Juicing it up

Fresh, free of additives and crammed with nutrients, cold-pressed juices are the antidote to modern health issues

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The juicing bug that was passed on from Hollywood celebrities and a few health zealots on to the mainstream American consciousness a couple of years ago is finally making its way to India (Gwyneth Paltrow has taught us to “consciously uncouple” from so many things that are causing harm to us).

Cold-pressing as a method of juicing differs from the conventional methods of centrifugal juicing by ensuring that more live culture and micro-nutrients are retained.  The process involves using special ‘masticating’ juicers that grind and press fruits, vegetables, and seeds without introducing heat and air, as opposed to a traditional household mixer fitted with spinning blades that oxidises the nutrients.

Ritika Samaddar, head of dietics, Max Super Speciality Hospital Saket

Ritika Samaddar, head of dietitics at Max Hospital in New Delhi’s Saket, contends that “while packaged juices are better than aerated drinks, fresh cold pressed juices are nutritionally better than everything else currently available in the market.”  

The juicing bug is still in its nascent stage in the country. First spotted at the Wills India Fashion Week in October last year, Antidote is the range of cold-pressed juices that was launched in Delhi and Gurgaon by Carol Singh (ex-fashion stylist) and Nadia Singh Behl (entrepreneur).  Having regularly done juice cleanses (a type of detox diet in which a person only consumes fruits and vegetables freshly juiced and abstains from food consumption) at home with their nutritionist mother, the sisters hit upon the idea a year ago and formulated recipes aimed at achieving different benefits. Singh says that “people tend to throw any number of things in a blender, without noting if the ingredients complement each other or not.” Targeting their product at the urban working youth who don’t have the time or the lifestyle to eat super healthy, Singh says the juices are meant as a quick energy fix to boost the digestive system by assimilating meals better.

They offer five different juice cleanses — Skinny Down for weight loss, Exhale for detox, Light Up for skin and hair, Horsepower for energy and Nine Lives for anti ageing. You can take four bottles a day along with your regular diet, or eight bottles if you are on a juice diet followed by a light protein-based dinner. The drinks are made preservative-free and are 100 per cent vegan, and can even be customised to incorporate food allergies. Juices are made fresh on order, so orders must be placed at least a day in advance.

There’s another brand leading the juicing charge west of the country. Anuj Rakyan, ex-investment banker from New York and self-confessed health enthusiast launched RAW Pressery, a new brand of cold-pressed juices in Mumbai with plans to bring them to Delhi, Pune and Bangalore by the end of this year. With six different kinds of “benefit-specific” recipes for six different actions (Trim, Glow, Build, Run, Shield and Flush), RAW’s juices “contain locally sourced raw produce, and no preservatives or sugar, not even water,” claims Rakyan. The RAW Cleanse requires you to give up solid food for a day and sustain on six 413 ml bottles of juice that can be ordered and customised online, plus delivered to your doorstep by the now-legendary and ever-trusty dabbawallahs.

One major issue of contention health buffs usually have with juicing is the spiking levels of fructose in fruit juices, but cold-pressed juices balance out that negative by using a wide variety of vegetables and raw greens in their ingredients. Singh says that “ideally, one should have 13-15 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, but we only end up having three to four.” Since one juice bottle is usually made from 2-3 kgs of produce, that might just save you a whole lot of time on chomping. Rakyan also says that the idea behind juicing is to give your digestive system a break from eating fried, sugary and processed foods, and encouraging a healthier diet.

Though many brands of pre-packaged juices now claim to be sugar and preservative free, skeptics have noticed that they still contain stabilisers and acidity regulators of various kinds that essentially perform the same action. Aditi Chopra, an ENT specialist at Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, has been a loyal Antidote customer since November last year. After having undergone a juice cleanse for a whole three months Chopra found it “rather nice and refreshing, and so filling that it could supplement my meals as well.”  She succeeded in losing a reasonable amount of weight, and reported feeling energetic after every drink. The taste, on the other hand, might be acquired, as Chopra recalls the juices as tasting strange in the beginning, and delightfully wholesome after some time.

The cold-press machinery needs to be imported and is extremely expensive, so it might still be some time away till you can replicate this purported wonder drink at home. Till then, you can find yourself a “raw” deal of your choice with the current brands on the market.

A day’s cleanse containing four 250 ml bottles of juice from Antidote costs between Rs  850-950, and is delivered all over Gurgaon. In Delhi there are pickup points at Malcha Marg, Lodi Restaurant and Chanakyapuri, call 9717412218 for details. RAW Pressery delivers all over Mumbai, priced at Rs 150 per 413 ml bottle. Full details available at www.rawpressery.com