The Healthy Intermission Cafe provides a comfortable and convenient place to get healthy meals.

A Healthy Intermission is the Right Choice

By: Leah Smith
A bad reputation sticks. We all know someone or even something with a “bad rep.”

Healthy food is something that has a bad rep, and it has since we were about two years old. No one wanted to eat the peas, carrots or brussels sprouts – give us an egg, turkey bacon and cheese sandwich for breakfast, a smoothie for a snack or a chicken salad sandwich for lunch or dinner.

Valerie DeFreitas, owner of Healthy Intermission Café, is out to give healthy food a new reputation – while providing a menu with items full of egg, turkey bacon and cheese sandwiches, smoothies and chicken salad sandwiches– and more!

“When you are adding flavor it doesn’t mean you are adding calories to it,” DeFreitas said about the items on her menu.

DeFreitas, with ten years of restaurant experience, decided she wanted to open her own restaurant after she noticed the smoothie shop in the Family Fitness Center had closed. According to DeFreitas, she had worked out in the Family Fitness Center for 10 years and thought that in addition to smoothies, the small restaurant area could use food, too.

“I’ve always liked people and enjoyed cooking,” DeFreitas said.

DeFreitas also knew she enjoyed eating healthy, and knew others would, too, if they had food that tasted great. She also wanted to make the new healthy restaurant open to the public.

“Healthy is not gross and it is shocking just how many people say, ‘ew gross,’ when they hear the word ‘healthy,’” DeFreitas said. “Then when people taste the food here they are shocked and end up saying, ‘I can’t believe how good it is!’”

Menu items range from egg, turkey bacon and cheese toasted sandwiches, to made-to-order fresh salads to smoothies and chicken or tuna salad sandwiches or wraps. All items on the menu are low in fat and calories, and all smoothies on the menu are fat-free and low in calories.

The Healthy Intermission Café is open to the public. The café is a modern-style atmosphere with fresh flowers. Everything is made fresh, and most is made to order, just as fast as fast food while you wait, according to DeFreitas.
Healthy Intermission Café is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and Monday through Thursday 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

You can also choose to call orders ahead at (304) 482-4709. Orders can be emailed to DeFreitas at healthyintermission@live.com. Visit the Healthy Intermission Café website for a full menu at www.healthtyintermission.com.