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Eating Healthy in Costa Rica
by Tao Watts in Costa Rica
If you’re making the move to Costa Rica and you wish to fully embrace a healthy lifestyle, you’ll want to know where to find the best food to support your decision. The typical Costa Rican diet is fairly simple and nutritious. It incorporates a variety of grains, legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, dairy and eggs. You won’t find any Whole Foods Groceries, but if you’re looking for organic, gluten-free, and vegan products many of these can be found in the larger grocery stores such as Automercado, MasXmenos, Supermercados B.M., or even at Walmart.
The original version of the Costa Rican health food store is called a Macrobiotica. This is where you will find many herbs, supplements, and alternative health products, including soy-based meat substitutes. In recent years, many smaller markets have popped up that carry imported products from brands such as Bragg’s, Beyond Meat, Bob’s Red Mill, and Silk. Most are found in the Greater Metropolitan Area of San Jose and its suburbs, but many of the larger beach towns offer health food stores, as well, Including Mama Tucan’s in Dominical, Mercado Orgánico Gaia and Pimiento Verde in Tamarindo, BioNatura in Limon, and Organic Market Pura Vida in Manuel Antonio.
Photo by happycow.net
Buying goods in bulk is a relatively new idea here, with the goal of helping the environment by using less single-use plastic and packaging. At El Tramito in the GAM Emana Zero Waste, in Uvita, and Kapi Kapi Ecomercado, in the Chirripo area of Perez Zeledon, can bring your own jars or reusable containers and fill the weight, buying only what you need from the barrels and bulk bins or glass jars in the store.
Costa Rica has many small businesses that produce value-added products, from chocolate to hot sauce, jams, cheeses, and gluten-free bakery items. Many of these are offered in the weekly Ferias, or farmer’s markets. Feria Verde, in Aranjuez and Ciudad Colon, were among the first and the largest of these markets, offering organic produce and artisanally made foods as an alternative to the familiar multinational brands that you may avoid because of the price or the quality of industrially produced foods.
Get to know the chain of supply and where the products come from and how they are made. Read labels. Ask questions. Get to know your local farmers and artisan makers. You can eat very healthily, and often more economically when you choose products made in your own area. Local Ferias are a great resource for small producers to offer their goods directly to the buyers. Organic fruits and vegetables, herbal medicines, goat’s milk and organic dairy products, and all kinds of healthier alternatives to the mainstream fare.
When eating out you’ll find that Costa Rica is getting on board with the Farm to Table movement. Many chefs in fine restaurants and hotels offer meals prepared from their own gardens. Since the climate allows for pretty much year-round agriculture, they are able to offer the freshest and cleanest seasonal foods, oftentimes grown on the premises. Heart-Healthy, Vegan, Vegetarian, and Gluten-free options are often notated on restaurant menus.
Since the restrictions related to Covid-19 were put in place, many Ferias, markets, and independent distributors have made ordering online with easy pick-up or delivery directly to your home possible:
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