What is a health food shop?

[aadenny]

Why are 'health food' shops so called? It seems to me that most of them are full of dried foods, packets, cans, and bottles of vitamin supplements and tablets. In fact, they tend to look more like low-grade pharmacists to me. Surely a health food shop should look like an old-fashioned greengrocer, or a butcher that knew the farm where there meat came from, or a bakery where the man who baked the bread actually sells it himself?

[andy hughes]

Perhaps there is a degree of confusion between the term 'health food' and 'organic food'. A lot of health food shops sell dietary suppliements, or natrually grown ingredients for food which can be commercially produced, hence the packaging. An organic supplier will indeed sell fresh produce, and be aware of the supply chain involved before it reaches his shelves. Just because foodstuffs are mass-produced does not prevent their inclusion under a 'health' label, but mass-produced food would not qualify for the term 'organic' - that's the baisc difference.

[aadenny]

I should add to my question that I'm not talking about 'organic' here. I'm talking about shops that sell fresh foods, close to the source of growth and supply, compared with shops that sell packets, cans, bottles, dried foods, pills and capsules, and still bear the title 'health foods' above their entrance.

[andy hughes]

I see your point, but again I think that any shop that sells products designed to promote health can call itself a 'health food' shop, and as I said, I don't think that the term is restricted to untreated or locally produced items. It seems the problem is with the description of the shop, rather than its merchandise.

[aadenny]

I guess, from the answers posted so far, that 'health food' is a medical description. I'm off to the doctor to get a food prescription...