HEALTH & FITNESS : ATTAINING THE BODY BEAUTIFUL : Market Grows for Foods <i> Au Naturel</i> : More Grocers Cater to People Seeking Pesticide-Free Produce, Cruelty-Free Meat

“We call ourselves social carnivores,” says Donna Knoy of Mission Viejo as she stands among the displays of organic produce at The Natural Grocer in Laguna Niguel.

“My husband still likes red meat occasionally, but most of the time we eat primarily vegetables, grains, nuts, fruits,” she says of her family of four, which includes a 4-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son.

“I would much rather have vegetables than meat. It takes 13 pounds of grain to make one pound of meat and I’m ethically against that,” she says.

She admits that some of the organic produce costs more than commercial produce, but she thinks it’s worth it because it’s grown without pesticides.

Knoy isn’t alone.

A lot of other people in Orange County are worried about what most Americans are eating. They are worried about the thousands of pesticides and chemicals that are used on vegetables, fruits and grains. They are worried about how far removed from its natural state much of our diet has become.

They are worried about our planet and how we can continue to feed its burgeoning population. And they are worried about what some perceive as cruelty to animals in our food chain.

These concerns have created a growing demand for food that is as close as possible to its natural state. And this demand has given birth to a new kind of grocery store in Orange County.

The Natural Grocer as well as Mother’s Market and Kitchen in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach are among a number of grocery stores in Southern California that specialize in organic and non-processed foods, with a heavy emphasis on vegetarian diets. In Los Angeles County, for example, Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Foods has seven stores.

Many health food stores carry some organic foods, and even a few supermarkets, including Pavilions and Mayfair markets, carry a small amount of organic produce. But The Natural Grocer, Mother’s Market and Mrs. Gooch’s represent a whole new idea--a full-service grocery store devoted to a lifestyle that centers on healthy eating.

Mother’s was started 13 years ago so that shoppers would have “access to high-quality whole foods without having to go to the old-style mom and pop health food stores, which were primarily vitamin shops,” says Steven Markell, vice president of operations for the market.

The Huntington Beach store opened five years ago. Each location includes a restaurant, a health food delicatessen, a large selection of health-related books and a cosmetic counter.

“When we started, the store was one-quarter the size that it currently is,” Markell says of the 11,000-square-foot Costa Mesa store. “The fact of our success demonstrates an increased concern and awareness on the part of our Orange County community of the importance of whole, clean foods.”

By whole, clean foods, Markell means organic fruits and vegetables grown without chemicals and pesticides, and minimally processed and packaged foods that lack additives such as preservatives and artificial flavors and colors, that are low in fat and salt, that have little or no sugar, and are minimally processed.

The Natural Grocer opened in August to serve the needs of South County health food enthusiasts, according to store manager Vickie Stern.

“We’re more like a natural foods grocery store” than a health food store, Stern says. “We’re a full-service grocery store. We not only have all our natural foods you would find in a health food store, but we’ve got a very large produce department, which most health food stores don’t have. We have a beautiful cosmetic counter. . . . We have a jewelry and crystal gallery and we have a full-service deli and bakery with a lot of gourmet vegetarian items.”

The Natural Grocer carries no meat because it is a completely vegetarian store, according to Stern. Mother’s Market, however, carries “free-range” chickens and turkeys--poultry allowed to roam free rather than being raised in cages.

Markell says these items are offered because “there is a demand for it and we try to be as conscientious as we can.” He points out, however, that this particular poultry is selected because it is grown without hormones and other growth stimulants.

“We’re a cruelty-free store,” Stern says. “It just means there’s no harm inflicted on any animals . . . to create any of the products in our store.”

In view of the cases of veggie burgers and tofu pups (made from a soybean-based product), the large bins of bulk foods and baby food made from organic vegetables may seem a bit odd to the unschooled, but shoppers at these markets find the bins invaluable.

“I would like to feed my family as few artificial chemicals as I can,” Susan Rousset of Newport Beach said while shopping at Mother’s. “I just prefer that and also, I like to support the farmers that do want to maintain the earth as best they can.”

Rousset is experimenting with a macrobiotic diet--whole grains, beans, vegetables and moderate amounts of seafood and fruit. But she still cooks meat occasionally for her six children, ranging in age from 4 to 16. She says, however, that they are mostly vegetarians too.

