Archives for March 2016

Bentonite Clay: Bee Cosmopolitan’s Secret For Fighting Last Night’s Ails

March 3, 2016 By Jen Chase

What’s pink, sweet and healthy all over? Bee Cosmopolitan! Our newest juice in the TJS lineup has made its exciting debut on the menu at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and it features a very special substance: bentonite clay…a game-changing ingredient that could become your diet’s new antidote to life’s occasional ails and over-indulgence.

What’s bentonite clay?

Ever hear the phrase that something’s “old as dirt?” When it comes to bentonite clays—and there are a few different types but here we’ll talk about the kind you ingest—this ingredient of the earth and from the earth pretty much is earth. According to Camden Whole Health in Maine, some call it “living earth” because clay is basically weathered volcanic ash that formed an electromagnetic charge when the ash was born from thermal-dynamic heat and volcanic action.

So, yeah. Super-special earth. Magic earth, even. Because if taken the right way it really can help alleviate what ails you.

How does bentonite clay work?

When ingested, it is clay’s electromagnetic charge that is responsible for its ability to attract toxic materials in our system, hold them, and then flush ‘em through the body through our digestive tract. And by “toxic materials” we mean everything from germs, heavy metals and pesticides, to parasites and, yes: alcohol.

Why we’re touting Bee Cosmopolitan at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas?

It’s that whole attracting-alcohol-from-your-system-and-flushing-it-through-your-digestive-tract bit we think could help The Cosmopolitan’s Beeautiful Party People have a more pleasant tomorrow after any previous night’s indulgence. Whether you’ve over-done it at STK on a rich meal or knocked back a few too many at Marquee, bentonite clay can act as a magnet for the nasties in your system. And in the recipe that Marcella and Jamie developed, Bee Cosmopolitan’s lemonade-like flavor will make it a welcome nightcap for not only how it makes you feel but how smooth it goes down.

When should you drink it?

Bentonite clay is best taken at bed, so if you know you’re going out, plan a few days ahead and have a few Bee Cosmopolitans in your fridge. We also recommend drinking plenty of water, since clay can absorb many times its weight in liquid and the more you drink, the more you’ll flush. But bee warned: The clay is so good at attracting and flushing, it may effect the efficacy of certain drugs and medicines you take. (“Effect the efficacy?” We’re going with it.) What we mean is if you depend on exact doses of heart, blood pressure, mental health, or anti-convulsant meds, avoid bentonite clay or at the very least, chat up your trusted medical professional for some pre-sipping advice.

In The Juice ‘Cleanse’ Debate, The Word ‘Fast’ Rules

March 3, 2016 By Jen Chase

You say potato; we say potahto. We used to say “juice cleanse.” Now we say “juice fast.”

(Wha?)

Yes: The Juice Standard is experiencing a paradigm shift. In the last few months we’ve paused to re-eval our core beliefs about cleanses, fasts and how we describe the tools we use to tweak our health. Now that we’ve successfully mulled it over for ourselves, we’re ready for the big reveal to you.

And Here’s The Big Reveal

We’ve made a very important decision: We’re moving away from talk of “cleanses” and toward talk of “fasting,” a change that may seem small but one that’s of high import.

Here’s why.

A “fast” is typically when anyone gives their body a complete break from chewing food or drastically reduces their caloric intake. Why would anyone want to do this? All the energy that goes into digesting food diverts to other parts of our body’s daily existence.

The benefits of fasting are the same as cleansing:

You still feel slim in the belly.
Your energy increases and cognition feels a little sharper.
You sleep better.
It’s easier to get up in the morn.
Your body can better heal wounds (or other issues) since more energy is going to where it needs it.
Toxins are removed from your system.

But in addition to all those goodies, in the last few years, well researched books like the UK phenomenon The Fast Diet have touted the medical benefits of allowing the body to rest for 12 to 16 hours between our nighttime meal and what we eat the following day. And those bennies include reversed signs of aging, alleviating arthritis and asthma, and helping the brain turn over new cells quicker, which increases our thinking capacity and makes room for new cells.

What we formerly referred to as the TJS’s “Standard Cleanse” clocks in at just about 1200 calories. Any deep reduction in calories—especially when the only source of calories or nutrients is liquid and not solid—will feel like a fast. And anything that feels like a fast is going to feel healing.

So, Why Not Keep Calling a Cleanse a Cleanse?

