Category: <span>Health+Wellness</span>

Hydrate WHealthfully with TJS Cold-Pressed Juice

May 3, 2016 By Jen Chase

We totes hate to sound like your mom, here but hydration is beeyond imperative for good health. It’s good for the skin, it’s good for maintaining body weight, it’s good for facilitating digestion, and it’s especially important as the temps rise on us during our beloved spring and summertime outdoor activity. (And that last one is especially important in the desert of Nevada.)

But for as much as mag articles and health professionals talk about hydration, there are still some misnomers about it. Truth be told, it’s not only about slogging enough H2O. There are good ways to hydrate…and even better ways to hydrate. The best way to do it is to implement plant-based water. And the best way to learn about it is straight from our resident lover of all-things Touting the Juicy Holy Grail, our co-founder Jamie Stephenson.

In a recent request for info for an L.A. Times article, Jamie had this to share about how to hydrate WHealthfully:

In the bloodstream, there are minerals called electrolytes that keep our brains, muscles and organs functioning well. Too much water but not enough electrolytes can be as dangerous as not enough water. TJS’s organic, daily-made, cold-pressed juices are essentially reverse-osmosis plant water…aka, ‘sunshine water in a bottle.’ The rain falls from the sky onto mineral-rich earth; the plants’ root systems suck up moisture and minerals to their leaves; and we press out that liquid for you to drink. The vitamins and minerals (and everything else that’s good for us in plants and produce) are far more effective in their bioavailability than any supplement because they’re not been denatured in any way. With our juice…nutrition and hydration go straight from the plant into a convenient glass bottle to your thirst-quenched lips!

Something else of high import to remember (and this goes for no matter where you live) is that gauging your hydration levels can be hard when you’re active…and it can be especially hard to judge hydration in littletons as they get their outdoor play on. We’re not medical professionals, nor did we stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but we do want to share the common-sense knowledge that summer is a prime time to watch for heat stroke signs.

Headaches, weakness, dizziness, and even cramps, nausea or vomiting can all be precursors to heat stroke. And even more important to remember is this: By the time heat stroke actually hits, the skin presents with less sweat, and more red, hot and dry skin. Over-active breathing and heart rate are also signs that can be mistaken for the normal reactions to activity…but all of it is heat-stroke related and requires immediate attention.

Our point in all of this? Drink more plant water! And while we tout the bennies of cooling veggies like cucumber and watermelon, the truth is, all plant water is beeyond good for you. So to maintain your safety and your body’s optimum levels, during warm weather (and any weather), keep the liquids coming. Beecause we are what we think and we are what we drink!

April=Allergy Relief the TJS Way

April 6, 2016 By Jen Chase

Spring is officially only a few weeks old, but we feel like we’re already upping our A-Is-For-Allergy game, as we sharpen the trusted tools in our tool belts for holding back our yearly wheezes and sneezes.

(Thanks, Trees, for popping your pollen early. Not.)

You may have heard about intermittent fasting (IF)—eating during a window of set hours each day to promote the body’s burning the fuel it has before adding more in. It’s widely reported that IF may be excellent for building immunity, and addressing allergies. And we’ve already talked a little about fasting and our own vernacular shift here at The Juice Standard, we believe there’s a way to combine these tactics of IF and enjoying juice fasts by simply adding a few allergy-fighting Singletons or shots from our menu to your daily sked of eating.

Here’s what we recommend:

TJS SHOTS

The Juice Standard’s wellness shots are potent 2- to 3-ounce sips that can up the ante of everyone’s path toward WHealth™™ and glowing self.

With a concentrated dose of raw, unpasteurized, cold-pressed juice and select herbs, spices and superfoods from nature’s drugstore, our shots are designed to be downed individually but may be combined with juices in the TJS repertoire for a truly optimized, tricked-out taste. (Ask our Bees beehind the counter for perfect pairings since some shots are meant to be enjoyed solo.)

