When sea moss became a TikTok health food sensation last summer, Jerri Evans had to laugh. At her juice company, Turning Natural, she’d been offering the ingredient for nearly a decade — with limited interest from customers.
“We’ve been selling sea moss since day one, and no one wanted it,” Evans, 38, said. “Now they’re like, ‘OK, we need sea moss.’ And I’m like, ‘Where were you nine years ago?’”
In the years since Evans began Turning Natural, far more people have gotten interested in healthy, plant-based foods. But she advises people to take time to think about their dietary choices, rather than always hopping on the latest trend.
“We have access to so much more information, [but] I think it makes it actually harder, because people cannot decipher or discern what is specifically for them,” she said. “Like we could do the absolute same thing, have the absolute same diet, and our bodies are going to respond differently.”
Evans is quick to say that she’s “not a doctor,” but her knowledge about and passion for the ways natural ingredients can impact our bodies runs deep.
Evans’ nutrition journey began during her high school years, when her mother, Annette, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Nauseous from chemotherapy and determined to get the nutrients she needed, Annette made fresh produce and juicing part of the family’s lifestyle — and started the Turning Natural business.
After spending almost 10 years in remission, Annette passed away in 2010 when cancer returned. Evans moved back to D.C. from Atlanta, quitting her job as an aeronautical engineer. Grieving and unsure what to do next, Evans decided to continue her mother’s legacy by addressing the food deserts her family had experienced.
“Once I got back to D.C., I realized that a lot had changed, but a lot hadn’t changed — especially when it came to access to healthy foods,” Evans said. “I was like, ‘I wonder if I could create something that was cool and fun that people wanted to be a part of.’”
Today, Turning Natural sells cold-pressed juices with names like “Green Latifah” and “Mi’Kale Jackson” at six DMV locations, including stores in Anacostia and District Heights, Maryland. Turning Natural’s general manager, Michale Henderson, said the company has “created a place where health is cool.”
It hasn’t always been a smooth road; Evans, who paid a $10,000 settlement following a 2018 lawsuit over wage theft, says entrepreneurship “ages you in dog years.” But the company’s all-natural product and community-oriented mission have helped it weather the storms. Henderson, who has known Evans since they were both 10 years old, has been there to watch it grow into a fitting legacy for Evans’ mother.
“I remember when Turning Natural was just Ms. Annette’s living room business,” Henderson wrote in an email. “When Jerri decided to open her first location, I would come in after work to help her prep fruit. … I joined because I loved Ms. Annette, and I stick around because the mission is something I believe in.”
That mission, alongside a nutrient-filled product, has made Turning Natural a staple for some D.C.-area residents — among them, artist Naturel.
“Turning Natural — they’re doing a great thing with the cold press juices, the smoothies,” Henderson told the Washington Informer Bridge in a 2019 interview. “And they’re servicing our communities, so it can’t get better than that.”