Juice cleanses to feel lighter and tighter

“The real magic is that your taste buds change during the cleanse.”

Vitality Tap juices

“A juice cleanse is when you drink only juice for some period of time, typically three days,” said Hanna Gregor, owner of OH! Juice in Downtown (619-760-1292; ohjuicecleanse.com). “It gives your digestive tract a break, and the high influx of nutrients can have a detoxifying effect. It can also facilitate an increase in metabolism, weight loss, and healing in the body.”

Hanna Gregor

During a three-day cleanse, you get about 30 pounds of raw organic produce. “Our average users lose five to seven pounds. But if you go right back to your old eating habits, the weight will come back. The real magic is that your taste buds change during the cleanse. You crave more fruit and vegetables. You feel lighter, tighter, and more energized. Hopefully, that will help keep you on track, so that the weight continues to come off.”

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Cold pressing is essential to Gregor’s juice lineup. “Our product is always locally sourced, organic, and cold pressed. Cold pressing means we slowly grind the produce into a pulp in a process called mastication, and then we press that pulp with 2000 pounds of hydraulic pressure. The pulp is left completely dry; it’s just a gritty fiber. The process yields five to ten times more nutrition than the typical method, which involves shredding the produce with a spinning blade.”

OH! Juice offers two different cleanses. “The classic juice cleanse is $75 per day. Each day, you get six 16-ounce juices, made from a variety of fruits, vegetables, and nut milks that give you nutrients throughout the day. One of the juices you get is OH My Greens, which is our best seller. It concentrates on dark, leafy greens, but the pineapple provides a sweetness that helps to cut the bitterness. Nice Melons is another one; it gives citrus and melon flavors, and offers a creamy carrot component.” The green cleanse is also $75 per day for six 16-ounce juices. “You get more green juices, no nut milk, and less fruit-flavors.” Delivery is available for both cleanses ($25).

Gregor also said that “once people do a cleanse, they often feel they want to continue with the juices: to replace a meal in the morning, or maybe two meals to get them through until 4 p.m. This helps them to burn fat during the day and helps create portion control. For those people, we offer the Lifestyle Program: you commit to six weeks, and you get any six juices you want per week. It’s $65 a week if you want to come pick it up — we’re located inside the Daily Method exercise studio — and $75 if you want delivery.” OH! My Juice is also at the Little Italy Farmer’s Market on Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., and the Hillcrest Farmer’s Market on Sunday from 9 a.m. until 2p.m.

Sarah Kessner, manager at Vitality Tap in Downtown (619-237-7625; vitalitytap.com), said her cleanses also feature local, raw, organic, cold pressed juices. “Each day, you drink one of the six 16-ounce juices every two hours. With the juice feast ($65 per day), we also incorporate 16 superfoods, things like mucana — which helps with your dopamine, and therefore your mood and stress levels — or maca — which is good for female hormone levels — or fluvic acid — which helps cell walls become more permeable and let in more nutrients. I love the Sun flavor, which adds a little extra sugar to the melon, orange, and carrot to help you wake up in the morning. Also the Water, which has chia seed, pineapple, lime, and mint.”

The next cleanse is the Tonic Teas ($50 per day). “It’s more like a fast with some added nutrients, like the 24 added superfoods. The teas have no caffeine, they’re all herbal and organic, and they’re all brewed here. Finally, we have the Green Feast ($75 per day). It’s 80 percent greens, things like cactus, bok choy, burdock root, kale, collard greens, and kiwi. It appeals to people who want something green and low in sugar.”

All cleanses can be shipped overnight (average cost $16) or picked up in-store. Vitality Tap also offers a subscription service ($49.99 per week, less for longer-term orders). “You get 64 ounces of Vitality Greens — which contains things like swiss chard, spinach, cucumber, celery, and green apple — per week. That’s enough for two servings a day.”

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