From increasing energy and immunity, to being the tastiest liquid vitamin you’ll ever enjoy, our shots are like the espresso of the juice world: bold and strong, but filled with things like blue-green algae (for optimized health) and raw apple cider vinegar (for fighting colds and increasing metabolism).

“Shoot it and be done with it” is what we like to say! Each shot is a true one-and-done step in your wellness routine.

Name: WELLNESS SHOT

Boastful Benefits: Need some spring in your step? Having some tummy trubs? Not feeling your best? This powerful combo helps boost immunity with vitamin C; increase circulation with the pepper’s heat; and ease stomach discomfort thanks to the ginger’s stellar digestive enzymes. An excellent shot, any time of day.

Ingredients: Ginger, lemon, cayenne pepper

Tastes…hot and spicy with a citrus kick. It’s grownup lemonade on steroids. (And did we say it’s hot? Beecuase it is.)

Name: FLU SHOT

Boastful Benefits: Turmeric is, like, the Superman of Spices, long researched and well documented by The Cleveland Clinic and National Institutes of Health for its ability to improve cognitive function in patients with neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s disease; ALS); as well as slowing the growth of some types of cancer cells. But turmeric is also like nature’s ibuprofen, and if taken regularly can help reduce inflammation in everyone from gym warriors to arthritis sufferers. Bonus? The black pepper in our FluShot helps the bod absorb that turmeric even faster. (And the apple cider vinegar is great for aiding digestion and metabolism.)

Ingredients: Raw apple cider vinegar, oregano oil, turmeric, black pepper

Tastes…pleasantly acidic and herbal (and thanks to that turmeric and pepper—and assuming you like Indian food—faintly reminiscent of your fave yellow curry).

Name: E3LIVE® SHOT

Boastful Benefits: Blue-green algae contains some of the most concentrated amounts of protein known to the plant world, so for vegetarian and vegan eaters concerned about their intake, this special shot helps with all-around health. Blue-green algae is also known for increasing energy, balancing mood, and boosting our overall vitamin and amino acid intake.

Ingredients: E3Live® blue-green algae and coconut water

Tastes…vegetal and grassy, with a hint of the tropics. Think walking through a freshly cut yard while nursing a piña colada. Minus the pineapple. And the sugar. And, pushing a mower.

TJS ALLERGY-FIGHTING SINGLETONS

Want something a little less strong? Any of our juices and nut milks with turmeric will do you no wrong. From Bee Legendary to Bee WHealthy™, there are sips to satisfy all kinds of palates. Ask one of our Bees beehind the country to steer you in the right direction. Which in our hope, is as far away from a tissue as possible.

Facts About Fructose

April 6, 2016 By Jen Chase

If you’ve read this blog; met Jamie and Marcella and heard them wax poetic about health; or if you’ve visited any TJS location in person and have talked ingredients with our Bees beehind the counters, you know that no matter the health concern, we beelieve there’s a healing juice for everything that needs some healing. That’s why whenever we hear folks bestowing green juice with bountiful accolades (which it deserves) and poo-pooing juice with some fruit in it (which they shouldn’t), we worry. We worry, because fruit being considered “unhealthy” couldn’t and shouldn’t be further from the truth.

TJS juices do contain naturally derived fructose—also known as “fruit sugar”—and when consumed in mass quantities, like everything else in life, too much can certainly cause harm. But all TJS juices are in fact healthy (assuming you maintain a healthy lifestyle in the first place).

How?

1) According to this journal article by the National Institutes of Health (and others), we humans were born to detect sweetness…so to some extent, we probably shouldn’t defy nature, right? Our tongues have receptors all over the place that get great pleasure from a drippy bite of watermelon, the sweet-tart pop of ripe berries or the crunch of a crisp apple. And all of that makes indulging in fruit—like, for instance, a chewy date—just as satisfying and so much more healthful than opting for a processed candy bar.

2) Fructose or not, fresh, unprocessed fruit is filled with vitamins, minerals and nutrients. In moderation, fresh fruit is as healthful as it is satisfying.

