"Whole Foods is returning to its health-food roots..."

Thank (random celestial being) for Mr.Mackey! The CEO and co-founder is going to reunite Whole Foods with its healthy "whole food" ideals in 2010.

You can read the full article here.

I loved Whole Foods about a year ago. I would say that half of my shopping happened there, a very SMALL half, but I always made a point to go there.

It happens to be a place where you can find niche vegan foods that no one else has the customer base to keep in stock. As a new veggie, I could find just about any vegan meat substitute on the market in Whole Foods. Now that I eat less processed foods, and rarely eat soy processed fake vegan meats at all, I've found myself going there less and less.

Good food costs good money. Hands down, that is something I have come to learn and accept. However, the emphasis of WF in the past few years has definitely been on the never ending rows of high-priced indulgent and gourmet products. I definitely agree with Mackey's stance and believe that the "health food" and "gourmet" sides of WF have always been at conflict.

While I have discovered amazing things there, like dark chocolate balsamic vinegar spread and smooze popsicles, they don't stock my shelves regularly because they're not whole foods. As the Vegan Freaks would say, those are "sometimes" foods, treats to be enjoyed once in a while, but shouldn't make up a consistent part of my diet.

I'm excited to see how 2010 will pan out for Whole Foods Market. Perhaps I'll have to take another look and here's hoping that instead of being buried in garlic-parm-sourdough-croutons-with-carmelized-medditeranean-fig-spread, I can grab some local organic produce and enjoy a fresh juice at the juice bar.