Keep it strictly fluid this January — just like the super-celebs and their power drinks
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In offices across the land, colleagues are resorting to drastic measures. Binning the biscuit tin? Entry level. Ditching carbs? Rookie. The real hardcore don’t do solids: they’re taking on Banuary with only a superdrink for energy.
As a rapid cure for Christmas excess, superdrinks have an awesome appeal: puritanical in the extreme — playing to the all-or-nothing resolution cycle of January — and packed to bursting with things that look as if they’ll cure what ails you.
But until last week, wannabe converts were all at sea. Luckily, at the 11th hour, Queen Gwynnie weighed in with a £50 hot chocolate, included on her Goop detox diet. Don’t be fooled: there’s no sugar in the recipe. Instead, it’s a potent blend of almond butter, mint chlorophyll, spirulina, unsweetened almond milk, pink Himalayan sea salt and chocolate protein powders. For some it was a welcome missive from on high. The message? Anything goes — provided it’s prescriptively crammed with nutrients.
“Juicing provides your body with an enormous boost of nutrients, enzymes and vitamins in the fastest and most convenient way,” says mixologist Dan Thomson, who creates superdrinks for Covent Garden’s Juice Club. “It allows us a much-needed break from processed food, especially after Christmas: kick-starting the metabolism in the purest way possible.”
Gwynnie’s not the only one to start the new year on a fruity note. Marc Jacobs has a bespoke superdrink. The Volcano, created by his chef Lauren Gerrie, is a blend of lemon juice, ginger, cayenne pepper and oil of oregano that the fashion designer uses to fight flu in the run-up to fashion week. It’s reminiscent of Beyoncé’s cayenne pepper diet that helped her to drop a stone and a half for Dreamgirls. Megababe Rosie Huntington-Whiteley blends apple, celery, bananas, pears, spinach and lemon juice to keep her body Victoria’s Secret ready.
Others insist superdrinks aren’t just for the super-rich. Oonagh Laifeartaigh, 30, associate co-ordinator of fresh produce at Whole Foods Market, does two or three juice diets a year. She finds it clears her head and skin, overcomes sugar cravings and results in a weight loss of around half a stone at a time. It’s like magic — if magic involved days of protracted warfare with a blender.
Indeed, Whole Foods in Kensington practises what Laifeartaigh preaches, opening a pop-up “Jungle Juicery” in its front window. Juices cost £3.49 and recipes include a “Green Lemonade” — kale, spinach, lemon and apple juice — or a “Rise and Shine” (pineapple, mango, grapes and ginger, blended with apple juice).
Old hands include Chelsea girl Millie Mackintosh, who chugs a green smoothie of chlorella and spirulina by rawfairies.com when she’s trying to reboot. After her break-up with Danny Cipriani, Kelly Brook detoxed with a holy trinity of juices, Instagramming a pic revealing her secrets: “3 Day Liver Flush #OrangeGingerGarlic CayennePepperOliveOilLemon followed by a shot of Wheatgrass and WaterMelon.” Quite a cocktail.
So if Dry January has left you gasping for tonic, superdrinks could be just the thing to quench your thirst.