Discussion Board

I just wanted to share something for those of you who have a Whole Foods nearby. The one near me has an amazing salad bar, as well as a prepared foods bar, with lots of MWL-friendly options. It's too pricey for me to enjoy everyday, but on days like today, it is super-helpful in a pinch!

I had a great salad with no-oil dressing and 2 small potatoes (from the produce department, cooked in the microwave), topped with oil free Texas Caviar and pico de gallo. Super easy & super tasty!

You're lucky. I travel a lot and eating meals at Whole Foods is part of my strategy to eat properly. I've seen very little that is MWL at most of them. I usually go into the produce section and other parts of the store to cobble together my meals.

It is a fairly new, very nice, HUGE WF. They hosted an E2 challenge earlier in the year, so it seems there is always something E2-friendly (which is almost always MWL-friendly) available. I am very grateful it's so close!

Yeah--nothing even REMOTELY McD friendly at our WF hot bar, other than the salad bar (and that's absurdly expensive).

We have 2 Whole Food Markets plus a large health food grocery store in the metroplex where I live. Salad bar is OK,but the hot bar (even the rice) is a no no.

I like Home Town Buffet, which has a great salad bar and closer than the Whole Foods which is 25 miles across town.

Wow, I am really surprised that other WF locations aren't doing this, as well. There are several in my area that seem to be offering these types of foods on a daily basis, so I figured it was nation-wide. Hopefully they expand the concept soon!

As I mentioned before, I travel a lot and when they first announced their addition of the ANDI numbers, and new marketing of healthier foods, and a relationship with Jeff Novick, etc. I was hopeful. I've seen a wide variation. Each store has it's own chefs preparing the food and they clearly make what they know will sell in their location. Even the non-healthy bakery/dessert recipes change from one area to another. WF clearly gives each location some autonomy in these decisions.

Where are you located?

We too travel, what with living in an RV and exploring North America in our retirement. We shop Whole Foods Markets regularly, and I always try to look at the offerings. I agree with Vegankit, there is tremendous variation across the chain. Some locations have absolutely nothing in the way of Health Starts Here selections, some have a reasonable variety. The better stores seem to be in the larger west coast metropolitan areas.

Our WF's does have potatoes and salads, pico de gallo and FF salad dressing,but so do most other salads bars in other grocery stores and restaurants. I live on one side of my metroplex and both WF stores are 25 miles away on the other side of the city. The grocery stores here are so good I find no need to shop at WF, so I rarely go there unless I am on that side of town for other reasons. Besides if I just want a baked potato and salad I can just go to the Wendy's down the street. I can get a baked potato and strawberry salad (I ask them to hold the chicken) or garden salad for about $3.50. But as I said, for a big meal I go to Hometown Buffet and for less than $10.00 I can get the salad bar which has all types of salad stuff plus garbanzo beans, peas, kidney beans, etc., the Mexican bar with corn and flour tortillas, pinto beans, black beans, pico de gallo, salsa and baked potato or sweet potato. They also have lots of vegetables, but I only get them if I can confirm they have no added oil. The manager is always there, so I can always ask him. Best of all--it's all you can eat. I can fill up on low fat McDougall foods as much as I want. Hometown Buffet is a nationwide chain.

I've never heard of Hometown Buffet. There are other salad bars in this area, too (Souper Salad, Sweet Tomatoes, Jason's Deli) that I also frequent, but I was excited by the non-salad MWL-friendly foods at the Whole Foods around here. Since the WF that I am speaking of is the same driving distance as other options from my office, it will work for me!

Plus, I am all for organic foods whenever possible and WF clearly labels organic vs. conventional on all of their salad bar foods. Other salad bars that I have been to do not.

TETO!

We also travel the U.S. in our RV and shop and eat at Whole Foods as often as possible and find every store different. The one closest to our home in northern Nevada has very little we can eat and stay "legal". But, last month when we visited my brother in Las Vegas we had dinner in his neighborhood Whole Foods and not only did they offer the most vegan prepared food we had ever seen in any restaurant or deli but they had an entire station labeled "McDougall" with 8 hot trays of McDougall selections. What fun! How can we get this implemented in other delis or grocery stores?

Sharon - tell your local WF that you want what the Las Vegas WF had to offer!

It bothers me a lot that you can't find the calorie counts or ingredients for the foods at Whole Foods! I wish these were available anywhere...are they?

I'm not sure how liberal WF is with their salt content, either, actually. It would be nice to find a location at which I could actually eat without worrying about the content of foods.