The following story is a feature story that I wrote for my journalism class about “Bama Nutrition,” a recently opened nutrition store in the Tuscaloosa community.
On a breezy fall day in Tuscaloosa, the sweet aromas of vanilla and pecan dance through the air of a quaint bar on 21stAvenue. The bar’s customers browse chalk boards adorned with illustrations and lists of hundreds of shake and tea flavors before choosing their flavor of drink.
Bama Nutrition opened its doors to the public on Aug. 17, just as students were arriving back to Tuscaloosa for the fall semester at the University of Alabama. As its name would suggest, Bama Nutrition specializes in “healthy” drink and food options, as Tuscaloosa was needed healthy alternatives to fast, greasy food, said Cindy Drew, the manager of Bama Nutrition.
“Everybody is a little bit more health conscious today,” Drew said. “Especially in southern college towns, I knew the demand for a place that supports weight loss and nutrition would be substantial.”
Nutrition stores have become a recent trend in the United States, and Drew credits this to increasing awareness of the importance of proper vitamins, protein, and nutrients to fuel people’s everyday activities. However, Drew explains that although the increase in number of these stores is often looked at as a trend, the company that they’re associated with is well established and has demonstrated “impressive results” for people using their products.
Bama Nutrition is associated with HerbalLife Nutrition, a multi-level marketing corporation that was founded in 1980. The corporation develops and sells dietary supplements to the global population.
Bama Nutrition offers both teas that include health supplements to boost metabolism, post-work out shakes, and meal replacement shakes. Drew said that both are “equally popular” among customers. She also indicated that the majority of their business comes from females between the ages of 17 and 23. Drew believes their fruity and sweet flavors appeal most to this audience.
There are over 50 different shake flavors to choose from and over 75 different tea flavors. Any shake can be made into a post-workout shake with an extra pump of protein added to it.
Karley Duda, a junior from the University of Alabama and a Bama Nutrition regular customer, says that she loves going to Bama Nutrition because “the shakes actually taste like ice cream and have practically no sugar.” Duda considers herself to be very active and health conscious, and she says Bama Nutrition shakes help her to incorporate protein and healthy fats into her daily diet. Duda said her favorite flavor of shake is the Cinnamon Toast Crunch shake, which incorporates vanilla protein powder, skim milk, and a couple other ingredients to create a creamy cinnamon swirl shake.
Drew says that Bama Nutrition can be set apart from other juice bars in the area because their products have “a lower sugar count and a higher protein count without all the carbs.”
Sarah Drew, Cindy Drew’s daughter who is also an employee at Bama Nutrition, says that she “lost 10 pounds between Sept. 7 and Oct. 10” just by incorporating these tea supplements and protein shakes into her diet.
Cindy Drew says she will be starting their first weight loss competition next week. The winner of the competition will get their picture displayed on the wall of the store and details on their health journey captured below their image.
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