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The Haelan Centre Policy Statements
The Haelan Centre is business, which is based
on a range of principles concerning healthy living
and supporting sustainable, ecological and ethical
businesses. But we are not your "everyday
health food shop" in many ways and to
understand the reasons why, read the policy statements
below.
The ideas that developed into wholefood eating
arose in the early seventies, as a result of concerns
expressed by doctors, scientists and other health
care professionals about the increase in chronic
disease in the twentieth century. The probable
link was felt to be the deteriorating quality
of people's eating habits. Food was becoming more
highly refined and processed as a result of the
application of food technology in the pursuit
of profit. The consequence of this unfettered
pursuit of profit in the area of food provision
has resulted in enormous add on costs in health
care.
It is now common knowledge that the consumption
of highly refined foods in excess will lead to
health problems. Such problems may be short
or long term. Refined foods have much of the natural
nutrients stripped away in the process of making
them whiter and supposedly more palatable. This
is why some foods are required by law to be fortified
with artificial chemical vitamins to replace the
natural ones that have been taken away. Such vitamins
are a poor substitute for the real thing. The
only food we sell which is fortified in this manner
is margarine.
The foods that are sold at the Haelan Centre are
chosen with certain basic criteria in mind. Basic
food should be as close to the natural form as
possible. For example: if grains are processed,
they should be in such a way as to maintain as
much as possible the original nutritional value
of the food. All processing techniques should
be of a type that has a low impact on the environment.
For example we promote the idea of "stone ground"
and avoid products that have been milled using
modern high-speed roller milling techniques. Therefore
all the flour that is sold here is 100% whole
grain and stone ground.
These same ideas are applied to all products that
we sell. We sell stone-ground, organic white flour
bread as an exception to this rule. It is made
using sourdough, which we believe has compensating
health benefits. Compound foods (those containing
two or more ingredients) must not contain any
artificial additives and those additives that
are used, should also be as close to their original
form as possible. Sea salt is accepted but ordinary
refined salt is not allowed. Extracts of foods
such as malt, molasses and soya milk are acceptable;
glucose syrup is not.
A general policy from the beginning of the Haelan
Centre is to avoid selling sugar or any products
containing sugar, white or brown. In recent years,
a product obtained from evaporated sugar cane
juice known as Sucanat or Rapadura has become
available. This product is made by crushing organic
sugar cane to extract the juice; this is then
dried to remove the water. It is sold by itself
and is used in a number or products. Generally
we continue our avoidance of sugar containing
products, yet there has been a limited acceptance
of some products on an item-by-item basis.
Organic farming addresses many of the issues that
concern the Haelan Centre. We actively encourage
the production and processing of food using independently
verified organic guidelines. As a result of this
policy, most of the food sold here is organically
grown and processed (all of the fresh produce
is organic). Organic farming holds a healthy
respect for the environment and all life that
lives in it. Synthetic fertilisers, pesticides
and herbicides are avoided. The industrialisation
of food production has had devastating adverse
effects on the environment. Large scale farming,
with its overuse of artificial fertilisers and
chemical insecticides and herbicides, leaves little
room for the species that used to thrive in the
hedgerows and fallow fields of the smaller scale
farms of the past, in the long term it depletes
the soil of minerals, so that less and less are
available for the food plant to take up each year.
This results in food with lower nutritional value,
one of the reasons why it has become necessary
to supplement our food with extra mineral and
vitamins. The threat to the environment has recently
become even more acute, now that genetically modified
organisms are being released into the environment.
To read more about the aims of Organic Agriculture
and Processing visit the Soil
Association_Website.
The end of the twentieth century has seen an unprecedented
increase in the production, sale and demand for
organic goods. Yet this growth, although encouraging,
has its pitfalls. Organic food is not necessary
wholefood - and therefore not all organically
grown or processed products are acceptable by
us. Even white sugar is available organically
grown and is increasingly being used by companies
anxious to jump onto the "organic" bandwagon.
Refined and highly processed food, even if
it is organic, is not included in our range.
Our aim is to try to ensure that everything we
stock is beneficial to your health in some way.
Bio-dynamic farming is a method of farming based
on the principles of anthroposophy - the philosophy
of Rudolph Steiner. "Anthroposophy integrates
precise observation of natural phenomena, clear
thinking and knowledge of the spirit." Whilst
organic farming holds a healthy respect for the
environment, biodynamic farming may be said to
have a deep reverence for Mother Earth. Whilst
organic farming techniques halt the destruction
of the environment, biodynamic farmers go one
step further and actively heal the environment.
The understanding of the land (how it is affected
by the people and animals that dwell there, the
weather, seasons, moon, planets and stars) is
very much deeper. Bio-dynamic preparations, or
"medicines for the earth", have been formulated
and are used in conjunction with very careful
composting, to bring the living soil back into
balance so that it may yield its natural mineral
content to the plants that are grown in it.
To read more about Bio-dynamic farming visit
biodynamics.com.
Unfortunately to date, there have been few financial
incentives for farmers in this country to convert
from orthodox to organic methods of farming. Hopefully
as the organic movement continues to thrive, this
will change. We try to offer produce grown in
this country where possible, yet for this reason,
and reasons of climate - much of our produce is
imported. Due to the impact of transport on
the environment, we try to avoid selling produce
imported from distant parts of the world such
as Australia.
To learn about the herbs available from us read
the How
to use loose herbs article on our website
.
