Marcus Antebi

juice press founder and ceo what is a juice cleanse | public letter

some time in early 2008 i was fed up with the family business, (art, antiques, and high jewelry.) i had made a go at another wildly complex business years early in skydiving that didn't work out the way i hoped either. both businesses ultimately prepared me for the challenges of growing juice press from nothing in the fall of 2010.

i was born in brooklyn and raised in my teens in beverly hills. two obviously different experiences! at age 15 i got sober and today i am still recovering and sober just over 28 years.

i grew up in retail in one form or another and retail is what i do best. my sober lifestyle propelled me into sports and nutrition. i started as rock climber in the early 90's and later discovered ultimate frisbee and played in competitive leagues. in my mid 20's i got the bug for recreational skydiving and pursued that with my heart, mind and body.

i abandoned to pursue skydiving and eventually i built a small training video company called pier video. that progressed into a mail order equipment company and eventually a retail store on the busy east coast dropzone. (skydive the ranch in gardiner, newyork.)

i phased out from skydiving with 2,300 jumps, moved back to nyc from upstate new york and i started training thai boxing. i quickly became consumed by that. my trainer lined me up with my first fight in 2004 and that's where i first learned how to crash weight fast to weigh in at 140 lbs.

with the frequency of fights i was making, i was cutting down weight regularly. it was painful and mentally draining.

it wasn't until the end of my competitive training and fighting that i figured out the obvious benefits of a plant-based diet that especially included superfoods, raw juices, and lots of salads.

the idea for juice press was sparked because i was dissatisfied with the commercial juice and raw food industry in new york. i was back working for my father when i decided to leave and open my own thing again.

juice press was formed with my two friends who have both moved on to other things since then.

i traded partners in 2011 with the greatest minds one could ever hope to be involved with both professionally and socially. kenny dichter, mark teixeira and later michael karsch and his family, and a group of great, great people all invested in juice press and invested in me.

as a team we have grown our company to 16 stores in a four year period. we are moving to break this out to 50 stores in the next 24 months.

i believe with all my heart and soul that juice press is by far the best. we have the purest organic product, the widest selection, the best locations, the best stores, the best of everything. we never use unnatural processes to extend shelf life. these commercially popular methods kill the living enzymes and bacteria in the juice, which are essential to leading a healthy lifestyle.

my father david has since become a convert to the juice movement and he proudly owns the only franchised store on 62nd street and 3rd avenue.

ultimately, as my career in food and hospitality advances, i would like to be an outspoken advocate for increased awareness in childhood nutrition, especially at the public school level. i believe that one of our great failures with our children is not creating a positive lifelong relationship with food. i will have enough money to take on big corporations and cripple their ability to terrorize the world into vaccinating children. i will make it a mission to correct the pitiful foods big corporations market to the poor and rich alike (i'd like to pistol whip the s_ur_geon gen_eral, and kick the fda_dude straight in his nuts for allowing such utter nonsense to remain the law of the era). i will find myself in a position of power, able to positively and accurately change humanity vision of food and nutrition.

i am not formally trained in any science. i'm figuring out that traditional nutritional science and concepts are very misleading and have failed at improving human health. eating more kale and spinach is important, but by no means is that the answer to the problems that commonly plague us. it's the processed foods we consume that are killing us.

i feel that it's incredible that scientists, chemists, nutritionists, and doctors are not *getting this* and offer little to help us change our patterns and habits. food alone does not heal us. chinese and ayruvedic medicines are abstract sciences. western medicines and surgical advancements can prolong life and do have benefits, but they don't address the simplest of all sciences; the solution is leaving out processed foods and gradually phasing out the errors in nutritional choices people make because they are told they are consuming wholesome foods.

my food mentor since i founded juice press is the wonderful fred bisci, phd. he has helped me form the basis of much of what i know. i speak with him almost every day to continue my education. fred has been 100% raw vegan for over 45 years. his knowledge on the science of food and the body is unparalleled.