Lola Akinmade Åkerström finds out why “Health starts with attitude!” at holistic lifestyle food store and brand, Blueberry.
All photos by Lola A. Åkerström
Stockholmers are generally health-conscious. While our daily fika sessions complete with sugary pastries might suggest otherwise, it’s very common to find residents sipping Fairtrade coffee while digging into energizing KRAV-certified sandwiches and salads.
KRAV certification ensures that food served at restaurants meet specific animal husbandry and environmental standards in terms of preparation, ingredients, and production.
And once we’re done with our environmentally-conscious fika, we walk, or better yet, bike off the calories.
For health-conscious travelers staying longer to explore Stockholm slowly, access to a wide variety of organic holistic products is essential and that’s where local lifestyle store Blueberry Lifestyle steps in.
Inspired by the vibrantly-colored, antioxidant-rich berry of the same name, Blueberry’s first store was opened in 2006 on Sibyllegatan 15, and it now has four additional stores in NK, Rörstrandsgatan, PUB, and Centralstation which offer a wide range of organic and fair trade products in addition to lunch sandwiches and salads – think quinoa salads and organic Atlantic salmon.
According to Blueberry, they cater to a variety of clients from “environmentally conscious consumers, allergy sufferers, trendsetters, health gurus, fitness freaks, environmentalists, and foodies”, many of which identify with the company’s values and philosophy.
The store is also known for its exhaustive list of smoothies and juices with tongue-in-cheek names. For example, its “Nuts about You” is made with cashew nuts, peanut butter, bananas, toasted coconut, cardemum, raspberry syrup, and organic oat milk. “Bikini” is pineapple, strawberries, banana, ginger, lemon, and apple, while “Eat Your Greens” is filled with pineapple, mango, orange, lemon, spinach, wheatgrass, spirulina, and apple.
“We thrive on offering our customers what we call ‘conscious choices’,” shares Blueberry. “We want everyone to be able to make active and more informed choices throughout their daily life – not just when they shop with us, but everywhere.”
The company further defines its concept of “conscious choice” below:
A ”conscious choice” can relate to many different things – for example, choosing a product which is natural, organic, fair trade, locally produced, environmentally friendly or sugar-free.
Of course, a single product is unlikely to be all these things combined – it would be almost impossible to make such an optimised buying decision! What is important is that whatever our customers buy and consume needs to be good, and feel good, for both themselves and their families.
In addition, we also try to always offer alternative options, for example gluten-free, lactose-free and vegan products, to help our customers who need them – after all, people with allergies have to make “conscious choices” all the time!
Blueberry also offers catering, nutrition counseling, and health coaching services.
