One of the things Max Tomlinson advises in his detox book is to eat organic food in a form as close to their original state as possible.

Luckily my detox has co-incided with the opening of a brand new organic superstore – Wholefoods in London.

The store that specialises in organic produce in a supermarket environment has generated a large amount of coverage in the London media over the last week – so it was not a surprise that when I visited on Saturday it was almost uncomfortably crowded.

American readers will be used to Wholefoods but for Brits it’s something of a novelty. One checkout chick told me that people were queuing along Kensington High Street to get in. To a supermarket. That sells organic food. A sign of the times or faddish? I’m not really sure.

I was happy enough to trek across town to Wholefoods as it meant I could shop for the detox in one go.

The issue many people have with organic food is that it is more expensive than its chemical cousins.

Well it is and it isn’t – the trick is just to be discerning.

The receipt I have in my hot little hand tells me I was thoroughly ripped off when I paid £4.44 for a small bag of mushrooms. They taste good – but not that good.

But the seeds and pulses were a nice surprise. As Max advised that I made my own seed mix, I thought I’d spend big on the ingredients but at 15p for a tub of linseeds, 25p for sunflower seeds and £1.75 for a big tub of pistachios its quite good value.

As for eggs, fruit and vegetables, they were around the same price that I paid for them at my local Waitrose.

But there is something you get from shopping at Wholefoods that money can’t buy: a feeling of supreme self-righteousness.

You might be hungover. You might have just eaten McDonalds. You might be 70 stone overweight. You might be a prime candidate for diabetes and a heart attack. But as soon as you line up with your organic vegetables to take home in your cloth carry bag, you feel like the healthiest, most right-on person alive.

Labels: detox, organic food, Wholefoods