Occasionally in life you meet someone who has developed such an incredible gift it makes you want to tell everyone else about that person. That is what happened when I ventured into the Sunrise Natural Foods store in Roseville with my girlfriend and she introduced me to a friend of hers that works there. His name is Alden Okie and he is the epitome of the kind of person people need to see and ask advice of when they enter a natural food health store.
Alden, a very distinguished looking man in his 50’s, is also a very humble and gentle man who probably never sees himself as a superman. But to the people who have come to know and trust his advice, he is a super man to them.
I remember the first time I heard my girlfriend ask Alden a specific question about some vitamins she was taking and what his advice was on them. His answer captivated me to the point that I thought to myself that Alden isn’t just another sales clerk in a natural foods store, but rather he is a man answering his higher calling and helping people with specific questions who have chosen the natural healing path.
I also heard him talking with another woman(not pictured) who had been diagnosed with an extreme bi-polar condition. I quickly became very interested in this matter because I knew someone else who was suffering from the same dis-order. Afterwards I talked privately with this woman and she openly shared with me her condition and stated that if it wasn’t for the information that Alden shared with her years ago, of things she could do to alleviate symptoms, she might have had to constantly live under the influence of prescription medicines because her condition was worsening. Instead she was able to make incredible improvements over her condition through the use of natural remedies.
I noticed it was a common thing for the stores customers to chat among themselves about the herbs and vitamins they were taking and the help they were getting from them. Every aisle seemed to appear as little chat rooms at times. Strangers talking to strangers and helping each other.
I asked Alden how did he come into his present passion for peoples health and the knowledge that he had? He told me he met up with a friend five years out of high school who use to be in great shape as most young men were back in those days, but when he saw him he noticed that his friend was now frail and very sickly looking. He discovered his friend had been stricken with cancer and had been given 6 months to live by a doctor. Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, cancer was not as understood as it is today, so Alden being heartbroken over the condition of his once strong and healthy friend, began looking into information about cancer and treatments and the possibility of reversing the cancers effect on his friend. He did just that and with two friends working together on slowing down the path and process of cancer, his friend actually lived for two years longer. Though the efforts were not a complete cure to cancer, they enabled his friend to enjoy life a little longer and inspired Alden to want to add quality and quantity of life to others as well through a natural approach to healing.
Of course traditional medicine in those days gave little hope for a cure let alone a reversible position. Alden’s investigation into cancer started him onto a path of studies and research information that could help the body to restore, revive, replenish and re-live through dramatic yet simple lifestyle changes. With the use of herbs, vitamins, healthier eating, moderate exercise and a measure of hope that exercises faith, changes can be made. Of course dramatic life changes would also include the elimination of negative influences on ones body which include drugs, alchohol, unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyles, relationships and environments. Those are the ingredients aggravating many of today’s ailments and illnesses.
Being a man of faith, Alden has spent many years studying and watching the effects of his non traditional and natural remedies on peoples lives. He not only has faith in the Great Physician who he has not seen, but also has continued faith in the things he has seen, that has happened through the use of herbs, vitamins and natural foods.
When I talked with Eric the store manager, he said that Alden has become a celebrity in his field and that people travel from great distances just to chat with Alden and glean some nuggets of information that could possibly change their lives. He mentioned that there are regulars who come from as far away as Nevada and Redding just for that purpose and to stock up on items from the store.
In my hour and a half of observing Alden and the store, I watched him advise families, mothers and daughters such as Brandy, Stephanie and Sherry(seen in the picture), people who were old and people who were young, and people from different ethnicities. That day a number of customers got the quick and easy "iodine cotton swab dab". I coined that phrase to describe the test that checks the condition of your thyroid. I asked Alden about it and he said that it is a simple test that anyone could do at home if they wanted to.
I asked him what if someone comes in with a question he didn’t have an answer to? He quickly showed me his computer and internet connections that he has to get those new and unlikely questions answered. He was also quick to point out to customers that they could find many health tips themselves by going online as well. Even though Alden is comfortable with talking with people of both sexes about any health issue they might have, I asked him "supposing a woman feels more comfortable talking with another woman about a personal health issue?", He told me that Sunrise Natural Foods also has a woman named Laura Ryan working there who can answer their personal female questions and help them with the ingredients they need for a healthier life.
Over the years, the awareness to help oneself with the use natural remedies has opened the doors to information on natural healing as an alternative when traditional medicines are not desired, needed or useful. Sunrise Natural Foods not only has courteous and helpful employees and a natural food superman, it also has books, magazines and pamphlets to help anyone get the answers they might be needing that could lead themselves to a natural healing and a longer life.
There is an old saying that goes something like this: "If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything". Isn’t that so true? If you are still looking for the perfect and appropiate gift for someone who has everything but doesn’t have their health where they want it, I think the gift of good health or the path that leads to it is a great gift from the heart. Take the time to visit the Sunrise Natural Foods store. From Hwy 80 go east to 1950 Douglas Blvd in Roseville. Their phone number is 916 789-8591. There is a second location in Auburn as well.
You can check out their website at www.sunrisenaturalfoods.net Just going to their website and reviewing information there could be better than a trip to the doctor.
My thanks to the Sunrise Natural Foods store, Alden Okie, the store staff and customers who allowed me to ask questions and take these photos while they worked and shopped.
"Merry Christmas and a Healthier New Year"
