Natural, organic, and wholefood stores in Munich

Hello, everyone.

I am currently living in Western Massachusetts (USA) and am hoping to relocate to Munich in 2007 (or earlier).

My 2 children have dairy (and some soy) allergies and I have found that the whole foods stores here have the best selection of alternatives (rice milk, almond milk (not very tasty, though), soy milk/cheese, soy joghurt, etc.). I am also trying to have a mostly vegetarian diet (not excluding fish and eggs) and substituting red meat with vegetable or soy protein.

Here (in MA) there are stores called Trader Joe's (great place) and Whole Foods Market (expensive, but has a huge selection) that sell natural and organic foods and even the local grocery stores are trying to sell more natural and organic foods. There's even a local, homemade ice-cream shop that sells "no moo" ice-cream (soy based ice-cream)...it's actually not bad.

I lived in Munich 4 years ago (and pretty much ate whatever was in front of me until I had a child with all these allergies) and can only remember a small store in the Olympia Einkauf Zentrum that sold a minimum of natural foods and some alternatives. Are there any other places that sell these things in Munich? Here it's pretty much the norm to eat healthy, natural and organic foods - I know most Germans eat pretty healthy also (or at least the ones I knew did), but there are a lot of products and German foods with dairy in it. Will we be the strange ones in Munich eating natural foods with a vegetarian diet, reading labels in the grocery stores, drinking our yummy rice milk??

Anyway, thought I'd inform myself ahead of time. So, if anyone knows of anything, please pass the word on to me. It will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
KizziDB

P.S. We love Carob...anyone know of a store in Munich that sells carob??

there are tons of Bio stores all over the city now, and of course, every neighbourhood has a ReformHaus, but selling soy products, most of the grocery stores are also selling Soy products. There is no worries anymore with Milk allergies- I have been living here over 5 years with my allergies and I am doing just fine.

There should also be another thread about locations of these shops. Try the search button in the top right corner.

Welcome to Munich.

Carm,

Thanks for the information. I'm glad to know that there are now more stores in Munich specializing in natural foods.

I don't know if these allergies will pass (my daughter is now 5 and still has allergic reactions to dairy products), so I am just trying to avoid dairy all together.

I am looking forward to our move back to Munich. I loved it there!

Thanks, again!

KizziDB

there's a *huge* bio-supermarket doodah round the back of marienplatz/vikkymarkt these days
you can get all sorts of healthy veggie-type stuff in there
shelf after shelf of stuff that the likes of me have never even heard of
i'm sure you'll get yourself sorted, no problem

Health food stores has a directory of health food / organic food shops. They sell carob too. Can't stand the stuff mesself

Thanks everyone!

UrbanAngel: yes, carob is an aquired taste...I grew up with it and prefer it sometimes over chocolate (not German chocolate, though- that stuff's the best)!