Good Health Delivered to Your Front Door

When Geri Draddy saw an Andy’s Pure Food juice cleanse delivery on her neighbor’s doorstep last week, she decided it was time for another cleanse of her own.

“It is a good way to get you on the right track,” said Draddy, a Rye resident and mother of three. “As a New Year’s resolution to be healthier, it is a great way to introduce people to juicing,” she said.

To prepare for the cleanse, Draddy planned to cut out as many processed foods as she could for the weekend and kicked it off with a vegan lunch from Andy’s on Friday. She and her husband tried Andy’s three day juice cleanse about two years ago and became more committed to a plant-based diet and healthy eating. Like many, she slowly fell back into old habits and is ready to recharge her healthy eating again.

“It is hard with kids, but when it is pre-made you can just grab it and drink it,” instead of stealing tastes of the kid’s food, Draddy said. Her cleanse will be one of about 70 that Andy’s Pure Food owner Andy Ozgur will facilitate in the Westchester area during the first two weeks of the new year. Last week, he received 48 orders for his juice cleanses. Another 22 people will start their cleanses this week, and people will continue to sign up throughout the month of January, Ozgur said.

“You don’t have to be a genius to understand how juicing works,” he said.

Juicing vegetables and fruits allows the body to absorb the many nutrients and minerals that raw produce provides and to take a break from the work of digesting. Yeast, salt, Gluten and toxins are not present in a juice cleanse so your body detoxifies while being fueled by pure nutrients. It is important to use only organic produce for juicing so that you get the most nutrient rich juice and do not juice pesticides into your drinks, according to nutritionists.

Andy’s orders come from miles around the region. Ozgur’s deliveryman brings the juice to doorsteps anywhere in Westchester and to most places in Putnam, Fairfield and some in New York City. If the deliveryman is booked all day, Ozgur will deliver the juice himself. He does not allow customers to buy all three juices at once because after 24 hours the juice loses nutrients and by the third day it will still taste ok, but no longer be good.

“Then you will go to the bathroom like you are being cleansed, but it is because the juice went bad,” Ozgur said.

Ozgur offers two different three day cleanses: the Synergy, which allows a soup and a raw salad each day in addition to juice and nut milk; and the plain juice cleanse, which is solely vegetable, fruit juice and nut milk. He also offers a seven day complete cleanse that allows some soup and salad as well. Each juice is made from about three and a half pounds of produce and they taste good. You will not see a juicer grimacing at his or her green drink while walking out of Andy’s.  And for those simply looking for a healthy meal that you can chew, you’ll find an array of dozens of colorful vegan dishes to choose from at Andy’s.

January is one of his busiest months. The other most popular months for cleansing are April, May, June and July. Business spikes again in September and then the next rush usually does not come until the following January, Ozgur said.

All of Andy’s food is from Baldor Speciality Foods, a Bronx- based delivery service, and it is all organic. Ozgur explained that he does not use local produce because it does not necessarily mean organic. He posts his produce invoices on the wall next to the check out counter so customers can be reassured he is purely organic.  

Proof That Food is the Best Medicine

Ozgur opened Andy’s after a life time in the food business. He has enjoyed cooking for a long time and combined that love and his business savvy to open Zeytinia in Croton in 2001. But several years later, at age 36, he started feeling tired all the time and suffered from some digestive issues. A landscaper he knew turned him on to juicing and he has never looked back.

He bought a juicer for Zeytinia, and started juicing a few meals a day. The next week he did a pure juice cleanse. Within two months he felt healthy, energetic, and no longer had digestive issues.

Feeling that if it worked for him, it would work for everyone, Ozgur sold Zeytinia in 2008 and opened Andy’s Pure Food, where he has seen success since.

He has had several customers with various skin, joint, and other problems that have been reversed by juicing and plant-based diets.

One customer who has type 2 Diabetes and was on insulin turned to Andy’s to help him juice and use a healthier diet to treat his disease. In two months, the diabetes had been reversed, Ozgur said.

“So many customers lose 30 to 40 pounds too,” Ozgur said, explaining that the juice cleanse helps them to make a longer commitment to healthy eating, which continues the weight loss.

Most of Ozgur’s customers are people who are already dedicated to health and who use cleanses to detoxify or refocus their efforts. But Ozgur hopes that more people learn the health benefits of a vegan and raw food diet.

“The other day two ladies came in and looked at the vegetables and said, ‘let’s go eat real food and come here another time,’” Ozgur said. “But this is the real food,” he said with excitement.  “People don’t realize, this is the real food.”

To start a cleanse visit Ozgur at the store located at 46 Purchase Street, Rye, NY; check them out online or call 914-967-266.

For more information on juicing and vegan diets check out the documentaries, “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,” and  “Forks Over Knives.”