It’s January, the month when many vow to eat better and live healthier. That frequently includes enjoying more servings of fruits and vegetables. Adding fresh fruit and vegetable juice to your diet is one way to get there.
Juices are everywhere these days. They’re in the cooler when you’re checking out at the grocery store and at the coffee shop. Atlanta even has a juice truck, Nectar. But no one has done more to popularize juice in the metro Atlanta area than the Zinns of Arden’s Garden.
Arden Zinn, founder of Arden Zinn Studios back in the 1960s, began Arden’s Garden with a Norwalk juicer and a passion for sharing the benefits of juice with her friends. Her first store on Monroe Drive near Piedmont Park was meant to be a space to make juice and deliver from, but people walking by began to ask if they could buy juice and the retail operation was born.
“That location unintentionally became a sort of lab. When we wanted to try out a new flavor, we could put it in the store and get customer feedback right away,” said Leslie Zinn, Arden’s daughter and now president of the company. Arden’s Garden now has seven locations in metro Atlanta, and it’s opening two new stores, one at Emory Point and one on Auburn Avenue, this year.
A lot of Zinn’s customers use their juice for meal replacement. “They may have juice for breakfast because they don’t have time to prepare a meal. They might have juice or a smoothie in the morning, then a green juice at 11, and then lunch and dinner. The juice is a shortcut. You can drink a 16-ounce bottle of juice and get the nutrition from 2 1/2 pounds of produce in that bottle,” Zinn said.
She also sees parents with picky eaters who find juices as a way to feed their children the nutrients from vegetables. “The kid drinks a Spinach Slam (spinach, pineapple and mango), gets a green mustache and it tastes great,” she said.
Creating a new juice can be the work of a few minutes or many days. “There are times when we know we want to make a specific type of juice and we work on it for a while, maybe over several weeks. We try variations and we can try it out on our customers, who give us immediate feedback,” Zinn said.
She says her mom is still behind much of the innovation. “She’s a voracious reader, always ahead of the curve. We make a batch and try it. How does it make us feel? Most important is if it makes you feel good. Then we worry about taste. If it makes you feel good and tastes horrible, we’re good with that,” she said with a laugh.
Juicing at home is fun, and it can be fairly quick. But juicing at home does require some specialized equipment. You’ll find juicers for sale everywhere from specialty cookware stores to wholesale clubs. These aren’t citrus juicers designed to ream out juice, but juice extractors that cut fruit and vegetables into tiny pieces and extract the juice by either spinning (centrifugal juicers) or pressing (cold press).
Centrifugal juicers are the least expensive and easiest to use, but there’s general agreement that the juice should be consumed right after it’s made. More expensive machines are cold press like the commercial machines used at Arden’s Garden.
Juices are also produce-intensive. “A 16-ounce bottle of our carrot-apple-ginger juice has 1 pound of carrots, 1 pound of apples and 1/4 pound of ginger in it,” Zinn said.
Experimenting with combinations of fruits and vegetables and learning about the nutrients in each are part of the process. The best-selling juice at Arden’s Garden is Yoga 1, a blend of kale, spinach, pineapple, apple, lemon and ginger. “It tastes like heaven,” Zinn said.
Other top sellers are the green juices. “They may not taste as good, but they make people feel so awesome, and that’s what people are learning. When you feel the benefit from the juice, then it just seems to taste better,” she said.
WHY TO JUICE WHAT: LESLIE ZINN’S GUIDE
TO WHAT SHE INCLUDED IN RECIPES SHE PROVIDED
Lights Out
Apples contain vitamins B and C and potassium, which lower blood pressure, improve breathing and increase serotonin. That all leads to better sleep.
Celery contains hormones and chemicals that promote sleepiness and muscle relaxation. Not only is celery juice a good tonic for sleeping, it has many medicinal properties that work while you are resting.
Spinach is high in calcium, a mineral that is important for sleep. Calcium helps the body generate melatonin, the hormone that helps your body maintain its circadian rhythm.
Gotta Go
Flax seeds are full of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. (The flax meal mentioned in the recipe is ground flax seed.)
Pears contain pectin, a soluble fiber that has a laxative effect.
Pineapple juice has excellent digestive enzymes that help prevent constipation.
Sex on the Beet
Apples contain phenylethylamine, which gives you a natural feeling of well-being and excitement.
Beets are a natural aphrodisiac. High in boron, beets help increase human sex hormone. They are also high in natural nitrates, which increase blood flow.
Celery contains arginine, an amino acid that expands blood vessels.
Ginger can increase testosterone.
Fountain of Youth
Oranges contain vitamin C, which is effective in preventing face wrinkles, and antioxidants, which guard against skin damage. Scientifically, vitamin C plays an important role in the development of collagen, which helps to maintain the skin’s elasticity.
Sweet potatoes contain beta carotene, a powerful antioxidant that helps smooth skin and ward off wrinkles.
Recipes
All fresh juices are best if consumed immediately. Cold pressed carrot-based juices can be refrigerated at 38 degrees or less for up to 4 days. Cold pressed green- or apple-based juices will keep refrigerated for up to 7 days, always at 38 degrees or less. These recipes were provided by Leslie Zinn, president of Arden’s Garden.
Lights Out (the natural sedative)
Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes
Serves: 1
1 cup fresh spinach
1 red apple
3 large ribs celery
1/2 lemon, peeled
Rinse spinach, apple and celery. Cut into pieces that will fit feed tube of your juicer. Feed spinach, apple, celery and lemon into juicer. Discard pulp, enjoy juice.
Per serving: 137 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), 2 grams protein, 30 grams carbohydrates, 7 grams fiber, 1 gram fat (trace saturated), no cholesterol, 129 milligrams sodium.
Gotta Go (the natural laxative)
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes
Serves: 1
1/4 fresh pineapple, peeled
1 large pear
1 carrot
1 peach, fresh or frozen slices
1 tablespoon flax meal
Rinse pear, carrot and peach, if using fresh.
Cut pineapple, pear and carrot into pieces that will fit feed tube of your juicer. Feed pineapple, pear and carrot into juicer. Discard pulp, pour juice into jar of a blender. Add peach and flax meal, process until smooth. Drink immediately.
Per serving: 257 calories (percent of calories from fat, 14), 4 grams protein, 56 grams carbohydrates, 12 grams fiber, 4 grams fat (trace saturated), no cholesterol, 29 milligrams sodium.
Sex on the Beet (the natural Viagra)
Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes
Serves: 1
1 beet
1 apple
2 ribs celery
1 2-inch piece ginger
1/2 lemon, peeled
Rinse beet, apple, celery and ginger. Cut beet, apple and celery into pieces that will fit feed tube of your juicer. Feed beet, apple, celery, ginger and lemon into juicer. Discard pulp, enjoy juice.
Per serving: 137 calories (percent of calories from fat, 5), 3 grams protein, 35 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams fiber, 1 gram fat (trace saturated), no cholesterol, 135 milligrams sodium.
The Fountain of Youth (the natural lift)
Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes
Serves: 1
2 oranges, peeled
1 small sweet potato (about 3 ounces)
1 cup fresh spinach
1 large kale leaf
Rinse sweet potato, spinach and kale. Cut oranges and sweet potato into pieces that will fit feed tube of your juicer. Feed oranges, sweet potato, spinach and kale into juicer. Discard pulp, enjoy juice.
Per serving: 196 calories (percent of calories from fat, 3), 4 grams protein, 47 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams fiber, 1 gram fat (trace saturated), no cholesterol, 33 milligrams sodium.
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