Wheatgrass nutrition is concentrated, making wheatgrass juice a true superfood. A small amount of the dark green juice contains abundant chlorophyll and antioxidant enzymes.
Pressed from the blades of young wheat and barley plants, wheatgrass juice contains a very broad range of vitamins, major minerals, trace minerals, amino acids, enzymes, and phytochemicals ("plant chemicals"). The body quickly and easily absorbs these nutrients in liquid form.
Wheatgrass juice is as nutritionally complete as a plant can be. In University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture experiments in the 1930's, guinea pigs, who did poorly on a diet of plain vegetables, thrived on a sole diet of wheatgrass juice.
Wheatgrass is a young grass at its peak of nutrition. Grazing animals know to seek out young shoots; in fact, any animal when sick will seek out young grass. Wheatgrass is harvested just before it develops its grains (goes to seed). This nutritional peak of grass was discovered in the 1930's by an independent agricultural chemist and confirmed shortly after at the University of Wisconsin.
Contributors to the remarkable wheatgrass nutrition include chlorophyll and antioxidant enzymes.
The deep green color of wheatgrass juice is the phytochemicalchlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the plant pigment necessary for photosynthesis, the plant's conversion of sunlight into nutrition.
At one time, doctors used chlorophyll to treat anemia. It's noted that chlorophyll's molecular structure is similar to that of hemin in human blood. Where hemin has an atom of iron, chlorophyll has an atom of magnesium.
Magnesium is one of the most necessary and beneficial minerals, and one in which many Americans are deficient. Magnesium protects against heart disease, depression, osteoporosis, and many other diseases.
Chlorophyll has also been shown to be antibacterial, to help heal wounds, and to prevent radiation injury.
Enzymes, made of proteins, perform chemical reactions inside the body's cells and power the functions of the body. Wheatgrass contains many enzymes, and its vitamins and minerals act as coenzymes and cofactors for its enzymes. Not only are enzymes contained in the juice, but the juice provides raw materials to the body and stimulates it to make its own enzymes.
Some enzymes act as antioxidants. Antioxidant enzymes neutralize the particles called free radicals. Free radicals are a by-product of normal metabolism, but damage the cells and tissues of the body. Infections, inflammation, and toxins create large amounts of free radicals, sometimes enough to seriously damage the tissues and organs. Antioxidant enzymes prevent this damage and enable the body to repair itself.
Drinking wheatgrass juice has been shown to increase blood levels of the important antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase.
Glutathione peroxidase removes peroxide free radicals. Peroxides impair the liver and damage the skin, liver, and heart. Glutathione peroxidase is one of that major ways that the body detoxifies itself.
Superoxide dismutase removes superoxide free radicals. Superoxides are known to damage the synovial fluid in joints.
Superoxide dismutase is anti-inflammatory. Both isolated and in food form, it has been used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. "Wheatgrass juice," one doctor told me, "is used to treat arthritis when nothing else works."
Imagine what a very rich, concentrated source of nutrition can do for your health.
Through its phytochemicals and enzymes, wheatgrass juice can:
Wheatgrass juice is the foundation of the programs at a number of healing resorts. It has been credited with the reversal of many serious illnesses.
See here for ten of many benefits of drinking wheatgrass juice.
Wheatgrass information about the taste of wheatgrass juice, how much to drink, types of wheatgrass, healing resorts that use wheatgrass, and books about wheatgrass.