Health food store shoppers are quite often philosophical, broad minded and big picture lookers. They think education comes from sincere motivation to learn, not hunger for a badge or a degree. Health food store patrons are often self motivated. Most people are order takers. Most people prefer to be told how their body works, and not test it out for themselves. Only people who care enough about health to experiment on themselves will shop at a health food store. And that experimentation is quite often proactive and preventative rather than reactive.
The mainstream American is getting more curious. More and more people think experiments are smart. They test fruit and vegetable drinks on their bodies. They use herbal and homeopathic remedies that regular doctors doubt will help as well as drugs help. The natural cures may be considered too weak to cause any valuable change in the human body.
Is pharmaceutical medicine considered experimental? Not according to faithful customers. Most people in my home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan, grew up expecting an MD to make all their health decisions for them. They choose to think about their careers, their kids birthday parties, their investments, their sports teams, their schools, their vacations and their art. Thinking about treatment for small or big ailments is too much trouble.
How would you know which natural remedy to try or who to trust? Such questions are huge enough to scare most consumers in the United States. It is better to be safe. It is much less work to not look for alternatives. MDs seem to satisfy the questions of most consumers.
Patrons of a health food store, however, take joy in the mysteries of health instead of fear them. Such people think the body is so sensitive that a mere herb can really be felt and can really facilitate healing.
We should admire people who have the courage to try healing from more than one perspective. It is usually a highly responsible, highly motivated individual who takes a lot of responsibility upon him or her self when they look for solutions regarding maintenance of their body. The word holistic is used to refer to natural medicine. It is meant to refer to viewing a whole person, not just an illness. It implies that they who are not holistic do not look at a whole people.
I love health food stores. I love recognizing the power of food to nourish and heal a human body. I hope more and more people will shop there. I hope more and more self styled healers, who offer commnts on foods and herbs that heal, will sprout up all over, so real human creativity can be more commonly applied to the art of healing.
How will we decide who to trust in health food stores? The same way we come to trust carpet cleaners, school teachers, and friends. Through a combination of good communication and reputation earned through association. That implies some work on the part of the consumer, who must evaluate his merchant or advisor or seek others who have evaluated him/her. And that work is often done, willingly, by patrons of health food stores who are truly interested in health.
We are lucky to live in a country where creative entrepreneurs can offer healing advice. This is a time in history when good alternative information is easy to find. Books are available about natural treatment of almost all common ailments. And because of the internet, you have access to a way to distribute your own health book. Such opportunities are part of a healthy society, a society where patrons of health food stores can and do take some credit for their own healing.
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