The best health food stores in Melbourne

No patchouli here – this is a healthy-living retail hub for the fit and fabulous.  About Life was opened by sisters Jodie Stewart and Tammie Phillips in Rozelle 20 years ago and the Port Melbourne store is the seventh in the About Life stable. The store stocks everything from fresh organic fruit and veg, vitamins and naturopathic supplements to arrangements of Australian native flowers and green cleaning products. It also plays host to a café and ready-made but healthy food and breaky bars full of superfood goodness to scoop into takeaway tubs.

This organic super store on Gertrude Street stocks over 8,000 different products, with a focus on fresh, locally sourced and sustainable food and drink. There are gourmet sauces, raw cereal, healthy juices, pasture raised meat, gluten and dairy free options, organic beer and wine and lots more.

At first, you could easily mistake this bright, timber-floored store for any regular high-end grocery – until words like Tofurkey, hemp protein and dairy-free start jumping out. Jessica Bailey founded the Cruelty Free Shop in 2001 as an online store in her Sydney home. She opened her first Melbourne store in Fitzroy in January 2014. In addition to mock meats, cookbooks, pantry staples and stylish leather-free bags, there’s an entire section devoted to vegan chocolate, and another for beauty products, none of which are tested on animals. When possible, she sources everything from Australian makers.

This shop and café started life in a house in Carlton in 1975 and has been on Smith Street in Collingwood for over 20 years. All edible produce is organic or biodynamic, and you’re advised to bring your own bags, Tupperware and jars (although you can use theirs), because in the style of an old-fashioned grocer, you weigh out what you need. Seeing items like organic teas available by the bucketload is a pleasant shock when you’re used to shelling out $15 for a pre-boxed branded tea.

This luxe eco-store in South Melbourne contains everything you need to sustain an organic lifestyle. Customers are able to fulfil all their dietary requirements with a wide range of food available, including organic fruit and vegetables, biodynamic meats, pre prepared meals and many more organic food items. If the extensive amount of food choices isn’t enough, they also offer beauty products, pet food, and a number of essential home products.

As one of Melbourne’s most traditional health stores, this grocery store stocks specialist food products covering organic/biodynamic, gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free and yeast-free requirements. Along with grocery items like whole grains, beans, wheat-free pasta and herbal teas, you will also find natural cosmetics, essential oils, skin care products and a variety of vitamins and supplements.

Stocking over 400 gluten free, paleo and organic items, The Source is basically eco-grocery heaven. You can buy reusable jars and containers for your goodies, but the store encourages peeps to BYO receptacles and keep waste to a minimum. The Source also has a great line in vegan treats, natural body washes, soaps and detergents and ready-made cereal mixes (if you can't be arsed making up your own and have a hankering for something a little fancy try the super cocoa museli mix).

This little health food store not only promises to provide customers with the best wholefoods they can find, but they will also offer you helpful advice on what to eat and how to eat it. As fully qualified naturopaths, the staff will answer any queries you have whilst showing you all the organic, biodynamic and conventional wholefoods they have on offer.

This store is for all those who love their nutrient rich meals, vitamins and supplements and for those with dietary intolerances. They stock hundreds of products including; fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, meat, bread, and grocery items including cereals, grains, sauces, oils, flour, canned varieties, gluten-free and dairy-free products, nuts, seeds, baby needs, snacks and various other organic treats. With hand-picked staff that includes only qualified Naturopaths, whether you are after a piece of fresh fruit, some helpful advice or to stock up your pantry with organic goods, Terra Madre will have it there waiting.