What's in What You Eat?It is said you are what you eat, from your head to your feet. So why not know… What's in what you eat?

Another great place to stay Paleo is Whole Foods.

Whole Foods Market (RSQ)

If you don’t know what you are doing and just dig into the salad bar..you may be shocked on how high the price is causing you to miss out on the excellent products Whole Foods offers. So while the salad bar definitely has the potential to be Paleo there are other options that you can check out.

Option 1:

Over in the carving station next to the made to order burritos,  they have a few meal deals.

Of the Paleo options, you can get a half all natural chicken with two sides for $6.99, marinated pork shoulder with two sides for $9.99 and depending on the day there are other choices that might show up for meats. Here are a few of the combinations I have made:

Entree: 1/2 chicken
Side 1: Mixed vegetables (onions, peppers, squash, zucchini, more?) with seasoning.
Side 2: Sherry mushrooms

So how was it?

Taste: 8 (Add some guacamole or other dressing / sauce and it goes to 10)
Nutrition: 10
Filling: 10 (I could barely finish it)
Price: $
Overal Value: 10

Ingredients confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar.

Option 2:

The Corner Cafe serves made to order grilled items with huge Paleo potential

Large beef patty served with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and avacado. I went for the side of sweet potato fries

Taste: 9
Nutrition: 7 (Meat used was not 100% grass-fed and the fries are Alexia brand which is coated with some non Paleo but all natural ingredients)
Filling: 8
Price: $
Overall Value: 8

Ingredients confirmed to be 100% free of soy, artificial ingredients, and added sugar.

The fries contain: Sweet Potatoes, Oleic Canola Oil And/Or Sunflower Oil And/Or Safflower Oil, Modified Food Starch (From Potatoes), Rice Flour, Corn Dextrin, Salt, Leaving (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Extractive of Paprika, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (Added To Preserve Natural Color).

Option 3:

Build your own. Meat from meat department, not Prepared Foods

100% grass-fed lamb, steamed broccoli, guacamole, caramelized onions

100% grass-fed ground beef, steamed broccoli, guacamole, caramelized onions

The absolute best deal and highest quality option is to bring over grass-fed meat from the meat department. From there for $2.99 you can get 2 sides (steamed broccoli, grilled vegetables, sherry mushrooms). Guacamole is $0.50 extra and caramelized onions are $0.50. Get creative! You can piece together an awesome meal with effort.

Thank you Whole Foods for helping Seattle out!

Many local citizens of Seattle have likely seen, shopped, or at least heard of the Rising Sun Farms produce market located on 65th and 15th Ave. N.E.

From the design of the place, it very much resembles that of a farmers market which also implies that it has the same quality as such. Another thing you may notice is the ridiculously cheap prices. How is this possible? I asked an employee.

It turns out Rising Sun Farms has absolutely zero quality standards and their only focus is providing produce as cheap as possible. The employee said they stock hardly any organic items and would bet that most of the products are sprayed with pesticides and likely are genetically modified.

If your concern is cheap fruits and vegetables, this may be a place for you. If you are looking for local, sustainable, organic, pure produce, I would suggest looking elsewhere (the place is located 2 blocks away from Whole Foods and 5 minutes from the Saturday University Farmer’s Market).

I spoke with an employee at Whole Foods in Roosevelt Square today and he said he knew for a fact the beef served in their salad bar, deli, etc was not grass fed.

He did not know what it was fed, only that it was not grass (likely corn or grain).

I was quite surprised at this and because of it, I would suggest to seriously moderate your intake.

Edit: To clarify, it is just the prepared foods section I am talking about. Whole Foods still sells 100% organic grass-fed meat in their raw section and is some of the finest beef available. Additionally, the beef in the prepared foods area, while not 100% grass-fed is still fed grass up to 2/3rds of the animal’s life and then finished on grains. It is still completely hormone and antibiotic free and is in no way “cheap” beef. Also, the poultry and other items in the Whole Foods prepared foods section is extremely high quality and does not have any negative attributes.

Whole Foods still holds my vote for the highest quality grocery store in the country.