Known as "the father of juicing," Jay Kordich credited juicing with saving his life. He
made it his lifelong mission to share the benefits of drinking fresh juice. His long-lived
passion is a testament to the power of conviction ... and possibly the power of juicing, too.
According to Kordich's own website, he was born in 1923 in southern California where
he learned the importance of hard work from his father, a fisherman. He used the lessons
learned from his father to invest himself in athletic pursuits, first playing high school
football, then playing for the University of Southern California. Of course, football
was still in its relative infancy in the 1940s, and World War II was going strong at the time
that Kordich was in college.
In an interview he shared that like many other young, strong men of this time, he ended up
joining the armed services, serving in the Navy. This gave him the opportunity to continue
playing football. He even called sports his "calling card to life." In fact, Kordich was
actually drafted into the NFL in 1949 in the 22nd round by the Green Bay Packers. He was
25 at the time, and never ended up playing football professionally, reportedly due to
a serious diagnosis regarding his health. But that diagnosis would end up opening the
door for a whole new career.
The story goes that it was in 1949 that Kordich began to have health problems, starting with
finding blood in his urine.
"I went to a doctor and he says, 'You've got a tumor in your urinary bladder.'"
Allegedly facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, Kordich said that he started doing his own
research, and came across the writings of Dr. Max Gerson, one of the earliest proponents
of juicing.
As Kordich told The Huffington Post, without many other options at his disposal, he ended
up traveling to New York from California to spend a month learning from Gerson. His time
in New York included a month of juicing, followed by an ongoing prescription of daily juicing,
combined with plant-based healthy eating. Gerson's recommendations particularly focused
on using carrots and apples, although other fruits and vegetables were also used.
After practicing his new, healthy eating and juicing lifestyle for two years — according
to one Washington Post interview, his juicing routine consisted of a fresh glass of carrot-apple
juice every hour, 13 times per day — Kordich made the remarkable, hard-to-believe claim
that he was given a clean bill of health, curing his terminal bladder cancer one glass
at a time.
The allegedly miraculously-cured Kordich credited juicing for his turnaround, transforming his
belief system and setting him on a path to become the nation's biggest juicing pitchman.
If you're rolling your eyes at these big claims, you aren't alone. Beyond his "juicing cured
my cancer" origin story, Kordich had to practice caution about the health claims he was hawking
while he sold audiences on his products. He tended to emphasize the health benefits of
the practice as an immune booster and a type of "insurance" to help prevent illness, rather
than a way to cure disease. This was a wise stance to take, considering the Food and Drug
Administration doesn't take kindly to people or companies making unverified health-related
claims.
Despite the nickname he adopted, Jay Kordich didn't invent juicing — the practice has
trended in and out of the health scene several times since the 1970s. But the Father of Juicing
certainly deserves to be recognized as a driving force behind juicing's early popularity in
U.S. households.
Before Kordich's infomercials for the Juiceman hit the television airwaves in 1991, the concept
of juicing was mainly reserved for so-called "health nuts." And even though only four infomercials
were ever recorded, and were simply re-played for years on nighttime and weekend cable television,
Kordich's smooth sales pitch captured the interest of American consumers.
"One of the finest drinks you will ever have. One of the great thirst quenchers. One of
the great drinks for the entire urogenital canal."
According to an interview Kordich had with The Huffington Post, the Juiceman Juicer alone
accrued more than $300 million in sales between 1995 and 2002 — an impressive number that
doesn't account for sales of other juicer brands that hit the market during the height
of Kordich's infomercial reign.
As with most things, the timing of Kordich's infomercials likely played a role in his success.
The late 1980s and early '90s were a key time for an increased interest in healthy living.
The juice chain Jamba Juice opened its first store in 1990, and as a nationwide interest
in healthy habits continued to grow, Kordich's early trend-setting likely played a role in
the continued interest in juice cleanses, which as of 2016, had grown to become a multi-billion
dollar industry.
Part of the reason why Kordich was so successful was that he was never seen as just a hired
pitchman. Instead, he could convincingly sell juicers because of what he claimed was his
own lived experience.
According to an article in the Tampa Bay Times, Kordich began selling juicers as a traveling
salesman shortly after his own health crisis was averted. In his own words to the newspaper,
he "followed the sun," going where he needed to go to pitch his wares and make ends meet.
That meant that some days he could be found behind the counter of a custom-made booth
at a shopping center in Florida, while other days he might be found hawking wares at a
health fair in Seattle. And it was his sales pitch in Seattle that caught the eye of the
executives at JM Marketing who would ultimately become his business partners, putting his
name, and juicing, on the map in a big way.
The thing to keep in mind about Kordich, and juicing in general, is that it's easy to mix
up scientifically-backed facts about the importance of consuming fruits and vegetables, and widespread
pseudo-science regarding the powers and benefits of juicing.
There's no denying that the scientific community, along with major health organizations like
the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society, have good reason to suggest
people consume a largely plant-based diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables. The health
benefits are many: fruits and vegetables are filled with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and
even water content, all of which help bolster the body's systems.
