Wheat Grass supplement health benefit, juice and products, review of published trials by Ray Sahelian, M.D.
Cereal grass is the young green plant that grows to
produce the cereal grain. Wheat grass and barley grass are popular nutritional
supplements. These cereal grasses, along with spirulina, chlorella, oat grass
and alfalfa are sometimes referred to as "green foods." Wheat grass and barley
grass are rich sources of
chlorophyll.
Wheat grass juice is popular among health food enthusiasts. As of 2010, I could not find any published research in humans regarding the effects of
wheat grass juice or supplements on health.
NOW Foods
Wheat
Grass 500 mg
NOW Wheat Grass tablets are a rich source of many
nutrients. The whole leaf vegetable grass is then carefully dehydrated and
tableted to ensure preservation of all its fragile nutritional elements.
Organically grown and processed in accordance with the California Organic Foods
Act of 1990.
Serving Size: 10 Tablets
Servings per container: 50
Wheat Grass - 5,000 mg
Chlorophyll 25 mg
Benefit
Wheat grass has phenolic and flavonoid
antioxidants along with chlorophyll. The health benefit of wheat grass
juice in terms of a specific medical condition is not yet clear at this time.
Nutritional composition
Wheatgrass has high levels of chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their
green coloring. In addition, it contains many important vitamins such as
vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B3, B5, and B6, as well as biotin, folic acid,
calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, iron, and magnesium.
Wheat grass research
Evaluation of the antioxidant activity of wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum
L.) as a function of growth under different conditions.
Phytother Res. 2006. Department of Chemistry, University of Pune, Pune, India.
The antioxidant activity of wheatgrass, which is consumed as a dietary
supplement, was estimated at different levels. Wheat grass extracts were found
to inhibit ascorbate-Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver mitochondria.
The ORAC values of aqueous and ethanol wheat grass extracts are higher than
those reported for many natural extracts or vegetables.
Emails
There are many stories of people who have extended their lives with
cancer and other diseases or turned their health around with the help of
wheatgrass therapy. (If you are unfamiliar with wheatgrass therapy, read: Grass
- The Medicine Beneath our Feet.) In my book Wheatgrass Nature’s Finest
Medicine, I share many of those stories. They are told in the first person by
the patients themselves. Among those stories are some about sick dogs. If you’ve
read my book, you know that I believe wheatgrass is one of the most potent
natural medicines in the herbal pharmacopeia. But while others extol the virtues
of wheatgrass, I have always eschewed the hyperbole associated with it as a
panacea. But when it comes to dogs, there can be no hyperbole. Dogs don’t
exaggerate. They don’t subscribe to faith healing, and they don’t respond to the
placebo effect. What follows is an extract from Wheatgrass Nature’s Finest
Medicine in which a longtime breeder tells his story about sick dogs and his use
of wheatgrass. This is not just about one dog, but about dozens of sick dogs
over many years. Not only did the grass change the lives of the dogs, but the
breeder and his family were so impressed, they started growing wheatgrass on a
larger scale to provide it to their human friends. Steve Meyerowitz, author of Wheatgrass Nature's Finest
Medicine.