Turning natural: From juicing to a health movement

When sea moss grew to become a TikTok well being meals sensation final summer time, Jerri Evans needed to chortle. At her juice firm, Turning Pure, she’d been providing the ingredient for practically a decade — with restricted curiosity from prospects.

“We’ve been promoting sea moss since day one, and nobody wished it,” Evans, 38, mentioned. “Now they’re like, ‘OK, we’d like sea moss.’ And I’m like, ‘The place had been you 9 years in the past?’”

Within the years since Evans started Turning Pure, much more folks have gotten interested by wholesome, plant-based meals. However she advises folks to take time to consider their dietary decisions, quite than all the time hopping on the most recent pattern.

“Now we have entry to a lot extra data, [but] I feel it makes it really tougher, as a result of folks can’t decipher or discern what’s particularly for them,” she mentioned. “Like we may do absolutely the similar factor, have absolutely the similar eating regimen, and our our bodies are going to reply in another way.”

Evans is fast to say that she’s “not a health care provider,” however her data about and keenness for the methods pure substances can influence our our bodies runs deep. 

Evans’ vitamin journey started throughout her highschool years, when her mom, Annette, was recognized with breast most cancers. Nauseous from chemotherapy and decided to get the vitamins she wanted, Annette made contemporary produce and juicing a part of the household’s way of life — and began the Turning Pure enterprise.

After spending nearly 10 years in remission, Annette handed away in 2010 when most cancers returned. Evans moved again to D.C. from Atlanta, quitting her job as an aeronautical engineer. Grieving and not sure what to do subsequent, Evans determined to proceed her mom’s legacy by addressing the meals deserts her household had skilled.

“As soon as I obtained again to D.C., I noticed that so much had modified, however so much hadn’t modified — particularly when it got here to entry to wholesome meals,” Evans mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘I’m wondering if I may create one thing that was cool and enjoyable that folks wished to be part of.’”

Immediately, Turning Pure sells cold-pressed juices with names like “Inexperienced Latifah” and “Mi’Kale Jackson” at six DMV places, together with shops in Anacostia and District Heights, Maryland. Turning Pure’s common supervisor, Michale Henderson, mentioned the corporate has “created a spot the place well being is cool.”

It hasn’t all the time been a clean highway; Evans, who paid a $10,000 settlement following a 2018 lawsuit over wage theft, says entrepreneurship “ages you in canine years.” However the firm’s all-natural product and community-oriented mission have helped it climate the storms. Henderson, who has identified Evans since they had been each 10 years outdated, has been there to look at it develop right into a becoming legacy for Evans’ mom. 

“I bear in mind when Turning Pure was simply Ms. Annette’s lounge enterprise,” Henderson wrote in an e-mail. “When Jerri determined to open her first location, I’d are available after work to assist her prep fruit. … I joined as a result of I liked Ms. Annette, and I stick round as a result of the mission is one thing I consider in.”

That mission, alongside a nutrient-filled product, has made Turning Pure a staple for some D.C.-area residents — amongst them, artist Naturel.

“Turning Pure — they’re doing an excellent factor with the chilly press juices, the smoothies,” Henderson advised the Washington Informer Bridge in a 2019 interview. “And so they’re servicing our communities, so it could actually’t get higher than that.”