Shopping for Organics

One of my goals this year is/was to convert to roughly 75% Veganism. I've personally found red meat quite easy to give up, I had been eating only chicken, turkey and seafood post surgery because my stomach couldn't handle it anyway, and in doing some research, I found that I could essentially convert my diet to a non-animal consuming one, save for seafood, fairly easily.

If your intent is to do the same, let me make a couple of suggestions, From a protein shakes and bars standpoint, your options are somewhat limited, unless you enjoy mixing your own protein drinks, which I don't. I'd recommend Calnutrition's Svelte protein drinks over Orgain, they are considerably less expensive and better (less worse) tasting. NuGo has a line of Vegan friendly protein bars that taste great (particularly the chocolate mint flavor).

As it turns out, gastrointestinally this conversion didn't work well for me. I get the sense that I'm flat out allergic to something in the Svelte, as it left me in a pretty bad state. And when part of your living involves making long presentations to groups of clients, trying to accommodate my body's behavior was not sustainable. So back to the Atkins shakes we go.

That said, I'm still able to eliminate my on land meat consumption fairly easily. There are a number of tofu based non meat and non cheese flavored products that are quite good, in particular LightLife Smart Deli bologna flavored slices. Good stuff in a sandwich.

Having had roughly a month to shop for Vegan friendly groceries, I've been able to do a bit of a comparison amongst the various local and national chains, and here's a somewhat anecdotal data dump.

Also, Berry flavored all natural G2 Gatorade is terrific. The best flavor of any Gatorade out there. Great stuff.

Meijer I love Meijer, but they're basically worthless. A cursory stocking of Soy Milk, some organic coffee, sugar based soda in the International aisle and that's basically it.

Earth Fare Local to Cleveland and Phoenix, EarthFare prides itself on having nothing in the store made with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Their selection of non animal based milks is quite good. The Vegan base deli section is packed into one underwhelming cooler tucked behind the front entrance in the veggie section and is difficult to find. Also, and this drives me crazy, no honey roasted peanuts. Seriously. Their selection of Vegan protein bars is very small. I shouldn't be as underwhelmed by their selection overall as I am. They make a decent effort.

Trader Joe's Good for all natural honey roasted peanuts, and they seem to have a better grasp of fruit to go, but that's about it. A significant disappointment.

Whole Foods If you can put up with the CEO being a bit of a nut, and the prices being higher than average, you can find pretty much everything you need here. It would be nice if their real estate group would acknowledge that the western suburbs of Cleveland and Detroit existed and opened locations accordingly, but what can you do?

Giant Eagle Giant Eagle makes an effort to stock Organics, but when they remodeled my area store, they made a switch that was maddening. Older floor planned Giant Eagles had Organics in one easy to find section, near the produce. Unfortunately, someone got the bright idea to spread the organics throughout the store, making it nearly impossible to browse for and find Organic products in one place, without having to hop from section to section and hope a particular product is in stock.

For people who shop only for Organics or products that are Vegan friendly, this is a time wasting killer. Not only do I face the uncertainty of whether or not you carry products that meet my dietary needs, but I have to hopscotch through your entire store to find them. As a result, Giant Eagle loses the bulk of my shopping business. To their credit, they carry the largest selection of NuGo Vegan friendly protein bars.

Kroger Kroger, on the other hand, understands this and maintains an Organics section, inclusive of a cooler, right next to the produce section. They also do this with King Super, Fred Meyer and Tom Thumb stores (which are part of their corporate footprint). It isn't a robust selection, necessary, but for a large chain it's respectable and, with the exception of the Gatorade, which is kept in the same section as the non Organic Gatorade, everything they have is in one easy to find place. They even have an organic (but not Vegan) house brand.