your town?
The tide is turning. You can be part of this trend by frequenting these new establishments and continually asking for healthier choices wherever you shop or eat. You will feel the difference after one juice, meal or even bagel. If it makes money, it will be made or sold or produced. Demand matters. Healthy is in. The buzz is out there. What changes are in your ‘hood?