3) For folks with metabolic issues or conditions that require living in a high-calorie world, TJS’s fruit-forward juices provide a perfect balance of healthy calories and nutrition by serving up two-to-three pounds of produce in every bottle…along with the absorbable vitamin and mineral bennies that come from lovin’ on your fruit.

4) All it takes is 15 minutes (or fewer) for the blood to start absorbing nutrients without having to break down and digest fibrous food to get to the goods. And that makes cold-pressed juice a huge help to people with diabetes, or anyone else with a condition that requires quickly raising sugar levels because the body absorbs juice so fast.

Cold-pressed Juice with Fruit In It: 1

Haters: 0

With all this fruit love, let’s dial it back to the green stuff for a sec so we can remember something important:

TJS’s lowest-sugar juices—ones that are mostly vegetable?—can equally be a part of someone’s healthy diet for the way they won’t send someone down an unhealthy path thanks to their low fructose content.

So, see? TJS juice proffers a win-win for everyone. Every TJS juice is beneficial. And if you’re an otherwise healthy person, the calories and healthy fat in a full bottle of nut milk is never going to be like the calories in a burger, either.

Calories are calories. But for sure, some choices are better than others.

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.

Who Are The Bees In Our Hive? Urban Hydro Greens.

February 4, 2016 By Jen Chase

In the last 5 years there’s been a huge uptick in people caring about where their food comes from, since the fewer the miles ingredients travel between harvesting and cooking, the more nutritious they are.

Couple that feel-goodyness with a return to how food was harvested in the olden days (i.e., without pesticides) and you’ve got folks craving the purity of organic produce just as much as The Juice Standard does. So in this occasional feature, “Who Are The Bees In Our Hive?” we’re introducing you Bees to the farmers and purveyors who help TJS do the deliciously good work that we do.

Urban Hydro Greens: Go Small or Go Home.

Know those delicate, frilly little greens that started topping salads and sammies a few years ago? Hardly for show, they’re called microgreens and they’re harvested for more than cuteness.

The threadlike shoots that veggies like broccoli, kale and peas produce just after they sprout are massively nutrient dense: A handful of broccoli microgreens actually has the same vitamin and mineral content as a pound and a half of its full-size cousin. (Imagine the chewing you can save!) Plus, their size makes them easier to digest than the full-fledged veg…so people who have trouble tolerating typical, gas-inducing culprits like broccoli or kale do much better with littletons greens.

TJS uses micro greens in our Field Greens Salad and our newest juice, Bee Resilient. And we buy them from right here in Las Vegas from Urban Hydro Greens, founded by farmer Chelsea Dora and her partner, Dennis Vitali, where thanks to their hard work, within 24 hours Urban Hydro Greens’ greens go from soil to TJS salad plate, wrap or bottle. Can’t get much more local than that. Here, Dora shares some ins and outs of this farm just five minutes off the Las Vegas Strip.

US (The Humble Bee): You’ve created a vertical farm, indoors, in the desert…and a very successful one, at that. You must still get weirdo looks.

THEM (Urban Hydro Greens): We have birthday parties. We teach classes. We sell “Garden In A Bag.” Most microgreen farmers you speak to are [growing] for specific restaurants, and we do that too; but we have a different take. I’m in business to teach people. I’d like to “Mary Kay” this, where mothers can start their own farms as a source of income and feed their own communities.

US: You sell microgreens at farmers markets. Is the home cook savvy enough to buy them?

THEM: When I first started going to farmers markets, maybe one in 50 people knew what they were. Now? About one in 15 do.

US: What’s making them more popular?

THEM: Microgreens are more gentle on the digestion…and their live, active enzymes break down easily, so the body is more capable of absorbing them. One handful of microgreens is up to 40 times more potent than the vegetable itself. They’re like live multi vitamins. We like to say, “Don’t just garnish your food; garnish your life!”

US: What’s in the TJS blend you grow for our salads and juice?

