Healthy Food Choices Just Got Tougher in Loveland
Loveland residents lost a really good thing this week when Crunchy Grocer closed their doors for the last time.
Fair warning: I’m going on a bit of a personal rant, here. But it is important that people recognize what they have–and what they are missing! And as a nutritionist I feel it is doubly important that people know about where they can make healthy choices about the foods they eat and the products they bring into their home.
Since 2013 Crunchy Grocer provided a safe place for the health conscious to shop. Every product on their shelves was non-GMO. They offered a wide variety of gluten free goods. And, you could actually buy grass-fed beef, free-range, organically fed chicken, and wild caught fish. All of their produce, all of it, was organic.
Shopping at Crunchy Grocer was a ‘no brainer.’ It was a healthy person’s shopping paradise. You didn’t have to read labels for ingredients known to wreck your health. You could simply shop instead of putting on your investigative journalist hat.
Now, it’s gone.
No more easy-peasy healthy food choices. Better be prepared to read labels.
Rut roh.
Maybe more of Loveland will now realize what they missed now that it is gone.
No more delicious soup and salad bar with loaded with fresh produce. No more fresh juice or smoothies for lunch. There’s not another place in all of Loveland that sells fresh vegetable juice. No more community room to meet up with other health conscious people.
If you think you can shop the other “health oriented store” in town with the same kind of confidence you could shop Country Grocer, think again.
Is it possible to make healthy eating choices there? Yes, but….
Oh, sure, they make themselves look like a glorified farm stand, but very little of their produce is organic. The meat they sell is corn fed and therefore, inflammatory. You must read every label of every item you want to put in your basket, AND you must ask specific, detailed questions at the meat counter to truly know what you’re buying.
You had better be on your toes when shopping for your groceries or guaranteed you’ll get home and regret what you absent-mindedly dropped in your cart.
It’s a sad day for Loveland. We had a gem of a health food store and we didn’t know how good we had it.
At least they didn’t put up a parking lot.*
You can read more about the closing of the Crunchy Grocer in this article from the Loveland Reporter-Herald
Photos Jonas Buehl owner of the Crunchy Grocer with Rep Jared Polis in 2016, Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald file photo
*You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone lyric and other references from Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi (click the link to watch her sing!)
