Is It Kosher?
By Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz — a comprehensive guide to the kosher status of hundreds of common foods, ingredients, and food categories.
Health Food
Millions of Americans, many of them adhering to a kosher diet, have turned away from synthetic, processed foods to natural foods. Health food stores typically carry a large assortment of nutrition supplements, many of which are inherently kosher and need no certification. Products such as kelp, brewers yeast, most olive oils, raw nuts, sea salt, etc. need no hechsher and can be readily purchased at any health food store.
Two popular myths among health food advocates are that "natural" is necessarily healthy and automatically kosher. "Natural" only means "an unadulterated state." This includes non-kosher fish or oils processed from animals. Non-kosher grape juice, cochineal (from beetles), and civet (from the civet cat) may be found in various foods carried by health food stores.
Just as with other foods, health foods fall into 3 categories: foods which cannot be kosher; foods which can be kosher with proper inspection and certification; and foods which are kosher even without certification. Natural peanut butter in most cases needs no hechsher since it is made entirely from peanuts. There is a need for kosher certification on most health foods, as on other foods.