How juicing helps Diet Coke man stay in shape

Lydia Slater is disappointed that the Diet Coke hunk Andrew Cooper kept his shirt on but is won over by his juicing ethos and the obvious physical benefits that come with it.

IF YOU are struggling to fend off a streaming cold, I can recommend hanging out with the juicing aficionado Andrew Cooper.

Seeing me wheeze and splutter, Cooper instantly unzips a cool bag and proffers a 30ml shot of his ‘Immunity’ blend: a zingy concoction of lemon, ginger, echinacea, eucalyptus and manuka honey.

I knock back the fiery tot and within moments I am feeling strangely, almost miraculously, exhilarated.

However, this may have less to do with the juice and more with Cooper himself. Although he’s here in his capacity as the founder of an organic juice company, he’s much better known for being the Diet Coke hunk.

In a 2013 ad that (predictably) went viral, Cooper plays a municipal gardener sprayed with Coke by a gang of giggling women — who then fall into an awestruck silence when he removes his shirt to reveal abs like cobblestones and pecs like the Quantocks.

Disappointingly, Cooper, 34, keeps his shirt on this afternoon. Even fully clothed, however, he is a walking demonstration of the benefits of juicing.

His lightly tanned skin glows with health, there are no bags beneath his icy-blue eyes, his teeth gleam like porcelain and his upper arms are all muscle.

“I probably have two juices and two smoothies a day. Because I take a lot of exercise — I train twice a day sometimes, I need to avoid losing too much weight.

"I can’t physically eat all the food I need to, so instead I’ll make a smoothie with some frozen fruit and nut milk, hemp powder, maca and dates, or glutamine to rebuild muscle.”

He got into juicing very early, thanks to his “hippy and organic” mother.

Brought up in the leafy environs of Knutsford, Cheshire, he was juicing home-grown vegetables from the age of seven. At 16 he was noticed by a model scout in Manchester.

“I moved to London, and became more about beer and pizza,” he confesses. He was working in a pub when he was signed up by Models 1 and appeared in a series of ads for Topman.

“Quite quickly, the modelling went from meeting girls and earning better money than in the pub to putting a deposit on a house, getting a car and all that.”

At the time, Cooper admits, his lifestyle left something to be desired.

“Everyone’s had their misspent youth, I definitely had a big share of it between 16 and 21,” he says. “I was a bit wild, a Mancunian monkey, running around London with a shaved head.”

At 21, Cooper fell for Jane, now his wife, an aspiring actress.

“Jane straightened me out. I started taking business seriously.”

Cooper’s career took off: he was modelling underwear for Calvin Klein, clothes for Armani and Louis Vuitton and fragrances for Dunhill, and consequently spent much of his time shuttling to and from the US.

“You can’t help but be affected by the travel, if you’re not getting enough sleep and you’re going out drinking.”

Instead, he bought into the nascent juicing culture. On arrival in New York he would empty the hotel minibar and fill it with cold-pressed juices.

“I’d be so concerned about getting my vitamins.”

By the time he was 27 he had become so enamoured with the healthy-eating lifestyle he moved to the country.

The Coopers bought a fruit farm in Cheshire and began growing organic vegetables. He also invested in a Norwalk hydraulic juicer.

“I started getting into juice cleansing and experimenting with recipes, and I felt amazing — it changed a lot of my eating habits and took me to another level.”

When he started delivering the juices to friends they nicknamed him the “Juiceman” — “because I was like the milkman, except I was delivering juice”.

Ironically, it was as his juice business began to take off that Cooper was approached to front the Diet Coke ad.

“Of course I went for it. I saw the idea was about this gardener, and I thought, this is me,” he recalls.

“I’ve got a tractor, I’m a gardener. I know how to chop trees, I know what I’m doing. But I had no idea what it would look like.”

He says he never realised how big it was going to be. “I didn’t even think about it.”

The ad came out three years ago, and Cooper is still appro-ached about it on the street.

“I run away,” he laughs.

What does Jane think about it? “She’s really sweet, she supports me and she’s not possessive.”

As for the raunchy soundtrack (Etta James belting out ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’), he says his children, Taylor, six, and Jackson, four, like to dance around the room to it.

Cooper’s two-year contract with Coke ran out earlier this year, which means that he is now free to front his own drinks brand.

He makes juices to de-stress (a calming green blend of cucumber, celery, kale, pear, lettuce and spinach) and to energise (chia seeds, cucumber, lemon and pineapple), and shots for everything from post-workout energy to skin improvements — see recipes below. 

“But I’m trying to have fun with it too,” he says.

“It’s not monkish. If you want to use them to make a healthier cocktail, that’s great.

“My clients are probably 60/40 women to men,” he says.

“Women are good at adapting their lifestyle to fit a daily juice in, whereas men tend to be more all or nothing. They often come to me after they’ve been on a bender and need a quick fix. Typically, it’ll be between the stag do and the wedding.

“It’s a good way to clean yourself up when you get a bit soft around the cage, as I call it — it’s about balancing a big night out. You don’t have to buy into the whole lifestyle change.”

Cooper explains that the new breed of blenders have made the idea of juicing a lot more appealing to men — when they started talking about blenders in terms of horsepower, they crossed over into being boys’ toys.

