Like #48: Whole Foods and Grocery Co-Ops

"White people need organic food to survive, and where they purchase this food is as important as what they purchase."

Deschanel’s image, as described in the post on Vegan/Vegetarianism, is highly associated with health and organic eating. Not only is this form of consumerism geared toward the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, it also serves as a status symbol for the upper-middle class and its associates. Only those with substantial incomes are able to pay the premiums charged for exotic and/or organic health products.

In an interview with Health Magazine, Deschanel admits that she shops at health food stores. She says that “I almost always visit health-food stores in every city I’m in, just to make sure there’s stuff on the bus I can eat—vegetables, fruits, lean meat, and nuts.” Additionally, a star sighting website posted this update on March 23, 2010: “Zooey Deschanel talking to her husband, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, at Whole Foods on Coldwater in Sherman Oaks.”

A different interview with Self Magazine also added health food associations to Deschanel’s star image. In the article, Deschanel suggests summer recipes for eclectic, organic cuisine that followers can try for themselves.  She suggests for readers to "eat some heirloom tomatoes-I like all varieties.  With salt."  Not only are heirloom tomatoes healthy, but they are also a more rare and expensive kind of tomatoes.  Deschanel also gives a recipe for a healthy picnic quinoa salad and roasted spiced chickpeas.  These recipes help to associate her image to health and slightly exotic ingredients that one would imagine shopping for at a specialty grocery store.

Deschanel’s association with health food culture could also be a factor in producers’ decisions to cast her as a yoga student or instructor. For instance, it is usually common knowledge that Deschanel had been a vegan and that she is allergic to wheat gluten and soy. It is also usually known that the best places to find gluten-free products are health foods stores. Whether or not Deschanel’s association with health foods stores began as a result of her vegan lifestyle/gluten allergies or through some understanding that other affluent people like herself shop at Whole Foods is not very important. What is important is that upper-middle class fans see and hear about Deschanel’s health-conscious lifestyle and feel a stronger association with the star. Like themselves, she cares about what goes in her body and about living a healthy lifestyle.