Craniosacral Therapy and Whole Foods

• June 21, 2015
• science  
• medicine  
• stupidity  

Today I visited the newest Whole Foods store in San Jose on The Alameda Ave. just outside of downtown San Jose. This is what I saw across the street:

The sign reads “Cranial Sacral Therapy Center“. A form of alternative medicine that is only slightly less ridiculous than Homeopathy. Note that this therapy is more commonly known as “Craniosacral”. See Quackwatch and Science Based Medicine for just two takedowns of this horse shit.

What does this have to do with Whole Foods? The target demographic of Whole Foods are the type of people who will pay outrageous prices for products labeled “holistic”, “organic”, etcetera. The typical Whole Foods store has a couple of aisles devoted to selling homeopathic preparations, herbs (for medicinal not cooking purposes), and items like bee pollen. None of which do a single thing to improve your health. So the presence of a clinic that sells a nonsense treatment across the street from a Whole Foods store is pure marketing genius on the part of the owners of that enterprise as they are targeting the same demographic.

P.S., Prior to today it’s been over a year since I’ve been inside a “Whole Paycheck” store. I was in the mood for some decent coleslaw and macaroni salad without going to the trouble of making it myself. I spent $20 and left with a couple of pounds of food. They were charging $3 for a donut and $1 for a single cookie even when buying them in boxes containing six cookies! Not exactly a bargain and why I won’t be buying from Whole Foods again anytime soon. The quality is very good but the prices aren’t just high they’re outrageous.