Martin's Food Market, at their new location in Eldersburg, Md, is adding an unusual new type of employee to its staff: a nutritionist. The nutritionist will be available to shoppers, to help guide them through the aisles and make good food choices. She will also be able to answer general questions about health and wellness and customers can make one-on-one appointments with her for more in depth nutritional planning. It's not quite clear whether there will be a fee for the services of the nutritionist, although it seems more likely that there would be one for the in-depth appointments than the one-off questions of shoppers.
The nutritionist could point out that baked chips are a healthier alternative to regular ones, and help consumers read the labels so they know what they're getting. While many consumers already know what they should be eating, or what the healthier choices are, the nutritionist can provide the nudge that is needed to take that option.
The only reason for store to keep a nutritionist is to please the customers, since the nutritionist would inevitable steer people away from more processed, less healthful foods, which could hurt sales of those items. But if shoppers are coming in to meet with her or because they have gotten recommendations in the past, a loss of junk food sales wouldn't hurt the store. So the real question here is, would you take advantage of such a service if it was available at your local grocery store?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-05-2006 @ 6:57PM
Adriane said...
wow! If I had a nutritionist so readily available, I would definitely use the service. Two things that worry me, however- like doctors, I'm sure not all nutritionists are created equal (the one a market hires could be crumby..) and also, depending on the approach, to have a nutritionist hawking over you interjecting their 2 cents might get old after a while.
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9-05-2006 @ 7:45PM
Dr. Electro said...
I went shopping with the nutritionist from the VA. It was a hoot. The reactions to what I used to eat were priceless. The advice was even more valuable than that.
If you ever get the chance to shop with a nutritionist don't pass it up. Later, you can remember to reward yourself occasionally for being good. :)
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9-05-2006 @ 10:52PM
calamari said...
If I had some specific health condition going on, shopping with a nutritionist would be very cool. A while back, I was looking up diabetes info for someone else, and what's out there requires a lot of interpretation before you're ready to hit the ground and actually buy something to cook for dinner. How do people not lose their minds when they suddenly have to change eating habits?
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9-06-2006 @ 3:32AM
dedioste said...
Being a nutritionist working for a food company in Italy, i'm both thrilled and scared about this.
Thrilled because this kind of presence in the POS, together with the recent trends on wellness and health, could really boost the healty choices and in the end could be a very effectuve way to inform and educate people.
Scared because if mishandled, he could be just another salesman, steering people to the healtier choice not for them but for the retailer.
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9-07-2006 @ 6:42AM
Rob O'Daniel said...
We caught an episode of Queer Eye the other night where a nutritionist met the "straight guy" & Ted at a grocery store to help them learn how to shop for more healthful food. Nothing particularly new about that. And they started shopping in the produce section. Nothing new about that either. But then she dropped a line that was simplicity at it finest...
Always shop the perimeter of the grocery store first.
Nothing earthshattering there, but still, the more I thought about it, the more impressed I was with that simple notion. The perimeter of the grocery store is where you find fresh veggies & fruit, bins of raw nuts, the bakery, seafood counter, meat market, dairy cabinets, etc. In other words, it's where you find the freshest, least-processed foods.
Genius.
An added bonus: along the perimeter of the market is also where you usually will find a cheap, freshly-cut bundle of flowers to take home to your sweetie...
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