A macrobiotic diet is an unconventional restrictive diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce animal products, eat locally grown foods that are in season, and consume meals in moderation.
A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources, or that are synthetic. The classes of nutrient compounds in supplements include vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, and amino acids. Dietary supplements can also contain substances that have not been confirmed as being essential to life, and so are not nutrients per se, but are marketed as having a beneficial biological effect, such as plant pigments or polyphenols. Animals can also be a source of supplement ingredients, such as collagen from chickens or fish for example. These are also sold individually and in combination, and may be combined with nutrient ingredients. The European Commission has also established harmonized rules to help insure that food supplements are safe and appropriately labeled.
Seitan is a food made from gluten, the main protein of wheat. It is also known as miànjīn, fu, milgogi, wheat meat, gluten meat, or simply gluten.
Herbal medicine is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies, such as the anti-malarial group of drugs called artemisinin isolated from Artemisia annua, a herb that was known in Chinese medicine to treat fever. There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of many plants used in 21st-century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or dosage. The scope of herbal medicine sometimes includes fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.
Kashi is a maker of whole grain cereals and other plant-based foods sourced from regular farming practices. Founded in La Jolla in 1984, the company became a subsidiary of Kellogg's in 2000, and produces about 100 products sold in the U.S. and Canada. Its original cereal, discontinued in 2021, was identified by the tagline "Seven Whole Grains on a Mission". The name "Kashi" is a blended term derived from "kashruth", meaning kosher or pure food, and "Kushi", the last name of the founder of American macrobiotics, Michio Kushi.
Hijiki, sometimes called hiziki, is a brown sea vegetable that grows wild on the rocky coastlines of East Asia.
Nutraceutical is a marketing term used to imply a pharmaceutical effect from a compound or food product that has not been scientifically confirmed or approved to have clinical benefits. In the United States, nutraceuticals are considered and regulated as a subset of foods by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
GNC Holdings, LLC is an American multinational retail and nutritional manufacturing company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It specializes in health and nutrition related products, including vitamins, supplements, minerals, herbs, sports nutrition, diet, and energy products. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, a Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Kokkoh is an infant formula broth made from whole grains, seeds and legumes lightly toasted and ground to a powder. It was first brought to Western culture by Sakura Nyoichi, better known as George Ohsawa, as part of the Macrobiotic Diet, based a recipe widely used in traditional Japan. Brown rice is its primary and can be its only solid ingredient. Many kokkoh recipes include other whole grains, seeds and seasonings, most commonly sweet rice, azuki beans, sesame seeds, oats, barley, soybeans and kombu.
Uncle Sam is an American brand of ready-to eat breakfast cereal that was first introduced in 1908 by U.S. Mills of Omaha, Nebraska. The company relocated to Needham, Massachusetts sometime after the 1970s. Attune Foods of San Francisco acquired Uncle Sam Cereal in 2009. In 2013 Post Foods acquired Attune Foods.
The Natural Products Association or NPA is the largest and oldest nonprofit organization representing the interests of manufacturers and retailers of the natural products industry, which includes organic and health foods, dietary supplements, natural ingredient cosmetics, and other similar products. The organization includes more than 1,900 members accounting for more than 10,000 retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of natural products.
Diet food refers to any food or beverage whose recipe is altered to reduce fat, carbohydrates, and/or sugar in order to make it part of a weight loss program or diet. Such foods are usually intended to assist in weight loss or a change in body type, although bodybuilding supplements are designed to increase weight.
The health freedom movement is a libertarian coalition that opposes regulation of health practices and advocates for increased access to "non-traditional" health care.
The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is an advocacy group founded in 2002 by Robert Verkerk and based in the United Kingdom. ANH was founded to raise funds to finance a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplement Directive. ANH lobbies against regulation of dietary supplements, in favour of pseudo-scientific alternative medicine, and advocates dietary and other lifestyle approaches to health. It also criticises established science showing that Megavitamin therapy lack any health benefit.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. is a Colorado-based health food chain.
Erewhon Organic was an organic cereal brand, and a refund subsidiary of Post Foods. It was known for their allergy-friendly line of organic cereals sold by health food stores across North America, and for being one of the first companies to market macrobiotic, organic whole foods in the United States. In 2019, the Erewhon Organic brand was discontinued by its parent company Post Foods, and replaced by Three Sisters Foods, which sells a similar product line of organic cereals.
Because of the uncertain nature of various alternative therapies and the wide variety of claims different practitioners make, alternative medicine has been a source of vigorous debate, even over the definition of "alternative medicine". Dietary supplements, their ingredients, safety, and claims, are a continual source of controversy. In some cases, political issues, mainstream medicine and alternative medicine all collide, such as in cases where synthetic drugs are legal but the herbal sources of the same active chemical are banned.
The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 ("DSHEA"), is a 1994 statute of United States Federal legislation which defines and regulates dietary supplements. Under the act, supplements are regulated by the FDA for Good Manufacturing Practices under 21 CFR Part 111. The act was intended to exempt the dietary and herbal supplement industry from most FDA drug regulations, allowing them to be sold and marketed without scientific backing for their health and medical claims.
New Chapter, Inc. is the American manufacturer of the New Chapter brand of vitamins and other organic dietary supplements. Based in Brattleboro, Vermont, the company is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) subsidiary of Procter & Gamble. The company's products include herbal supplements, probiotics, superfood greens and mushrooms.
Thomas Martindale (1845–1916) was an English-born American merchant, grocer, tea importer, and author. He founded Martindale and JohnsonThomas Martindale Company, and Martindale's Natural Markets, his stores are thought to be the first natural foods store in the United States. He might be one of the best known grocers in the United States, and in his local city of Philadelphia. Martindale was an advocate of health foods and physical activity, who also supported infrastructure investments and innovations.