THEM: We call it our “Local Superfood Microgreens Blend.” It contains micro broccoli, kale, pea shoots, red cabbage, bok choy, and amaranth, and it does everything from fights cancer and increases immunity; delivers plant protein and amino acids; makes hair, skin and nails shine; and even detoxes the liver and gallbladder. The mircogreens in the blend were carefully chosen to crate the ultimate meal booster…[and] the easiest way to get your daily vitamins and minerals in one serving!

Turmeric: First Word in Alzheimer’s, Inflam and Good Health

November 4, 2015 By Jen Chase

Turmeric. She’s a knobby little root. All versatile and orange (except when she hits your fingers and becomes the most brilliant shade of stuck-on yellow), come fall this lassie enjoys her moment as seasonal produce since she’s most abundant right now.

(But, Shh: We hardly love her beecause she won’t play hard to get.)

This popular and comforting flavoring for curries is one of the most healing roots in rootdom thanks to turmeric’s curcumin, a powerful compound that has been long heralded for its ability to boost brain health. It’s well cited—documented in articles like these by the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer’s Society—that turmeric positively effects cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease patients; and from Parkinson’s to glioblastomas, it’s a diet addition on the lips of neurologists and oncologists alike.

For better or worse, more than a few TJS Team Bees have been told to feed it to ailing family members, and while it’s a hard metaphorical pill to swallow, knowing there’s something natural to combat disease that causes more sadness than smiles can be a life preserver amid a sea of bad diagnoses…the needle in the haystack when you need to sew your favorite button back on.

But as if it weren’t enough that it helps salve issues in the brain, turmeric is revered even more for being an everyday inflammation tamer. Research by the Cleveland Clinic (and aren’t we lucky to have our very own campus right here in Las Vegas?) and University of Maryland’s Medical Center shows that when taken for things like aches, pains and arthritis—inflammation that’s not caused by serious secondary condition or disease but the kind we can feel when the barometer drops or as we grow old gracefully (right?)—turmeric can be as effective as ibuprofen.

If you ever have the pleasure of talking with TJS co-founder and CEO Jamie Stephenson about the far-reaching benefits of one of TJS’s darling ingredients, you’ll hear her wax poetic about turmeric juice’s beeautiful ability to easily deliver its prized curcumin beecause drinking it makes it so easy to absorb into our system. It gets into our bloodstream even faster when paired with a pinch of cracked black pepper: The curcumin in turmeric acts as a bodyguard against molecules that aim to cause chronic inflammation, and black pepper increases our ability to absorb it by 1000 percent.

Throwback! Our signature green never goes out of style.

At home, it’s easy to inject your diet with turmeric (though take care when handling it: root and powder will turn everything it touches a stubborn gold). Doctors who prescribe it (as in this reference from the New York Times) often recommend a 1000 mg/day dose, available in capsules, though intense ones can hit 2000 mg. But for the sake of cold-pressed juicy convenience, try the delish products into which Marcella and Jamie have already integrated turmeric for you. (WELLcome!)

BEE ON POINT (a blend of cucumber, celery, carrot, apple, kale, beet, dandelion, radish, lemon, ginger, turmeric and black pepper);
BEE TRUE TO YOU (a sweet-yet-spicy juice with cucumber, lemon, ginger, turmeric, honey, and cayenne);
BEE WHEALTHY™ (our signature recipe featuring cucumber, celery, romaine, kale, apple, dandelion, parsley, lemon, ginger, and turmeric); and
BEE LEGENDARY (our eggnog-inspired nut milk made with raw cashew, raw Brazil nut, raw walnut, turmeric, ginger, vanilla bean, cardamom, nutmeg, clove, pink Himalayan salt, cracked black pepper, and raw local honey).

Also on the menu are turmeric shots—strong doses of the big “T” combined with oregano oil, ginger and apple cider vinegar—that combine just the right ingredients to promote full absorption of curcumin.

