A crunchy bundle of kale. A prickly, sweet pineapple. A pile of shiny cashews ready to be munched on.
Each of these foods might seem ordinary to most people, but, to Michelle Wohlfarth, they are the fuels our bodies need to function at their best.
As the founder of Healthy Living Kitchen in Hummelstown, Wohlfarth strives to make sure everyone who walks in her store can find the foods, the education and the tools needed to live a healthier lifestyle.
Her own journey toward a better understanding of the body’s needs started about 10 years ago, when she went back to school at the Institute for Integrated Nutrition in New York. There, she found the holistic approach to wellbeing, diet and whole-health living.
“I always loved food and loved to eat,” she said. “My family was always the weird one where I incorporated healthy foods into my kids’ diets and used herbs for natural healing. But my understanding of these practices really didn’t come into fruition until I learned about food therapy.”
Wohlfarth continued her education at the National Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, learning from mentors who guided her in the basics of chef skills while teaching her to incorporate foods that cleansed, rejuvenated and fueled the body.
“So many people know they should be eating fresh foods and unprocessed grains, but they don’t know the first steps of properly preparing these more natural, often denser, foods,” she said.
Resource Hub
Wohlfarth’s journey has taken her to a couple of locations in the area. About a year ago, she moved into an old garage on S. Rosanna Street in Hummelstown, turning it into a fully functioning educational kitchen and market.
Since she’s been in the space, her vision to be a resource hub of health for the community is finally starting to come together, she said. Some of the most popular offerings at Healthy Living Kitchen are the detox and weight loss classes, which draw people in who want to take a first step in living a healthier life.
In those classes, Wohlfarth instructs students to push out bad foods by filling up on good foods. Instead of telling people what they can’t have, she focuses on what they should be feeding themselves. While the detox class does cut out refined foods, gluten and dairy, it also recommends people fill up on leafy greens, beans and healthy fats. In turn, she said, people notice their skin looks better, that they have more energy and, over time, that they don’t crave the foods they once ate regularly.
“People have the general idea that food can change the way they feel. They’ve heard of clean eating, and they want to get started but often have nowhere to go,” Wohlfarth said. “There are so many times in a day where someone just pops in because they need answers. Maybe they have Lyme disease or they have aching joints, and they want to know if certain foods can help them feel better.”
A Good Feeling
Wohlfarth also tries to provide resources for people who are aiming for a more holistic lifestyle.
She keeps a list of physicians in the area who support clean eating and holistic practices so that her clients don’t get funny looks when they try to tell their doctors about their lifestyle changes.
“A lot of doctors support healthy eating and exercise, but not everyone is on the same page when it comes to holistic living,” she said.
One misconception that many people have about healthy eating is that a salad is good enough, Wohlfarth said. She doesn’t discourage those who eat a spinach salad every day, but the nutrients in spinach only do so much, she said. What they should be mixing in is kale, collards and Swiss chard to add nutritional variety.
People also eat whole grains, but they often don’t cook them properly, resulting in digestive problems or nutrients running through the body and back out again when the vitamins and minerals can’t be absorbed. At Healthy Living Kitchen, people can learn the proper ways to cook grains, beans and other foods so they can digest them easier and get the full benefits of each food.
Chewing also is an easily overlooked contributor to helping the body absorb more nutrients, Wohlfarth said. Properly chewing food gets the digestive process going sooner and makes it easier for the rest of the body to do its job. Plus, she said, people tend to eat less because they are enjoying the food rather than inhaling it.
“Healthy living is attainable for people if they just have the tools and resources they need to achieve it,” Wohlfarth said. “I think, more than ever, people feel empowered to take those early steps in taking control of their diets. And it’s a good feeling to know we can help them do that.”
Healthy Living Kitchen is located at 16 S. Rosanna St., Hummelstown. For more information, call 717-512-0077 or visit www.healthylivingkitchenpa.com.
