An Interview with a Premier League Nutritionist

Premier League Nutritionist, Matt Jones, answers your questions this week!

Do you have a favourite flavour or blend among our cold-pressed juices?

Radiant is one that I could happily drink everyday for the rest of my life.

If you had to create a custom juice blend, what ingredients would you include?

I’d probably try and include as many polyphenol rich fruits and berries as possible, I also love chocolate and honey, so they would certainly have to feature and also offer a host of health benefits. So I’d opt for blueberry, cherry, pomegranate, honey, cacao… oh wait, we did that and made Recover! 

In your opinion, what makes a juice truly balanced in terms of nutrition?

Let’s be honest most juices are simply sugar, water with a little bit of vitamin C. That’s fine in certain contexts of course. But if you are going to drink them regularly they need to be lower in sugar and significantly higher in micronutrients that will contribute positively to your overall health. This comes from a combination of things, the recipes, the selection of quality raw materials and then the manufacturing of the juice.

How do you strike a balance between taste and nutrition when recommending or evaluating juices?

As a nutrition professional I am obviously a little biased and probably more willing than most, to sacrifice on flavour for function. But when formulating or evaluating a juice it’s important to review the ingredients used, their functional benefit and then perhaps more importantly the dosage of those ingredients as that’s incredibly important in determining whether or not the ingredient will be helpful or not. 

Then when the functional boxes are ticked, hopefully some sweeter ingredients are added to enhance the flavour without detracting from the function, such as apple, orange or even honey. 

This is actually what B.fresh are so incredibly good at! I have seen their R&D process first hand and they have a number of uber critical individuals involved, which is crucial to getting a near perfect finished product.

Are there any innovative ingredients or trends in the cold-pressed juice industry that you find exciting or promising?

I am personally really excited about the prospect of incorporating various nootroptics and herbal extracts into juices and shots to further enhance the functional capacity. The B.fresh sleep shot is one example of this, where the amino acid tryptophan is included based on the research that shows a beneficial effect on sleep quality. 

Do you personally include cold-pressed juices in your daily routine, and if so, how do they fit into your lifestyle?

Yes, I include at least one each day. I actually vary the product to better align with the requirements that day. A turmeric shot is a mainstay that features every day to support my general wellness and recovery. I will then add others depending on what that day requires. As an example perhaps I may go for a long run one day so I’ll include a Perform juice that day, I may feel a little sore or tired one day so Recover will be added, or the day after I’ve eaten a little too much I might use Lean Greens and some yogurt with berries in place of a meal to reduce my calorie intake and make up the extra calories consumed the previous day. 

Are there specific times of the day you prefer to enjoy juices/shots for optimal benefits?

The only product that I consume at a specific time is the Sleep shot really, which is best consumed around 60-minutes before bed. 

If I’m feeling a little tired and sluggish in the morning I have found the Ginger shot wakes me up and kick-starts my day a little more than any of the other products. 

The Perform and Recover juices are of course likely best consumed before and after exercise respectively, but both also offer a host of health benefits so they can be consumed any time really, the same applies with all of the other juices and shots. 

Have you come across any interesting or positive feedback from individuals who have incorporated cold-pressed juices/shots into their diets?

Well in the first season of using the Perform and Recover juices, alongside the Turmeric shots and many of the other juices, we went on to win the Europa Conference League with West Ham United. Now there are of course many factors involved here, but these juices were most certainly a crucial component of our recovery interventions, players enjoyed them and appreciated the benefits they offered. When we had 2 days to recover from a European game on a Thursday night to prepare for a Premier League game the following Sunday these small details make a huge difference.

How do you address common misconceptions about juices and their nutritional value?

I wouldn’t necessarily say they are misconceptions as most juices are pretty poor, both in terms of nutritional value and functionality. But it’s important that people understand the differences between a mass produced, artificially sweetened and fortified fruit juice and a high quality, cold pressed, high pressure pasteurised juice made from high quality ingredients at dosages that science has shown to benefit health and performance.