“Men are quite easy to convert when they start to feel results in terms of being fit and healthy. Juicing can be a quick fix and you can look better quite quickly. And if you eat healthily, you get to play a bit harder too.”

He’s now working on a juice recipe book, to be published next year, and has enlisted his supermodel friends to spread the word.

So who’s been drinking it?

“Simon Cowell, Tulisa, Georgia May Jagger, Natalie Imbruglia,” he reels off.

“Adam Ant popped in for our nut milks.”

They also supply a lot of footballers.

“These guys can’t drink and have to live very clean lives, so a juice is a more interesting variation on mundane tea and water, ”

See: http://juiceman.co/

Ian Marber: Fresh juices not a long-term solution

WANT to get in shape by knocking back fresh juices? Top nutritionist Ian Marber says it works as a quick-fix but not as a long-term solution.

“You can lose weight on a juice diet and, if you are going to go on a low-calorie diet, it’s certainly a plan that will give you lots of nutrients in an easily absorbed form. But the lack of fibre means you are more likely to feel hungry sooner.”

As with most drastic diets, he warns the pounds will start to creep up again once you start to eat normally.

“If you celebrate by going on holidays, having a couple of drinks at the airport, having a sandwich, I’m not saying you are going to blow up like the Michelin Man, but you are certainly going to feel like you haven’t lost that much weight, especially if you are looking to lose your gut.”

So what are the best juice options?

“Go for the ones that have the most vegetables and fewer fruits, because they have lower sugar levels.”

He sees smoothies as an easier option as they keep you fuller for longer.

“You can add nuts, seeds, avocado, yoghurt and other protein sources, including protein supplements in powder form, thus offsetting some hunger. ”

But don’t consume too many smoothies, he warns, “because, irrespective of nutrient levels, you are going to get a lot of calories as well”.

When it comes to dieting, Marber believes men have the edge over women. “They are not as likely [as women] to have dieted many times, so their metabolism responds more favourably to cutting calories.

“Also, if it’s short term, men are quiet good at following instructions — especially if it’s written down for them. And they’ll wear their hunger like a badge of honour.”

But it’s not all plain sailing for men who diet.

“Anyone who has lost weight on a diet and then put it back on again will know that it’s much harder to lose it again. You’ve introduced the concept of feast or famine to the human body.

"You have forced it to go into famine mode so when you go back into feast mode — the sort of eating that goes on while you’re on holiday — then the human body will go ‘yippee we’ve got to store some of this away because there may be another famine’.

Effectively, every diet begets the need for the next diet.”

For sustained weight loss, he recommends a no-diet approach.

“I normally recommend that people follow a low-glycemic load plan, which is mixing a little bit of protein with some complex carbohydrates that have plenty of fibre in them such as granary bread and porridge, eating small portions and taking little snacks between main meals — breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.

"This keeps your metabolism kicking along nicely, and it means you will lose weight gradually.”

Irene Feighan

What a way to start the day with juicy drink

Morning energy juice

This is one of my staple green juices that I enjoy first thing to start my day on the right foot. It’s delicious, and has your five-a-day in one glass.

It is packed with phyto- nutrients, it is detoxifying and helps alkalise the body. You also get a great energy kick from all the green goodness.

1 cucumber

2½cm piece of ginger, peeled

1 celery stick

Handful of spinach, washed

½ lemon, peeled

Sprig of parsley

1 pear, cored and quartered

Juice all the ingredients in the order above and enjoy on ice.

My hangover cure

This juice is hydrating and invigorating. The ginger is great for nausea and the cayenne will give your system a good kick in the right direction.

½ pineapple cored and chopped

½ cucumber

2½cm ginger

250ml coconut water

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Juice the pineapple, ginger and cucumber and then pour over ice. Add the coconut water and cayenne and stir.

Fat burner

Melons are hydrating, energy boosting and super low in calories at the same time. The ginger kick will also boost your metabolism.

½ cantaloupe melon

1 slice of watermelon, peel removed

3 carrots, peeled and washed

2cm piece of ginger, peeled

Juice all the ingredients in the order above and serve on ice.

Skin food

Cucumber is naturally cooling, refreshing and super hydrating, and fennel is packed with anti-oxidants.

½ cucumber

¼ fennel bulb

½ apple, cored

1 lime, peeled

Few mint leaves

Juice all the ingredients except for the mint. Serve over ice with the mint as a garnish.

Optional: for added power add some chopped aloe vera leaf or 1tsp of aloe juice.

Breakfast booster

This is a great energy-boost breakfast or snack and is packed with omega-3 and omega-6 and is a good source of protein.

4 tbsp chia seeds

250ml almond milk or coconut milk

1 tsp honey, agave or maple syrup

½ tsp vanilla

In a jug or jar, pour in the almond milk, vanilla and sweetener and stir well; add the chia seeds and keep stirring, making sure they don’t stick together.

Once mixed well, leave in the fridge for at least four hours, or overnight if you have an early start the next day. Top with chopped fruit and berries and pumpkin seeds.

Detox juice

I start my day with this juice and it is refreshing and invigorating. The cayenne is a great way to get your digestive system fired up, the maple is for energy and the lemon is really cleansing.

½ lemon

1 tbsp grated ginger

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tsp maple syrup

Top up with warm water, or cold water in the summer