The Healthy Shopper picks for Spring 2014

What is the Healthy Shopper?

The Healthy Shopper was founded by Andrea Donsky, a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, and Randy Boyer, a life-long advocate of healthy living and eating.  The Healthy Shopper is a free coupon book for natural and organic products which is distributed in over 450 health food stores in Canada.   The idea being to encourage more Canadians to pursue a more natural lifestyle while saving money.   TheHealthyShopper.ca is an extension of the coupon book which offers online coupons and is a wonderful resource for all things natural and organic such as healthy living tips and recipes.  You can also order a free copy the coupon book on-line if there is no store carrying it near you – just pay $4.50 to cover shipping and handling.  Most of the products in the coupon book can easily be found in your local grocery store or pharmacy.  

Healthy Shopper Top Picks for Spring 2014

I had the chance to check out the Healthy Shopper’s top picks for Spring 2014 and found some great, healthier alternatives to foods in our everyday diet.

Olympic Dairy‘s organic milk, cream cheese, sour cream and yogurt are creamy and rich alternatives that are 100% natural. They are ideal for smoothies, salad dressings to top a fresh fruit salad or to add to dips and they’re made without preservatives, gluten or gelatins.

The Organic Coconut Olympic Dairy yogourt is the absolute best.  I love the bits of real coconut in it and its so rich and creamy tasting.  It’s not often I get a serving to myself though, Keira usually wants me to “share” with her!

Maison Orphée’s tasty unrefined organic virgin sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil and virgin coconut oil. Cold pressed, organic and unrefined oils retain their nutritional properties and have a more intense aroma than their traditional counterparts. Maison Orphée’s products have not been genetically modified or treated with chemical fertilizers. 

I use both coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil all the time and not always for cooking.  Coconut Oil especially has many uses around the house and as a beauty product; it is truly an amazing ingredient.  The Maison Orphée products I got to try were really great quality compared to what I am used to.  I’ve never used Sunflower oil so I can’t really compare it to anything but it is apparently great for baking and vinaigrettes.  The Coconut oil has a light nutty coconut flavour if you taste it as is but once cooked the flavour is not detectable which is important when you are looking for coconut oil for cooking with.

Next up are the organic barbeque sauces from Simply Natural, a favourite of The Healthy Shopper.  These sauces are tasty, organic alternatives to traditional barbeque sauces and come in organic tangy, smoky and honey flavours.  They’re fat free with zero trans fats or high fructose corn syrup and don’t contain any of the “Scary 7” ingredients the Healthy Shopper recommends avoiding.

 Grilling chicken with these sauces reminded me of the summer.  Remember that season?  The Barbeque sauces come in three flavours: Smoky, Tangy and with Honey.  We all really enjoyed the Smoky flavour the most, although all three were pretty delicious.

 Last is Earth Balance with its natural buttery spreads and nut butters that don’t have to be stirred. A great fit for organic and vegan consumers or those looking for health conscious alternatives to conventional products.   Earth Balance Buttery Spreads are gluten free, have 0g of trans fat and never contain GMOs, emulsifiers, artificial preservatives, flavours or colours.

 The Buttery spreads flavours we received included both creamy and crunch in flax-seed and coconut versions.  I loved all four that I tried but the coconut flavours had be literally sneaking spoonfuls from the jar.  I love coconut and this has just the right hint of coconut to it.  Like many I am pretty loyal to my favourite brand of peanut butter and have always found other brands to taste “weird’ but this was just so good!  Better even than my favourite brand because of the coconut.  I also love that it is so creamy.  I often make peanut butter toast just to get the peanut butter to melt a bit for that extra yummy flavour it gets but I get that without have to melt it with Earth Balance.  Yum!

To find more about the Healthy Shopper and for the complete line of coupons available for natural and organic products visit their website or connect with them on Facebook.

Elizabeth Lampman

Elizabeth Lampman is a coffee-fuelled Mom of 2 girls and lives in Hamilton, Ontario. She enjoys travelling, developing easy recipes, crafting, taking on diy projects, travelling and saving money!