Sprouting healthy seeds of change in Shanghai

Healthy eating was second nature for Sydneysider Kimberly Ashton, but when she moved to Shanghai a decade ago, she was starved of options.

"Organic stores, health food cafes… there are plenty of healthy options and places to get good food in Sydney," she says. "But in Shanghai, it's still a new concept to eat healthily and want to be healthier."

Ten years on, there's a small but growing community of health-conscious consumers and businesses in China's most populated city - Ashton has been one of the main driving forces in this.

Ashton, who studied Putonghua in Hangzhou, is the co-founder - and "chief sprouting officer" - of Sprout Lifestyle, an educational retail space in Shanghai's Xuhui district. Launched late last year, Sprout organises and hosts regular events and workshops, such as cooking classes, seminars, organic farm tours, retreats, documentary screenings and nutrition workshops.

Ashton also offers health coaching and private nutrition consultations. A former events marketing professional, she trained at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York and is studying naturopathic medicine.

Sprout is a natural progression from another business she and Sprout partner Georgia Zhou started about 2½ years ago - and is still going strong - called The Wellness Works. It's a consulting company for individual and corporate wellness programmes that organises health-related events such as organic farm tours, healthy cooking workshops, seminars about naturopathy and structural wellness retreats. Also offered is coaching on incorporating healthy activities into one's daily life to be more efficient at work, and how to live greener.