Features / 7 March, 2017 / My Baba

The JuiceMan Andrew Cooper on Juicing, Buying Organic, & Children’s Eating Habits

I’ve known Andrew and his lovely wife Jane for a long time, I used to spend pretty much every weekend at their awesome store, The Mutz Nutz buying up stuff for my awesome dogs before the days of children. He’s launched this amazing new book called The JuiceMan which is filled with amazing juices, smoothies, shots, tonics, and so much more. We caught up with him, and asked him eating healthy for the whole family.

You’ve been heralded as “The JuiceMan”. Tell us, when did you start juicing and why?

My passion for juicing evolved from my family’s passion for food. I was bought up with fresh food from an early age and picking organic veggies on a Sunday morning. This evolved into a juice obsession! In my career, you are travelling continuously and it’s often hard to get good nutrition and also recover. I found drinking fresh Juice was a great way to keep my immune system and general health boosted. Then when I was in New York or LA, I really became obsessed with Cold Pressed Juice. It was such a great way to harness all that goodness in its simplest form. I am renowned by some of the hotels for emptying my mini bar and filling it with various juices, nut milks and health shots! At this time there was nothing happening in the UK around Cold Press so I took the jump and purchased my first NORWALK juicer. By then I was living in Cheshire and my wife Jane had just given birth to our daughter Taylor. We lived on this beautiful fruit farm and had a great allotment. I would spend my time making Juice Cleanses and once my friends heard, I was delivering them all over the place like the Milk Man. Juiceman was born from this and so was the Juice Cleanse Business.

When we caught up with you last you told us about you used to make lots of green juices for your wife Jane when she was pregnant, do you think this had an impact on your son’s health?

When Jane was pregnant with Jackson, I was in full flow of exploring all the great natural supplements and effects Green Smoothies could have. By consuming a pint of Green Smoothie you are giving your body all its nutritional needs. So the whole way through the pregnancy there was allot of Smoothies, E3-Live, Raw Turmeric, Goji Berries, Hemp Oil etc, alongside weekly chicken broths and raw salads. When we came to having the last scan Jackson was off the chart in every way. Im not saying it’s the only factor, but this clean nutrition dense diet has to be a factor into him being not only incredibly healthy but he is the biggest strongest 5 year old I have ever known. He is literally 4 inches taller than every kid in his year. We also managed to keep up the green smoothies from 6 months to date and its a great piece of mind for any parent knowing that your child is getting all his fruit and veg. When we design new juices, I always use my kids to help design palatable juices. My daughter Taylor helped me devise a couple in the book too 😉

You’ve got two gorgeous children, are they both pretty healthy, and what are their favourite JuiceMan recipes?

So, for Jackson he loves the Banana Man Bread which is gluten free banana bread full of nuts and seeds. We also add some hemp protein to keep the kids strong. He loves all the same smoothies as Taylor which usually revolve around some berries or bananas. My suggestions for kids would be all the milk shakes and ice creams:

• Jackson’s Breakfast Juice
• J5
• Wimbledon Winner
• Taylor’s Tipple

If you could change one thing about children’s eating habits, what would that be?

Processed foods for me are the worst. Quality of the ingredient is my biggest approach to food. I have been Raw, Vegan, Paleo but what works best for me is a diet that has mostly fresh veg and fruit and a variation of sustainable fish and meat. If I can’t identify food and how and where it was made I will not touch it. With my kids I have a very open honest approach to food and will explain benefits from food and also why they shouldn’t eat certain things. They know that sweets are bad for them and have zero nutritional value but they are allowed them on rare occasions as a treat. They see fruit as a treat and the only thing they want to drink is water or fresh juices or smoothies. We will have bone broths and porridge every week and they will be always encouraged to try everything. It’s a constant process but I think the biggest fight is to make sure they eat a good balanced diet and enjoy eating and having a family dinner.

Tell us about your signature handprint.

The handprint symbolises the journey I have had in both creating the business and also the recipes and juices. It’s about hand-picking the ingredients to hand-bottling; the product is stamped with my approval. It is also about LIFE. LONG. in terms of investing in a product that will support your nutritional needs daily enabling and long healthy life.

Is being organic really important to you, and what’s the best next thing if you can’t afford organic and want to be healthy?

Yes, absolutely, but unfortunately the term ‘organic’ is now used frivolously. As mentioned before my biggest concern is that farming is delivered in its purest form and that the ingredient is natural. In terms of meat and fish I am very strict on eating from reliable sources that promote a healthy natural existence for the animal and a humane process. I also think that the pricing is sometimes insane on organic food, so I would recommend that you source locally and use farmers’ markets where possible. I am a huge fan of Daylesford Organic and it’s great that you can now get there products on Ocado.

I also make a range of natural pet shampoos called WildWash. We looked at making them organic, but again, it pushed the prices through the roof, so we settled for using all natural ingredients and as many organic and fairtrade ingredients as possible.

Share with us your favourite juice recipe?

Juice wise would be one in the book called the THAI GREEN which is my favourite summer green juice as it has a bit of a kick to it. I am well renowned for always adding extra ginger. I’m also a big fan of the shots such as RAW HEAT.

Here’s the recipe for my Immunity Boost smoothie:

Ingredients: 

• 300ml coconut or almond milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• a small bunch of mint
• 2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled
• 1 red grapefruit, peeled and chopped
• 2 handfuls of frozen strawberries
• a handful of ice cubes

Method:

Wash, peel and chop the ingredients where necessary. Put all the ingredients into a blender in the order they’re listed. Blitz until smooth.

JUICEMAN TIP: Sprinkle with hemp seeds and chia seeds for added protein and omegas
JUICEMAN FACT: Vanilla is a great antioxidant

How would you sum yourself up in one sentence?

Creative, adventurous, passionate and impulsive.