Juice for athletes who need calories, not a cleanse
Walk into any juice bar and the menu reads like a diet plan. Detox. Reset. Cleanse. Slim. For most customers that is exactly right. For a 240-pound athlete trying to hold weight through a season, it is exactly wrong.
This post is for that athlete, and for the parents, trainers and coaches feeding him.
Why most juice works against you
A typical green juice is built around cucumber, celery and leafy greens. Those are wonderful for hydration and micronutrients. They are also about 90 percent water. A 16-ounce bottle might carry 80 calories.
A lineman burning 4,500 calories a day cannot afford an 80-calorie snack that fills his stomach and crowds out real food. He needs every bottle to pull its weight.
What a fueling juice looks like
The difference is the produce. Dense produce makes dense juice.
Sweet potato: slow carbohydrates, real calories, potassium.
Beet: nitrates that support blood flow and endurance, plus natural sugars for a pre-training lift.
Carrot: calories, beta-carotene, a sweetness that makes the bottle easy to finish.
Pineapple: fast carbohydrates for the post-training window, bromelain for recovery.
Banana: potassium and calories, and it makes the whole bottle go down easier.
Ginger and turmeric: not for calories. For the soreness that comes with two-a-days.
A bottle built this way carries two to three times the calories of a green juice, and all of it comes from food. No syrup, no protein powder, no added sugar.
When to drink it
Timing matters more than most people think.
60 to 90 minutes before training: a sweet potato or beet base. It digests easily and it is in the bloodstream by the time practice starts.
Within 30 minutes after: the biggest bottle of the day, ideally with something fast like pineapple. This is the window where the body is hungriest for fuel and the one most athletes miss because they are tired and want to lie down.
Mid-morning or mid-afternoon: whenever there is no time for a real meal. A bottle in the bag beats nothing.
What this is not
It is not a meal replacement and it is not a substitute for protein. A big athlete still needs eggs, chicken, beef, beans and milk. Juice fills the gaps around those meals and gets calories in during the hours when sitting down to eat is impossible.
It is also not medicine. Juice is food. If an athlete has a medical condition or is on a doctor's eating plan, that plan comes first.
Why we built a collection for this
We kept getting asked the same question by parents at the pickup window: "Do you have anything that will actually put weight on him?" We did not, so we built it. The Big Man Collection is pressed from the produce in the list above, poured in 16- and 32-ounce bottles, and designed for the athlete who has been told to eat more and needs it to be easy.
If you are feeding one of those athletes and want help building a week around his schedule, text us at 469-885-7177.
General nutrition information, not medical advice.