And though this has nada to do with turmeric, we’re shouting out just one little thing, oh, in the name of something else that’s seasonal and kind of orange and sorta yellow. For a limited time (i.e., until organic pumpkin leaves for another year), coffee lovers can spice up their typical Bee Invincible with our favorite fall flavors. Our newly released Harvest Spice Bee Invincible includes organic espresso, house-made pumpkin pureé, cinnamon, clove, vanilla, ginger, raw agave, cardamom, coconut oil, and your choice of grass-fed butter or ghee.

To know TJS is to know we’re all about the flavor base (no: not that kind, but she’s got a rockin’ message). If healthy stuff doesn’t taste good it’s hella harder to slog it down. But rarely, if never, do Marcella and Jamie make a decision that’s not based in the betterment of improving your WHealth™ and glowing self. And having turmeric in your ingredient arsenal is just one more way to keep yourself healthy so you can enjoy living the the fullest as long as we all shall live.

Sing it, Girl.

The True Price of Organics: Pay today, play later.

October 24, 2015 By Jen Chase

The jig is up.

Give up the ghost.

Stop the madness.

(Your turn to share your fave phrase for calling bullshit.)

Bees, it’s official. Hate to say it, but we know what you think. What you really think. And not all of you, but many. Actually, a lot of you….and you of the Collective You know who you are, always lamenting on Insta and FB about why organic juice is so frigging expensive.

It’s a fact that seems to confound you. Leaves you totally perplexed. Some of you even feign shock that the cost of our cold-pressed juice, nut milks, smoothies, espresso drinks and chewables like salads and fruit leathers and nut butters—all made from the best ingredients that money can buy—is unrealistically high despite taking the very best of something (organic produce) and turning it into the very best of something else (our menu of deliciousness).

Really, Bees. We ask you: Would you not expect two gorgeous copulating people to create a beautiful baby? Don’t other amazing things—chocolate and peanut butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano and a crisp pear, stripes and florals, wine and everything—come together to make the best of the best? That’s what happens when juiceries like The Juice Standard (TJS) decide to commit to using organic produce in their products. The math seems simple: When we use the best, we get the best. And though it’s sometimes a little sad for your wallet, it’s baller for your health.

See, we know our juice is spendy compared to others in the Great Juicy Las Vegas Landscape. TJS’s cold-pressed stuff made from sumptuous, 100-percent organic ingredients is in fact more than the $6, $7 or $8 bottles sold outside our walls. Honestly? As a full-fledged member of Ye Mighty Planet-wide Coalition Of Companies That Sell Organic Ingestibles*, for the life of us we cannot figure out how to politely defend our pricing to all y’all without seeming defensive. And since in our defenselessness our safety lies, instead of flat-out coming off as whiny bitches who just wanna be understood, hows about we use a real-life example of the unabashed price differential between organic food and its conventional cousin?

So last week, TJS’ fearless COO Marcella priced conventional romaine lettuce at $11 a case. Know the price of the very same variety, grown and harvested organically? Between $30 and $40 per case. For the same product!

Same.product.

So for a pile of delicate greens that most assuredly soaked up every blessed pesticide a conventional farmer doused ‘em with to make ‘em grow, TJS paid nearly double for the naked stuff, just to ensure that your bod (and the bods of those you love) stayed healthy and undeniably pesticide free. And beelieve it: With no tough skin to scrub or peel, if the lettuce was fed something like, oh, Roundup, everyone who ate it would eat it, too.

Marcella paid double for your naked lettuce. And it’s a choice she and Jamie make with every order.

If you superstar mathletes out there multiply that kind of price point difference by all the produce we use in our juices, nutmilks and chewables, by now it must be easier to see why every organic product a juicery sells is going to be more expensive than conventional. But we figure it’s worth it, since our products run no risk of getting Roundup into your system.

(Roundup. You know Roundup, right? The stuff that yet again was outed by Reuters to have another lawsuit against it for allegedly causing cancer in the farmers who have long sprayed it on their plants, among others.)