For starters, there’s one poo-poo’er in every group of juicers that loves pointing out that we have kidneys and livers to cleanse our bods. And truthfully, they’re right. Our liver and kidneys filter blood that carries nutrients throughout our body, and then those organs help filter, flush and cleanse them fully from our bods via our urine and poo. But we also know that juicing helps facilitate this process more effectively and efficiently…so juicing certainly helps those organs do their organy thing.

Is It More Accurate To Call Flushing the System with Juice a “Fast?”

In a word, yes.

At roughly 1200 cold-pressed calories per day, our newly referred to “juice fasts” provide the same balanced nutrition, hydration and satisfaction that rests digestion, and prime the gut to energize the body—and your busy life!—just like our previously referred to “juice cleanses.”

This is our story and we’re sticking to it:

The STANDARD FAST is a beeautiful entry-level fast. Your juice consumption is spread across six, 16-ounce bottles of original-recipe flavors developed to deliver maximum satisfaction (read: satiety) and crave-ability (read: taste).

The GREEN STANDARD is for the seasoned juicer who prefers navigating an all green-juice fast. Feelings of soaring energy and super-hero stardom can neither be confirmed nor denied.

The “B.Y.O.F.” (Build Your Own Fast) is an exercise in craftsmanship and deliciousness. TJS staff will personally pair our menu with your palate and health goals.

Can you still call a TJS cleanse a cleanse? Course you can. But with all of fasting’s benefits and the research available that touts them, file this paradigm shift Sesame Street style…under the letter “K” for Knowledge Is Power.

Microbes, Gut Health, Juice, Poo and You

March 3, 2016 By Jen Chase

Feeling imbalanced? Know something’s wrong in your bod, gut or head but can’t figure out what? When our internal selves seem externally off, first thing we at The Juice Standard look at is our diet. And since what goes in must go out, we spend an awful lot of time evaluating our proverbial “output”…literally talking shit every day.

Have any friends obsessed with their daily deposits? Are you? Don’t be shy, Bees. Everybody does it. Here’s why knowing your poo is like a secret little key to knowing your health.

Why do you think “you are what you eat” gets repeated so often? Beecause it’s true. And it’s never more visible—prove-able!—than after we poo. Why? At its most basic level, our poo is what’s left from the food we eat once our bodies pull all the vitamins and nutrients from it that we need. But if you’ve lived life thinking all poo is equal, you’re wrong. Capable of varying from day to day, meal to meal, the color, shape and odor of our poo is like our own little Magic 8 Ball about our diet…all that’s good about it, and especially what we might be lacking.

We love this cheat-sheet infographic from HealthWorks.my that shares how much you can glean from a glance at what your behind leaves behind.

But knowing how to read your poo is only the second half of the battle since you can’t read output without understanding input. And that’s where juicing, gut health and something called your microbiome comes in.

What Is A Microbiome?

Microbes are microscopic organisms that live everywhere on earth, and when they organize to live in a singular environment, they form something called a microbiome. Closest to home for we humans, our guts are filled with up to 100 trillion little organisms that create our own personal microbiome…and it’s our microbiome that makes us, us.

Why Does Your Microbiome Matter?

When you feed yourself, you’re actually feeding your gut’s microbiome. And since our miraculous gut is a veritable manufacturing mecca for everything the body needs, what goes into your gut gets turned into miraculous, health-promoting things: immunity-fighting blood cells; glowy skin; and maybe most important for our work-life balance, serotonin. Our gut regulates 90 percent of the body’s serotonin production—our happy feeling, peace-keeping neurotransmitter—and is indeed responsible for the strength of our overall immunity.

That’s why if you control what you eat, you not only control how you fight infection but you can control how you feel, enjoying things like…

• Improved cognition
• Increased energy
• Awakened tastebuds
• Enhanced health
• Heightened immunity

What Should Your Microbiome Eat?
Give your gut too much sugar, meat and processed carbs and you’ll create bad bacteria…you know: bad feels, bad immunity. But nourish your gut with fresh produce, good fats and high-quality carbs, and the gut’s glorious flora and fauna delivers the health riches your body deserves.

Now we may be biased, but nothing feeds the gut its necessary flora and fauna like organic produce…especially the kind The Juice Standard cold presses into our juices and nut milks. And there’s no faster way to feed your gut the beeautiful nutrients it needs to serve your body, mind and spirit than by drinking cold-pressed juice beecause within 15 minutes, the gut can absorb the nutrients in every Singleton.

When it comes to caring for your gut, Bees, it comes down to this: No poo? No health. Know poo? Know health.

And now you know.