For most of his life, Mike Wiechmann, owner of Nature’s Garden Market Cafe, said he would have scoffed at the idea that alternative medicine and an organic diet could positively affect his health.

Facing a number of health concerns, Wiechmann said he visited several doctors to no avail, but he was unwilling to look at alternative options.

“I didn’t know anything about this realm back then,” Wiechmann said. “I grew up thinking when you get sick, you go to the doctor. If he can’t help you, who can?”

Wiechmann said his chronic digestive problems and fibromyalgia continued to spiral downward until he was told there was nothing left that could be done. So he turned toward the very thing he was skeptical of—using food and supplements as medicine.

“I was born skeptical,” he said. “If you tell me something that I don’t already know or have experience with, I’m going to say, ‘Prove it.’”

Wiechmann said his health improved, and he became a believer. In 2001, he opened a small retail store selling natural supplements in Friendswood.

Wiechmann began working with clients but said he found they had a similar problem. The new lifestyle made it difficult to find healthy food options following the strict dietary regimen. With that, Nature’s Garden Market Cafe was born.

“All of our meats are grass-fed, free-range, hormone-free and chemical-free,” he said. “All of our ingredients are organic.”

With healthy options on the cafe’s menu, Wiechmann said the task then became offering healthy options to customers that also taste good.

“We have to make it tasty, but we’re going to do it in a way that there is low sugar and no chemicals so that they can enjoy the best of both worlds,” he said.

Now a certified herbalist and lifestyle educator, Wiechmann said he has created a business that not only offers healthy—and tasty—options, but has also improved his own life.

“I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” he said. “It transformed my life. It gave me my life back.”

Along with being a cafe, Nature’s Garden Market Cafe is a grocer, offering a variety of specialty products.

Items sold:

Pharmaceutical-grade supplements A selection of gluten-free items Groceries Chemical-free and natural cosmetics Pet care products