Conventional products, conventionally speaking, aren’t unheard of on conventional farms…but you’ll never have to worry about that with TJS’s organic partner farms. Want proof? Here’s a handful of the as-local-as-we-can-find-‘em farmers we partner with to buy organic produce for your juice:

Thanks to our info graphic-making friends at The Organic Center, we can get a pretty clear visual of how far reaching the choice to buy organic really is.

Nevada Fresh Pak

Cal-Organic Farms

Viva Tierra Organic

Something Good Organics

Grimmway Farms

Del Rey Avocado Company

Jamie and Marcella say this all the time and it bears repeating: You can pay for your health now, or you can pay for your sickness later. Our organics-believing customers respect our choices. We hope you do, too.

So when you see that our juice costs more than the average bear’s, know that we’re not pressing for the Benjamins. We’re pressing for values…and that value is twofold for us: We press for the value of filling our bodies with the most nutrient-dense liquid we can, and we press for the value that today’s care is tomorrow’s prevention.

What are your values?

*not a real coalition. We just have a flare for the dramatic.

A Book And A Pack: A Patriotic Giveaway

June 30, 2015 By Jen Chase

You know how when you read something you love, sometimes you want others to love it, too? The Juice Standard is giving back to the community this July 4 by giving out a specialty freebie that will help you bees think…while you drink. Read on.

If you follow our Facebook or Instagram posts around holidays with something to do with freedom, you might’ve sensed that The Juice Standard (TJS) would bleed red, white and blue if we cut her open. Probably blue-green algae, actually, since we’re a juicery and all. We just love this country and what it stands for.

So far this year we’ve reflected our patriotism in our “funanthropy” when we handed out juice at our local fire and police station on Memorial Day, and in May, when we collected your generously donated dollars from glass Singleton returns for the Wounded Warrior Project. And with July 4 being the momma of U.S. freedom-ringing holidays, TJS co-founder Jamie Stephenson wanted to (literally) spread the word of one of her favorite authors, Eric Greitens. Particularly, his book Resilience.

Resilience is Greitens story of being a Navy SEAL and using his experience to help teach others that hardship isn’t something one “bounces back” from, but is something that everyone can learn to move through and navigate. Not unlike many Buddhist teachings that advocate leaning into our pain as much as we embrace our happy, in the wise words on Greitens’ website, “…there is a path through pain to wisdom, through suffering to strength, and through fear to courage, if we have the virtue of resilience.”

You know how when you read something you love, sometimes you want others to love it, too? Jamie’s wholehearted passion for Greitens’ work means that from July 1-5 (but not the 4th because TJS is closed that day), the first 100 bees who purchase a Singleton Six-Pack—your choice of any six juices or nut milks—will receive a free copy of Resilience that has been personally signed by Greitens, courtesy of The Juice Standard.

The book retails for $17-$26, but if you’re already a Greitens groupie, his John Hancock on the inside cover is beyond worth. We encourage you to read it yourself but also hope you’ll consider picking up a six-pack and paying the book forward to someone in your world who you think will appreciate it.

Our road to WHealth and glowing self should edge a little beeyond our individual selves, don’t you think? We hope you’ll take advantage of this treat. And remember: #ItTakesAHive.

New Menu+ Remedies=TJS Helping You

June 13, 2015 By Jen Chase

Our menu’s new “juice remedies” and their easy-peasy codes are helping bees relieve (almost) anything life throws at us.

“C’mon, Life! Show us what you’ve got! Give us your germs, your fatigue and your post-workout aches. Give us your hangry-ass pangs, your sniffly allergy noses and the feeling that you might—just might—be getting and early visit from Aunt Flow.”

So that’s basically what our new menu would say if it could talk as it wagged a finger at all the health drama that tries to hold us back. Because along with a pretty big pair of sassy pants our newly designed menus are sporting a cheat sheet that beeautifully hollas out which TJS juices are good for what. Just pick up a menu and flip it to the back. On the far right there’s a handy list with an even handier, color-coded, acronym-filled key giving you at-a-glance access to what each TJS juice can help alleviate.

