REAL MILK for sale in Utah

[Guest guest]

From a little market tucked away in the corner of a small shopping center in Orem, sprouts a growing idea of changing views on healthy eating and changing the selection of food sold in grocery stores.

Rhett M. , the founder of Real Foods Market, became interested in nutrition and health when he was 26, and despite living an active lifestyle, he started to gain weight, said in a newsletter.

researched many different diets but found the information confusing and contradictory. He then came across the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist in the 1920s and '30s.

Price's research found that people living in primitive cultures with no processed food - such as people in Africa and the Polynesian islands - had fewer cavities and straighter teeth. He also found these people to have healthier bodies and good resistances to disease.

Price also found that when these people started eating processed food they started to have more cavities and were more susceptible to disease.

also read other books supporting traditional nutrition and unprocessed foods such as A. Widtsoe's "The Word of Wisdom."

From this research decided to start eating unprocessed natural food but had a hard time finding it, so he decided to start his own business selling nutritional "real" food.

Real Foods Market sells organic produce, raw milk, cheese made from raw milk and meat with no antibiotics or preservatives that comes from grass-fed animals.

The Federal Drug Administration says raw milk can be harmful and promotes pasteurized milk.

Lynn Ogden, a BYU professor in the food science department, said although he is not opposed to raw milk, he thinks the risks of drinking raw milk are greater than the benefits.

"Many people are afraid of drinking raw milk because they have been taught that it is unsafe," said Ann King, an employee of Real Foods Market. "But pasteurization solves problems that didn't need to be created in the first place."

When cows are not confined but rather roam free in pastures and are grass fed, the milk does not have many of the pathogens that pasteurization would eliminate, King said. The Real Foods Market's raw milk has to meet the same standards as pasteurized milk.

"We've lost the idea of nutrition in our food," King said.

When food is processed, it loses a lot of the nutritional benefits, she said. Real Foods Market tries to get back to eating the food the way people are supposed to.

A lot of health food stores in the area still carry processed food, King said. They also heavily promote supplements, whereas Real Foods promotes good food as medicine, he said.

King said eating healthy is especially important for younger people, such as college students so that they may prevent health problems in the future.

"Although our food is a little bit more expensive than in regular grocery stores, it can save you money in the long run," she said. "Eating healthy can mean fewer trips to the doctor and less money spent on over-the-counter medicines."

Eating healthy is also beneficial to weight management, which is a big issue for college students, she said. Eating healthy is better than dieting because when you diet you are eliminating things from your diet that your body needs, like fats. Eating healthy doesn't eliminate anything; it just adds good things to your diet.

Real Foods Market offers seminars to educate people on eating healthy as well as a small library in the store devoted to health food education.

Education is important because not many people know about these philosophies, King said.

"You have to seek out this information," she said. "They don't teach this in university nutrition classes."

The store has held seminars on the philosophies of Dr. Price, about raw milk and how to make cheese and raw milk products such as yogurt and butter. There have also been seminars on traditional cooking concepts and how to soak grains before cooking to get rid of the coating that is hard to digest.

To find out when the seminars are held, go to www.realfoodsmarket.com and subscribe to the newsletter. The newsletter gives brief nutritional information and alerts readers about upcoming seminars. By Lyndi Lesueur

Real Foods Market:

420 W. 800 North

Orem

224-0585

www.realfoodsmarket.com

Hours: Tuesday-through Friday: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Saturday: noon-6 p.m.

Closed Sunday and Monday