The Healthy Secrets of Shanghai

Where to find huge selections of healthy foods…without leaving home.

Healthy eating is hard enough,  but try living healthy in a city where it’s either expensive or just plain hard to find the nutritious foods you’re looking for. That is the struggle some people are facing in Shanghai. When a simple pot of yogurt costs a crazy amount of money, where do you turn?

The secret is out!

It can be especially hard for transplants who are used to the easily accessible and relatively inexpensive products and services that other cities offer. Thankfully, there are finally a few local businesses starting to fill this gap in Shanghai for healthy eaters. Here, we’ll recommend the best of what we’ve found.

Bellis Farm

Martin Nexo, a café owner and the creator of Bellis Farm, faced the same dilemma many other Shanghai residents did and he decided to do something about it.  While on the search for a tasty, fresh, additive-free organic yogurt, he realized there simply weren’t any options. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands and make it himself. He searched and researched for months to get the perfect combination of ingredients and created Shanghai’s first fresh, organic yogurt.

All of the ingredients are locally sourced and certified organic from local farmers, a huge plus for consumers that are concerned about the source of their food. And if you’re wondering how fresh it is, the yogurt is to the customer within 48 hours of the cow being milked! How’s that for fresh?

It’s clear that Martin has done his research and is concerned about the same things that many health and environment conscious customers are. His yogurt has been such a big success that he is now adding a subscription service. Each jar of yogurt is 10RMB and is delivered to your doorstep weekly. For more information or to sign up, visit his website or get shopping at Xintiandi Style B2, Madang Lu/Fuxing Lu.

Kate and Kimi

Kate and Kimi, two expats from the United States and Japan, got together in 2009 and bonded over complaints about the lack of good, healthy food in Shanghai, particularly vegetables. They were introduced to Gusto Fine Foods and decided to create a website to bring these delicious, local foods to the residents of Shanghai. Gusto Fine Foods were originally delivering to some of the best chefs and restaurants in Shanghai and decided to partner with this site to bring the quality ingredients to regular people.

They work hand in hand with reputable farms and farmers to learn from each other about growing and cooking food. Kate and Kimi is basically a not-for-profit designed to benefit the community, as the two women don’t make any money from it. Big companies and importers pay the bigger fees to keep things running, and smaller farms and companies with creativity and passion, as they put it, get to keep what they make, other than small delivery fees. The consumers are really the ones who benefit from this relationship.

Kate and Kimi also have a service that delivers to a number of different districts (check this page of their websitefor more detailed location information: http://kateandkimi.com/delivery) and even offer same-day delivery if you order by a specific time. Delivery is available every day but Sunday and it’s free for all orders over 150RMB. Now let’s talk food! One of the perks of Kate and Kimi is the selection. You really can find almost anything you could want delivered to your door. Tons of vegetables, bakery goods, dairy, meats, sweets, drinks, alcohol and prepared meals are all available to buy. Visit their website to shop or sign up: http://kateandkimi.com.

Fields

Fields started as a Shanghai business and after five years of success in delivering quality foods to the residents of Shanghai, they now deliver to over 200 cities in China. This is a great site to look into if you are having a hard time finding the foods you need and aren’t in one of the few biggest cities. Fields is another full-service food and drink site that has a very wide offering of groceries, from the local Chinese staples you eat on a regular basis to the delicacies you miss from abroad.

They buy from local Chinese farmers whenever possible and often use biodegradable packing too. You can even return packing to them to recycle if you don’t know how to best get rid of it. Fields has a huge selectionand an even nicer website, easy to navigate and with features like recipes, an all-organic section, and sections for special diets including weight watchers, vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free.

Plus, they are open 365 days a year for your grocery needs that don’t conform to a schedule. They even have an iPhone app to have access on the go. Payment options are also flexible, allowing cash and credit payment options upon delivery. Fields’ website is located here: http://www.fieldschina.com/en/index.html.

With these local, online and nationwide options, we hope we have opened your eyes to the possibilities of eating healthy in Shanghai and, indeed, anywhere you live. While your neighborhood grocery store or café may not have exactly what you are looking for or are used to as far as healthy eating, the resources are out there. It might mean trying something new,grocery shopping online or going further outside your regular route. But if healthy eating is a priority in your life, it’s nice to know that almost anywhere you go, good food is only a few clicks away.

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