INDIANAPOLIS — Yelp recently released its list of standout Black-owned businesses in food, beauty and home as the "Ones to Watch" in 2022.
Pure-Trition, a juice and smoothie bar in Indianapolis, is among the top 15 Black-owned food businesses across the country making waves on Yelp.
Aleta Osborn, the owner of Pure-Trition, tells WRTV, "I was floored."
"It's an honor. I mean — I was just like, 'oh my gosh,'" Osborn said. "I was just excited about it!"
Osborn, a certified health coach and culinary nutrition expert, started Pure-Trition in 2018 as an online business helping people curate dietary and fitness plans. A big part of her tried and true weight-loss journey is juicing, which became her passion.
"I used my juice and smoothie cleanse to jumpstart people who either were moving more toward a plant-based or plant-forward lifestyle or toward weight loss and improving overall heart health. In doing so, I would take my juicer to my client's homes and help them meal prep," Osborn explained.
The fitness coach soon realized her clients didn't really have the time to juice. Osborn says her clients would often ask her to make it for them, and they would pay extra for her services.
In 2020, Osborn bought a physical location on College Avenue to keep up with the demand for her juices.
"I also wanted to do workshops and help educate people about health and wellness, and I needed a space for that," Osborn said. "I advertised on Yelp, and when I did, people started coming in. But I advertised as just juice delivery, but people came in looking for smoothies."
By October 2020, Osborn opened up her made-for-delivery-only kitchen to the public, offering in-store purchases. She also added smoothies, acai bowls, wellness shots, and energy bites to her menu.
Now, Pure-Trition prides itself on offering a wide variety of plant-based options that are readily available.
"When you look at the smoothies and all the different combinations that we offer, you're getting a completely different flavor with every single one of the juices," Osborn said. "They're all going to taste very different, so that's the variety that we put in."
'If I can help just one person, then it's worth it.'
Osborn started juicing about ten years ago to lose weight; however, she wasn't completely living a plant-forward lifestyle. She was going hard in the gym but was eating whatever she wanted.
Osborn's health journey paused a few years ago when she lost her mother and fell into a deep depression.
"I went from the bed to the couch for months, and I didn't want to do anything else," Osborn said.
She gained 30 pounds and eventually was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
Osborn soon reached a point of realization that she didn't want to take pills for the rest of her life and wanted to control her blood pressure naturally. "For me, personally, I prefer not to be on medication. It was like, 'I know the things to do, so I need to do them,'" Osborn said.
Osborn took it one week at a time to get back on the healthy path she paved for herself, and now she's off of her blood pressure medication.
Although the nutrition coach doesn't recommend people get off of their blood pressure medication before speaking to their physician, Osborn says she continuously has people who come into Pure-Trition looking to get on a healthier food plan to help lower their blood pressure.
"I've actually had people come in, and they're like, 'I read your story, and Oh my God, I'm in the same boat. I had to come in here,'" Osborn said.
For Osborn, she doesn't want her juice bar to be a place all about the juice. Osborn's main goal, she says, is for Pure-Trition to be a place the community can turn to for health help.
"And that was kind of one of my things, like, if I can help just one person, then it's worth it."
WRTV Digital Reporter Shakkira Harris can be reached at shakkira.harris@wrtv.com. You can follow her on Twitter, @shakkirasays.
