I wrestled with my conscience over this one, wondering whether a juice bar actually constitutes a meal.

It does for me, but when you have to eat as much as I do, you need days off and if I need a breather, this is where I come.

They know me by sight now at the Boost Juice Bar in the Clarendon Centre – “Breakfast smoothie?” the lovely manager Ambrose O’Sullivan always asks. Heaven in a cup, it’s filling, nutritious and really healthy, without me even having to chew.

And looking behind me at the queue this week I realised it’s not just me ordering juices in lieu of lunch or breakfast, and that if it’s a choice of five-a-day in a beaker or a McDonald’s, then this is definitely the way forward. It gives the term liquid lunch a whole new meaning and fast food a run for its money.

It’s also the future; every bookshop, newsagent and magazine groaning with news of juicing, its benefits and the celebrities who vouch for it. Look at Gwynnie, goddamit – she’s so healthy she puts the World Health Organisation in the shade, although even I might pass on her speciality – the kale smoothie! Life is too short...

So before you pass this off as a fad, think about it. We’re not talking about a glass of orange juice here, but a well thought out, nutritious and filling alternative to solid food, which when you’re in a mad rush, have hugely overeaten, or need a pick-me-up, is the ideal solution.

Plus the kids love it, just mention a smoothie and they’re right there like gannets, mouths open and ready for all those glorious vitamins. It’s a win win every single time.

There are two main candidates in Oxford, including Goodness 2U which relies on the captive audience at Oxford Train Station who prefer a berry smoothie over anything that British Rail serve.

The couple who have run it for the past eight years, Stuart and Katherine Hallworth, make everything imaginable from porridge and granola, as well as a moreish breakfast smoothie first thing, plus fresh soup, and every other fruit and vegetable combination you can squeeze into a take-away cup. Open early from 6am it’s perfect commuter food.

Boost is as popular, the girl in front of me ordering the vegetable detox juice (beetroot, carrot, apple and celery) preceded by a shot of wheatgrass. “All the staff here swear by it,” Ambrose tells me.

“Once you try wheatgrass that’s it.”

Wheatgrass is superfood in a shot glass, and popular in this a city full of superbrains desperate for fodder that you can’t glean from books.

My favourites are the breakfast to go-go super smoothie (£4.45 regular) – banana, toasted muesli, honey, no fat milk or low fat soy, vanilla yoghurt and ice plus an energiser booster to start your day) and the berry berry light (£4.25, blueberries, strawberries, guava nectar, strawberry yoghurt and ice) is also delicious, although I’m slowly working my way through the menu.

With three more opening around the UK this week and countless more franchises planned, every city centre will soon boast a Boost Juice Bar so get in there now and buck the trend.

Boost Juice is at Unit 7B, Clarendon Centre, Cornmarket Street, Oxford.
Goodness 2U is at Oxford Train Station.
Call 0791 709 5820