Owners Mike and Kathy Parish sell Dubbo Health Food shop

The business has been around for over 50 years in one iteration or another, but the premise has remained the same - providing healthier alternatives to processed foods.

Mr Parish told the Daily Liberal many customers want to get back to the way their grandparents ate, before food became complicated.

READ ALSO: Dubbo trauma doctor among winners at western district awards

"Probably one of the most popular products at the moment is collagen, which is very good for joints and gut health," Mr Parish said.

"A lot of people are very deficient in collagen because - our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used to do bone broth and things [and we don't]. They'd boil up the bones of beef or chicken, and then that was very high in collagen."

" ... We don't put any value on the bones, but the bone is probably one of the most nutritious parts of an animal."

Vitamin supplements are also popular, as are herbs and natural cleaning products. They also sell a lot of organic sourdough which is made on only five ingredients.

Many people shop at Dubbo Health Food because they have health issues.

"They look for a natural alternative ... gluten-free or sugar-free products ... very minimal ingredients in them," Mr Parish said.

READ ALSO: 'It really hits you': Medical students now considering going rural

The shop also sells single items including seeds and flours - some in bulk.

"They're looking at nutrition, they're looking at changing their diet and trying to clean it up a bit, because most of our foods nowadays are quite devoid of nutrients compared to what they were, say, 50 years ago," Mr Parish said.

Mr Parish came from a background in regenerative farming, and this is what he hopes to return to as a side business after he finishes-up at the shop.

The business has been sold to a local woman, Katie Simmonds, who was a customer herself.

"We didn't want to sell the business to just anyone. We wanted someone who we thought would be as passionate about the business as we are," Mr Parish said.

He added it felt like he was "passing on the family of [his customers] to the new owner". He will miss the customers the most.

"We've got quite a lot of friends that are our customers ... we've got some quite loyal customers who come in and get their products and we talk about any current health issues or anything that's going on, so there's a lot of sharing," Mr Parish said.

IN OTHER NEWS

"It's sort of a network we've got in the shop. We'll miss that, which is ... probably our social outing as well when people come in."

A find memory during their tenure at the health food shop, was when celebrity chef Pete Evans visited the store.

Mr and Mrs Parish have run the business with the mantra: "The first wealth is health."

"Many people focus on making money and building wealth at the expense of their health. In their later years they spend a lot of money trying to get their health back. Health is an investment, not an expense," Mr Parish said.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app here. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.