The Trader Joe's Myth That People Still Believe (But Shouldn't)

Many people fall victim to one particularly deceptive Trader Joe's guise — and you may be one of them. The belief that everything sold at Trader Joe's is healthy falsely portrays the grocery chain as a health food store. This illusion may deter shoppers from looking at products with a critical eye, and even harm the chain itself by limiting its audience to health-conscious consumers.

Trader Joe's shoppers on Reddit seemingly give this conspiracy legs. Praising their perception of the store, one Redditor said, "I've gotten a lot healthier shopping at Trader Joe's. Really grateful for the wide selection of pre-prepared healthy meals." Another Redditor highlighted the quality of TJ's ingredients, posting, "It is true that a lot of food sold at Trader Joe's is made with 'clean' ingredients or things that are probably better for you." An additional Redditor offered a unique perspective, arguing, "It's my mental health food store. Shopping there and eating the food ... makes me happy. Being happy is healthy. Ergo ... TJ's is a health food store."

Trader Joe's offers a plethora of nutritious options, but claiming it exclusively sells healthy food is simply untrue. Trader Joe's markets itself as an affordable, fun, welcoming, neighborhood grocery chain — nowhere does it claim to be "healthy." While Reddit is full of users applauding TJ's nutritional merits, there are others who see the store as a standard grocery chain. Trader Joe's has some of the best snacks on the market, but you can focus on buying healthier goods by avoiding "health halos" when grocery shopping, and maybe grabbing a bunch of those popular Trader Joe's bananas.

What caused this myth to become so entangled with the store's identity? According to Reddit, Trader Joe's old-school reputation still grasps — and deceives — people today. As one Redditor recalled, "Thirty years ago, TJ's did have a 'granola' and healthy reputation but it has long since become a grab and go grocery store without a health focus." Another Redditor highlighted, "If you were an alternate choice to the traditional grocery store, then you were grouped in with all the health stores like Whole Foods ... I think Trader Joe's just had no other category to be grouped into at the time, so people just came to think of it as a health food store."

Some Redditors deny the myth's validity, claiming products like pre-made meals are loaded with unhealthy ingredients. One Redditor posted, "The sodium content of many ... of the prepared foods is obscene." Of course, it is imperative to read the nutrition labels and ingredients list yourself, so you know what you're buying.

It's easy to get swept up in misleading but trendy health halos like "organic" foods, which Trader Joe's stocks in abundance. But just because something's organic doesn't automatically mean it's healthy. You can also shop consciously by choosing whole foods that exist in nature, or packaged foods that have short ingredient lists and are likely less processed. Lastly, foods don't dictate health on their own; the total make-up of your diet determines what and how your food serves you.