Where good health is a journey...Naturally
When Adele opened her Evansville
store, Adele's Naturally, nearly
three decades ago, she hoped her health food would catch on. "The
demand is growing like crazy." Now her daughter-in-law is in charge of
the business, one that specializes in natural foods.
(From the Evansville Courier and Press May 16, 1976)...The
newest addition to the interesting building, which indeed seems like a
world all it's own, is the health food shop operated by Adele Cottrell.
The Sunflower Seed West is the name of the new shop which includes a
kitchen that also adds to the homeyness of the entire establishment.
In
the kitchen there is a grain grinder and Adele explains that she hopes
people wil! be able to bring in their grains to have them ground before
their very eyes. That, of course, would be after they had grown their
grains on healthy land untouched by pesticides or chemicals for at
least five years.
For the main principle behind the existence
of the store, as Adele explains, is to offer "freedom of choice" to
those who want organically grown and naturally processed foods. "We're
not pushing certain vitamins for certain ailments here," she says,
"we're just offering good, wholesome food for those who want it, and
for those who have to eat food without all the chemicals because of
allergies."
Recipes will also be shared out of the Sunflower
kitchen and hopefully a small library will soon provide visitors a
chance to stop and read about various healthful practices.
Natural
vitamins are available, however, and it's also the vitamins and
nutrients in the unprocessed grains and cereals such as rye, whole
wheat, barley, millet oats, rice, etc. that Adele and many of her
customers are concerned with.
"When they process wheat and
make white flour and finally white bread they take out somewhere
between 20 and 30 vitamins and nutrients and only put back in four,"
says the nutrition-minded lady who also says, "The futute of Americans
is in the food they eat."
There have been several
widely-published studies recently, she points out, that show a high
correlation between increase of colon cancer in this country and the
increased consumption of processed, bleached and enriched white flour.
The studies she adds also indicate that hyperactivity in children could
possibly be linked with preservatives and additives, and that red dye
number 2 raises suspicions about perservatives and additives used in
meat processing. Even babies aren't absolutely safe, according to Ms.
Cottrell: Denouncements by some proclaim that even baby food has far,
far too much salt and sugar for baby's good.
"I think when the
food processing practices in this country are exposed it will be a
bigger scandal than Watergate," proclaims Adele.
So, it's back
to basics for many Americans, some of whom are trying their own organic
gardening and others who are simply being more selective about the food
they buy.
Adele says that the young people are so receptive to
the idea of being careful about what they eat that she finds it
heartening and one of the most rewarding aspects of her job.
The
proprietress of the Sunflower admits that there "are rip-offs" in the
health food business but she says that's even more reason to basset the
high standards for the items she buys.
All food comes from
distributors in whom she has complete trust. One such organization can
tell Adele exactly what field the product was grown in and exactly what
was done to each plant, and by looking on the label she knows that no
preservatives or additives were added along the way.
A contact
has been made with a beef supplier who does not use diethylstilbesterol
(which causes fattening of the cattle) or tranquilizers at the time of
slaughter, and in the future Adele hopes to be able to sell such
chemical-free meat. The ultimate, of course, is that the cow also only
eats grains that have been grown organically and free of pesticides.
etc.
Homemade bread is another thing Adele hopes to be able to
add later on, and she's even considering offering classes in how to
make breads from whole wheats. Right now the bread comes from a bakery
in Tennessee.
The high prices of health foods is one thing Adele
says she dislikes about the industry, but she says the scarcity of good
quality health foods and the shipping costs from such far-away places
is what sends those prices up. "And we' re right here in the middle of
a grain belt," she complains, in talking about shipping in whole wheat
breads.
"Vegetarianism: Whole grains, herbs, wild foods, tisanes
and sprouts" is the name of a course that Adele will be teaching at the
University of Evansville next Fall. There will be samples and recipes
provided as well as an outline of vitamin and mineral therapy found
naturally in foods for good health.
Canned goods without
perservatives and additives, as well as cookies, seeds, teas and
natural vitamins are available now...none of which, however, upstage a
friendly and gracious hostess who loves to talk with her visitors.
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