Here's a snapshot of our new menu. We hope our thoughtful 'Juice Remedies' help lead you toward your very best selves, no matter how you feel.

TJS’ “Juice Remedies.” We hope our thoughtful ‘Juice Remedies’ help lead you toward your very best selves, no matter how you feel.

Full disclosure, here: As it is for other juiceries and throughout some alternative-therapy industries—think essential oils, herbs or adaptogenics—TJS can’t claim that cold-pressed juice will full-on heal you (even though we cheekily say on our menu disclaimers that we know it often can!). But we can say that TJS-suggested remedies may (ahem) alleviate what ails you. And that’s what our little key points out.

So: If you’re feeling a little ick and want to, well, not, pick up a menu and chat up one of the wholehearted staffers behind the counter at The Hive or The Rose. They’ll help you not only navigate what tastes fantabulously good, but will point out what’s fantabulously good for your body in the areas of…

Immunity Boosting (IB)
Allergy Relief (A)
Meal Replacement (MR)
Post Workout (PW)
Extra Energy (EE)
Everyday Nutrition (EN)
Menstrual Relief (M)
Skin Glow (G)
Stress Reduction (SR)

Juice Yourself Healthy…With Ginger

June 3, 2015 By Jen Chase

You’ve probably long known ginger is a powerhouse in the healthy lifestyle department, but do you know why? Decades of research backs this root’s benefits. Here’s why TJS loves it (and why you should, too).

Our Wellness and Flu Shots are just two ways to spice up your life (and health) the TJS way…with ginger!

TJS’ CEO and Co-Founder Jamie Stephenson is our resident juice-u-cator when it comes to keeping us honest about the bennies in our products’ ingredients. But since even she (and the rest of us!) have to look stuff up every now and then, a recent surf of the Internets pulled up a not-so-recent yet still-so-relevant study about one heck of a powerful little root. And as usual, one bite from the ol’ Information Apple led us down a path to more research and taught us even more about one of The Juice Standard’s most relied upon ingredients: Ginger.

BACKSTORY ON A RIGHTEOUS ROOT

The article that really opened our eyes—Ginger Inhibits Cell Growth and Modulates Angiogenic Factors In Ovarian Cancer Cells—lives at PubMed.gov, a site maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. Though written in 2007, the abstract calls out ovarian cancer as “the most lethal gynecologic malignancy” and the fifth highest cause of death by cancer in women.

Scary.

But once you get over the article’s fright factor, it’s enlightening to learn how ginger may potentially prevent the development of a certain pathway in an ovarian cancer cell thanks to its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties.

Not-so-scary.

That spicy research is far from isolated as ginger has been the focus of medical studies for decades. In the abstract of a 2005 study, Ginger—An Herbal Medicinal Product With Broad Anti-Inflammatory Actions, it’s noted that since the 70s, ginger has been identified as an “herbal medicinal product that shares pharmacological properties with non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs” and that it “modulates biochemical pathways activated in chronic inflammation.” All that from something you can pick up from your local grocery store.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

The mentions above substantiate what The Juice Standard has long beelieved:

The road to WHealth and glowing self is paved with the tops of juice bottles…not bottles of meds.

Course we beelieve there’s a place for Western medicine. A huge place. But isn’t it a good feeling to know there’s a food-based tool like ginger that when added to our let’s-keep-ourselves-healthy arsenal, we can stave off disease-causing inflammation? Isn’t it a good feeling to know that YOU, our Beeautiful Juicers, may choose to control some of your own health destiny?

Yepper. We think so, too.

HELP US HELP YOU TAKE ACTION

If you want to inject more ginger in your diet, here are the TJS products that will help put you in the driver’s seat of your own health by keeping your internal inflammation down, and your gorgeous health up-up-up:

Bee WHealthy™
Bee On Point
Bee True To You
Bee Royal (this baby has EXTRA ginger!)
Bee Grateful
Bee Legendary (nut milk)
Flu Shot
Wellness Shot