Salad bar — Better Health Store

The better Health Store in Frandor is a perfect solution for those looking for a healthy lunch. One way is to pick from its supply of natural products and fresh foods and produce. I prefer to belly up to their bar — salad bar that is.

Among Better Health’s aisles of holistic supplements, organic produce, natural skin care items and varieties of special milks is a massive salad bar. It is loaded with greens, veggies, beans, fruits, seeds and more, and every item is organic.

I filled my container with raw spinach, chickpeas, artichokes, peppers, green beans, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, cucumber, cheeses and tongfuls of other fresh items from bins that seemed to stretch though several zip codes. Better Health’s all-but-endless selection meant it was easy to custom build a tasty salad that I knew was good for me.

Of course, the way to ruin the healthy content of any salad is to drench it with a chemical-laden, high-fat dressing. Not a problem at a health store. Fifteen sensible dressings are available to choose from. (I picked the basil vinaigrette — tangy and not too sweet.) Over a dozen nutritional, herb and/or non-gluten seasonings are also at the bar.

Three soup choices are featured at the end of the display. I picked the lentil. It was non-dairy, vegan and gluten free, but it wasn’t free of flavor. Besides lentils, the soup had hints of onions, carrots, celery, turnips, parsley and tomato paste. Other ingredients included soybean oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, sea salt, paprika, and a bit of rice flour to make it a thick and satisfying dish.

The Frandor Better Health location offers a dining area with large windows facing the busy parking lot. Or if one doesn’t want to be seen in public eating healthy food, take-out is available.

Better Heath Store (Frandor location) 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday- Saturday; 11 a.m.- 7p.m. Sunday 305 N. Clippert St., Lansing (517) 332-6892, thebetterhealthstore.com