When someone like Kordich comes along, promoting the increased intake of fruits and veggies
while trying to sell a tool to do it, it's important to be on the lookout for "extra"
claims that lack scientific evidence. For instance, Kordich made waves when he claimed
that "parsley gets you high," which, of course, it doesn't. But some of his other claims about
juicing, like it being a better way for the body to get nutrients, aren't backed by actual
science. Many of his claims were criticized and debunked by scientists, doctors, and resources
like the website Quack Watch.
"Zing, the nutrients in your bloodstream in a matter of moments."
With most big successes, there come unexpected trials and challenges, and Kordich's juicing
endeavors were no different. In what likely started as a fruitful-looking business deal,
Jay Kordich and his wife Linda decided to sell the Juiceman name to Salton, Inc. in
1994 for $3 million. Salton also owned the George Foreman Grill, and certainly, $3 million
is nothing to scoff at. The problem? Kordich and his wife lost the rights to use the Juiceman
trademark — the trademark Kordich had personally owned and built his name and brand around
since 1948.
In a 2006 press release announcing Kordich's "comeback" after this legal debacle, the Father
of Juicing lamented feeling robbed of his personality and his ability to teach, feeling
handcuffed and forced into retirement for 13 years. He was more or less out of the game
until he decided to release more books and work on developing a new juicer with the help
of his wife.
Kordich needed to take a moment to grapple with the reality of the loss of his trademark
and the use of the name "Juiceman." It's understandable — when you've built your career around a
particular name, losing it is bound to hit hard. But in 2011, Kordich and his wife, Linda,
decided to put that heartbreak behind them and return to the business of selling juicers.
In a 2011 press release, the Kordiches announced the launch of their Jay Kordich PowerGrind
Pro, which Kordich himself proclaimed to be "the best juicer I have ever helped design."
"The result is delicious and nutritious pulp-free juice that is so good you can actually taste
the difference."
With six international patents and the ability to juice and blend, it certainly seemed like
a good addition to the market. That said, as of 2021, the juicer is no longer available
through the Jay Kordich website, although a different juicer and a high-end blender
can be purchased. It's unclear what happened to the PowerGrind Pro, but its longevity was
certainly less than that of the original Juiceman.
Jay Kordich's reputation was based on a perception that he didn't just talk the talk, but walked
the walk. His own walk started when he switched from a standard American diet to one filled
with daily juicing. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, he recounted that before
his 1948 bladder cancer diagnosis, he filled his diet with junk food.
But in an effort to save his own life, he transformed his eating habits, began his regimen
of daily juicing, and ditched the junk food forever. His sales pitch for juicing could
hold the ring of truth because everything he promoted was true to him and his own experiences.
While he told the Washington Post that he knew most people would never give up junk
food completely, his hope was that most people would supplement the standard American diet
with juicing as a means to help safeguard their health.
Considering that Kordich made juicing a part of his daily lifestyle for upwards of 60 years,
you know he tried practically every possible combination of fruits and vegetables. With
many of his own books full of juicing recipes, it's interesting to note that even he has
go-to favorites. He told the Tampa Bay Times that there were four recipes, in particular,
that he particularly enjoyed. Specifically, a juice for boosting energy, which was a mix
of beets, carrots, apples, lemon, and ginger; a juice he termed "the digestive special,"
including spinach and carrots; the "liver mover," including apples and beets, and the
"passion cocktail," including strawberries and an apple.
"Very strong, but powerful."
It's not a huge surprise that many of his favorite juices included beets, carrots, and
apples. He claimed that his original cancer-cure regimen included juices with the same ingredients,
so it makes sense that these fruits and veggies would continue being go-to favorites.
Just remember, the names of his juices, while eye-catching, aren't scientifically based.
So a title like the "liver mover" doesn't necessarily mean that the juice is helping
the liver do its job. And while the "digestive special" may be filled with good-for-you nutrients,
it lacks the fiber that would likely get the digestive tract moving.
In 2017, at the ripe old age of 93, Jay Kordich passed away. Kordich's wife, Linda, reported
the circumstances of his death in a Facebook post the day that he died. In the post, Linda
reported that Kordich simply woke up and experienced some breathing problems, then passed peacefully
away. There was no reported underlying condition or illness that contributed to his death,
other than simply old age.
Linda also recounted how vibrant of a person he continued to be until the day he died.
It's a testament to the power of healthy living — you may never be able to escape death
itself, but you have a better shot at living well in the days you're given. And according
to his wife, Kordich kept up his vitality until his very last breath. Can that all be
chalked up to juicing? It's impossible to say for sure. If juicing and healthy eating
helped give Kordich's body the nutrients he needed to fight cellular damage and preserve
his active lifestyle, then juicing may well have helped give him his 93 years.
Kordich and his wife, Linda, were married for 36 years, which included his rise to fame
as an infomercial star. As such, Linda was intimately involved in his business, and was
co-author of several books and partner on numerous juice-related business ventures.
While the websites and products they launched always bore Jay's name, Linda didn't sit idly
by. This put her in a position to continue Kordich's juicing empire even following his
death. Linda has remarried, but continues to maintain the Jay Kordich website, selling
books, instructional videos, and juicing-related products. She also posts to Kordich's original
social media pages with new promotions. While she may be bridging Jay's previous empire
into something entirely her own, she clearly continues to honor Kordich's passion.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite
food products and pitchmen are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the
bell so you don't miss a single one.