Top five health food shops in north Kent and south east London

Greenlands Whole Foods, Greenwich Market

Small and friendly, this shop at Greenwich Market is well-regarded locally and rammed with health supplements and goodies from floor to ceiling.

Manager Thomas Vergnole said: “We do take care of our customers and we do give good customer service. We have a lot of products customers are looking for – a whole range from food to supplements.

“We’re the only shop of this kind in Greenwich.”

Well Bean, Old Dover Road, Blackheath

Living up to the healthy living cliché, there’s no sugar coating this wholesome Aladdin’s Cave. It looks dreadful from the outside, but like a good nut roast it contains heaps of goodness.

The small shop is tightly packed with all kinds of healthy and allergy-friendly foods and the bearded chap that runs it know everything. I left thinking that he could actually be god.

Fun fact I learnt in Well Bean: The algae spirulina could feed the whole world if grown on a patch just the size of Wales. But it costs £13.90 for a small tub.

Food for Living, Blackfen Road, Sidcup

Small, pretty and smells nice. There’s plenty to pick up here – from vitamins and dietary supplements to snacks, cereals and drinks - but Food for Living is not cluttered.

It was founded more than 25 years ago by John Frisby as an indoor market, which has grown into stores in Sidcup and Dartford.

Well Being, Sydenham Road, Sydenham

Well Being is such a trusted destination for health foods and supplements that customers flock there from all over the south east, from places like Folkestone and Brighton.

It has been run for 20 years by Melvyn Stevens, a former chief Food Analysis lab technician at London South Bank Poly, as it was then.

The shop is at the forefront of the industry, with Melvyn a director of Consumer’s for Health Choice, which has 250,000 supporters and bills itself as the voice of the consumer on natural health issues.

Chapman’s Natural Products, Thamesgate Shopping Centre, Gravesend

The bonus of shopping at Chapman’s is that the store in the Thamesgate Centre works in conjunction with is sister pharmacy in Windmill Street. The staff are all fully trained and there are also therapists in store like a chiropodist, allergy testers, homeopaths, naturopaths and acupuncturists. Originally, Chapman’s opened as a pharmacy in 1936, though in the 1980s it expanded into two stores – a health store and a pharmacy.

Yet another bonus of Chapman’s is its free, personalised, health advice service on its website – dearpharmacist.info