Courtesy Photo

Since 2009, Santa Barbara’s health-conscious have taken advantage of powerfully rich and nutritious über-juice created by area veggie-alchemists Ascending Health Juicery. Although the juice is created five days a week throughout the year and is meant to provide what cofounder Alfred Pomerleau calls “the best kind of medicine” on an ongoing basis, it can also provide the foundation for a deeply healing New Year’s juice cleanse.

Along with partner Deb Monroe, Pomerleau and a few employees are up at 5 a.m. each weekday to produce the juice and deliver it to customers from Goleta to Carpinteria. They employ a unique extraction process that creates juice 400 times more nutritious than what typical juice bars offer. They’ve also developed four proprietary recipes that tap mostly dense leafy vegetables and herbs, not watery produce like cucumber or celery.

But what truly sets them apart — to the benefit of those who drink their juice — is their near-slavish dedication to providing a truly healing elixir. Their juice comes in glass Mason jars, not plastic, and all returned jars are washed and sanitized each night so that the business creates almost no waste. All vegetable and fruit pulp is composted. All produce is juiced within one to three days of picking. Deliveries are made in a hybrid. They’ve even been known to hike into the foothills to pick seasonal wild herbs like fennel, milk thistle, or mint.

The resulting juice bursts not only with nutrients but also integrity. “You get the benefit of the vitality of the plants themselves, which are alive when they are being juiced,” Monroe says. And because the body absorbs 98 percent of the nutrients in the juice without it needing to be digested, “It’s like having an IV, like having the nutrients pumped directly into your system.”

Pomerleau, who also works as an acupuncturist, has spent years developing an intelligent juice-fasting protocol for clients and will give a free talk on his approach on Saturday, January 5, at The Gym Next Door, 901 Linden Avenue, Carpinteria. For more info, see ascendinghealthjuicery.com.

Login

Please note this login is to submit events or press releases. Use this page here to login for your Independent subscription

Not a member? Sign up here.