This varied approach to vegetarianism is not unusual. There are several schools of thought, according to Markell. There are lacto-ovo vegetarians, who eat dairy products, eggs, grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables. Then there are those who will eat all of those items except eggs or all of those items except dairy products.

Then there are vegans, who eat only plant source foods.

And there are people who are not fully vegetarians yet, but want to eat in a more healthy manner, according to Markell.

But is vegetarianism really a healthy way to eat?

“There’s nothing wrong with vegetarianism,” says Grant Gwinup, M.D., a professor of endocrinology and metabolism at UCI Medical Center. “The only studies available suggest that vegetarians live longer than non-vegetarians . . . but it’s hard to know how other factors contribute to that increased longevity.”

The main thing vegetarians need to worry about, he says, is the lack of vitamin B-12 and iron. Vegetables don’t contain B-12, he says, and women run the risk of getting too little iron when not eating meat. But this does not mean vegetarians should automatically take vitamins and iron supplements, he says. As for the iron, he says that can be solved by using an iron Dutch oven when cooking vegetable casseroles.

Gwinup says it’s a good idea for vegetarians to have their blood checked once a year to watch for any anemias that might result from these deficiencies.

He says that while vegetarians frequently claim perfect health, “there’s no magic in it. There’s no evidence that it has medicinal properties or protective properties.” Yet, vegetarians interviewed while they were shopping at Mother’s and The Natural Grocer say they absolutely have never felt better.

Chef Julie Faust, who supervises the delicatessen at The Natural Grocer, says she talks to a lot of newcomers to vegetarianism as well as people who are gradually changing the way they eat. She says the clientele in the Laguna Niguel store is different from that of most health food stores she has worked in.

“It’s very yuppie. The people here are just learning how to do things without meat,” she says. That’s why she calls the fare in her delicatessen “a yup-scale version of health food. . . . They go for the lasagna, the pizza, the spinach pies,” because it’s at least familiar, she says.

Her goal is to provide the same taste and flavor found in gourmet restaurants, but without the fat and meat. This means low-fat pizza and dishes like Santa Fe Lasagna, which has noodles, black beans, chopped chilies and peppers, corn, spicy salsa and either jalapeno cheese or creamy cilantro tofu.

While the delicatessens in the stores do a thriving business, the produce areas are also popular. Yet, the produce signs may also seem a bit odd to the newcomer. Each item is clearly labeled either organic, transitional or commercial.

To be classified as organic, fruits and vegetables are grown in accordance with the California Health and Safety Code, Section 26569.11, according to Jaime Arteaga assistant information officer of the California Department of Health Services.

This means perennial crops and their soil must be free of synthetically compounded fertilizers, growth regulators and pesticides for a year before the appearance of buds on the crop and throughout the entire growing season. Annual and two-year crops and their soil must be free of the same substances for 12 months before seed planting and throughout the growing and harvest season.

Transitional produce is currently being grown without pesticides, but in soil that has not been free of chemicals long enough to qualify as organic. Commercial produce is what you find in most grocery stores. Mother’s and The Natural Grocer carry some commercial produce to offer a wider variety of items, because sometimes the selection of organic produce is too limited.

Gwinup says, however, that there are really no such things as organic or natural foods. “What it should be is pesticide-free or pesticide-low. . . . And even that’s very dicey because if you go some place that sells so-called pesticide-free food and you analyze it for pesticides, it’s going to have some. There’s nothing in the world that doesn’t have a speck of pesticide.”

He says that even pesticide-free fields sometimes suffer from over-spray from a neighboring farm using pesticides, because the chemicals can be carried in the wind.

“With today’s level of technical ability to analyze ingredients of foods, we can get parts per billion, parts per trillion,” Markell agrees.

But, he says, that’s missing the point. He says that “toxic load” is the real concern. “The whole thing is not about being chemical-free in our lives, but reducing our exposure every little bit we can.”

Markell says one argument goes that pesticides have never been proven to be harmful, but that it’s also true that they’ve never been proven to be safe. “So what’s true is it’s a crap shoot and we really don’t know what the long-term cumulative effects are.”

But, he says, we do know that cancer, birth defects and other health problems may be increasing in the population as a whole. “And the question is why?” he says. “The answer is complicated, but includes many factors of which this issue is one.”