It is common for customers to ask staff both downstairs
and upstairs for advice on how to use the foods
and remedies that we sell. It is important for
customers to remember that although many of our
staff will have completed some training in various
related disciplines, we are not practitioners
as such. Occasionally Ellie Holly, the
Haelan Clinic herbalist, works upstairs and
she is able to give advice from the perspective
of a trained practitioner. Staff are trained
to only give advice about minor health problems
and to refer customers to a doctor and/or practitioner
where this is appropriate . When advice is
given, it is as comprehensive as is possible in
the short time available. We try to focus primarily
on helping the customer to look at their dietary
and lifestyle habits, prior to considering what
herbal or other remedy will be of use.
Generally customers will know that they are working
too hard, not eating properly etc. yet we feel
it is important that these issues are addressed
alongside taking remedies. It is all too easy
to pop a pill and hope that we are sorting out
our health - it is never that simple. We particularly
recommend the Bach Flower Remedies to address
underlying emotional conditions, which might be
contributing to the physical problem.
Reference literature is available in the Haelan
Centre which customers are free to consult in
order to make their own choices as to what herbal,
homeopathic or nutritional remedies will be of
benefit to them. We are currently building up
a range of Haelan Health Notes (see in the
Remedies section of our website), which go
into some depth about common health concerns and
how they may be addressed in a holistic manner.
Remedies are chosen on the basis of
provable functionality; quality and wholesomeness
of ingredients; and closeness to nature. We
offer a choice of ranges, which meet these requirements
to varying degrees - the more expensive supplements
tend to meet all these requirements, the cheaper
ranges might not. For example some of the cheaper
encapsulated herbs and oils use non-vegetarian
gelatine, although wherever possible we have offered
a vegetarian alternative. Many new customers will
be surprised at the absence of the usual nutritional
ranges such as Solgar, and BioCare. We are
unique in that we are a health food shop to sell
only Food
State Nutrients. This is in keeping with
our wholefood principles and our efforts to offer
only those products that are as close to nature
as possible. This is a clear example of how adherence
to our principles overrides the profit motive.
Recently we have placed a greater emphasis on
stocking and promoting potent concentrations of
foods such as wheatgrass and spirulina. Such food,
commonly known as superfood, offers a completely
natural and highly potent method of supplementing
our diets. We do not sell remedies or supplements
that are obtained from fish such as fish oils
or shark cartilage or that result from the death
of bees, such as royal jelly.
From the earliest days of the shop in the
1950's, the Haelan Centre has always stocked a
very wide range of herbs and spices. None of our
herbs or spices has been treated with any chemicals
during processing as far as we are able to discover.
Because so many of them come from distant parts
of the world, it is very difficult to give guarantees.
Therefore, we decided that wherever possible
we would stock the organic or wild form of the
herb or spice as long as world production
was great enough to maintain year round supplies.
These standards are particularly important for
the healing herbs and spices. In addition to a
wide selection of loose herbs and spices, we also
supply a comprehensive selection of herb tea bags;
most of which are from organic sources. There
is also a large selection of organic herbs in
the form of tinctures.
Ultimately the selection of food products sold
at the Haelan Centre is a compromise between strict
adherence to healthful dietary principles and
the pleasures of an enjoyable life. Within this
framework, we hope to supply a range of high
quality products that are both healthful and enjoyable.
We were the first shop to sell both wholefood
crisps and natural sugar-free soft drinks. In
and of themselves, even these products are not
necessarily healthful but they are enjoyable.
They are produced with healthful principles in
mind and are sold within an environment where
a wide variety of wholesome foods are available,
thereby giving the customer a wide choice. This
policy is also very helpful for parents who want
to bring up their children more healthfully, in
that it enables them to offer to their children
products similar to those more generally promoted
to children, but that are less damaging to a growing
child's health.
As with certain other foods and drinks, both tea
and coffee are not considered to from a part of
a healthful lifestyle. As a result, tea and
coffee were not normally sold in health and wholefood
shops in the past. There was only one brand of
tea available in health shops in the sixties and
seventies and that was only sold because it was
reputed to be naturally low in substances that
are harmful to health such as tannin. This tea
(Luaka) was sold alongside specialist healthful
teas from Japan - e.g. Kukicha, Sencha. In many
cultures, drinking tea and coffee is one of the
pleasures of life and as long as not over indulged,
they can enhance the enjoyment of life. For
this reason (and because organic tea and coffee
are now available) we stock a wide range, with
an emphasis on fairly traded teas and coffees.
We only sell products that are not tested on
animals and that are made as much as possible
using plant based ingredients. A limited amount
of chemical preservatives are used in some body
and skin care products, some ranges use more natural
preservatives such as silver sulphate or grapefruit
seed extract or none at all. Some products such
as hair colouring, contain many chemical ingredients,
we have chosen to stock these as they offer a
safer alternative to standard hair colourings.
We hope that customers will be tempted to change
to the totally natural henna and plant based hair
colour range that we offer.
For many years we helped to raise the awareness
of our impact on the environment due to the use
of household cleaning products. Such products
are used by people to maintain a clean personal
environment - what wasn't so widely known was
the adverse ecological impact that they have on
the wider environment. To help remedy this situation,
a movement formed to promote the development and
use of environmentally friendly and biodegradable
household cleaners. Similar concerns were expressed
regarding paper products and plastic products.
Now a full range of environmentally friendly
products is available. All our household cleaning
products are biodegradable. All the paper products
are from re-cycled and non-chlorine bleached material.
The carrier bags we use are made from re-cycled
plastic.
Books are one of the key tools available that
enable us to widen our knowledge and deepen our
understanding. With this in mind, we sell books
and magazines related to many of the issues and
ideas put forward by the Haelan Centre as well
as books on diet, cooking and healthcare.
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Eating for Health