Sunday, February 17, 2008

Wheatgrass - Mother Natures Own Medicine

by Christopher J Williams

Wheatgrass is grown from wheatberries (or wheat grain) as a sprouted seed which matures at usually 7-10 days for indoor grown wheatgrass. Outdoor varieties of wheatgrass are also grown and have a longer, and more typical, field grown crop harvesting period as opposed to the younger sprouting variety. When the young sprouted wheatgrass reaches about 7 -10 inches in high, at a period of typically between 7 -10 days, it is ready for harvesting.


Since wheatgrass is a fibrous thin plant indigestible to humans, it is typically juiced using a suitable wheatgrass juicer and ingested in small amounts of generally 1-2 ounces per day. It has long been promoted as a superfood with many natural healing benefits due to it's high chlorophyl content and multi nutrient contents, and was the main source of nutrition and recuperation recommended by Dr Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Institute. Dr Wigmore, like many others, discovered the beneficial healing properties of wheatgrass at a critical time in her life, when modern medicine could not cure her own ailments and she decided to resort to traditional herbal remedies, remembering that her grandmother was an avid believer in natural remedies to aid in healing.


Although there is believed to be no hard scientific evidence supporting the beneficial healing properties of wheatgrass, there was a series of studies conducted in the 1940's into chlorophyl, the main constituent of wheatgrass (around 70%), which was largely funded by Charles Kettering, Chairman of the Board of General Motors. Researchers discovered that chlorophyl was a natural healer, and had aided in the cure of many ailments and illnesses, such as ulcers, blood conditions and more. The AMA accepted the cereal grasses as a natural vitamin food in 1939.


In the early 1940's medical doctors studied a substance called chlorophyll. Charles Kettering, then Chairman of the Board of General Motors funded much fo the research that was done. Medical doctors found that chlorophyll was a wonderful healer--that it cured all kinds of things: peptic ulcers, sinus infections, anemia, etc. The AMA actually accepted the cereal grasses as natural vitamin food in 1939!


Since that period, and over the future decades, many users of wheatgrass have proclaimed it's 'miraculous' healing and cleansing properties, including many people who have been stricken with incurable cancers and other terminal illnesses. Following a regime of wheatgrass usage, great healing has taken place naturally in many people. The strict regimes followed by seriously ill users has typically been consuming several 30 ml doses of wheatgrass orally, and regular wheatgrass enemas of up to 8 ounces on a daily basis for several months, together with a juicing and raw foods diet, whilst abstaining from cooked foods and ready made foods or the processed foods which we typically consume today, which many healthy living proponents proclaim is responsible for many illnesses which strike down people in the modern age.


Wheatgrass contains vitamin A, vitamin C, B complex vitamins, vitamins E and K. Wheatgrass also contains 82 out of the 92 minerals found in soil including Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Potassium, Phosphorus and Cobalt, and the high cholorphyll content of wheatgrass also acts as a powerful detoxifier cleansing the liver, cells, tissues and blood. It is these qualities that some modern medical practitioners believe could well be the reasons that wheatgrass has aided the recovery of many terminally ill patients.


There are three key enzymes which are believed to have significant anti-oxidant properties, one of which is Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), which is present in wheat grass. It has been shown that cancerous cells are deficient or completely lacking in the anti-oxidant SOD, and consequently a diet consisting of regular wheatgrass doses of typically 1-2 fluid ounces (30-60ml) daily can assist the body in fighting or defeating carcinogens or cancer causing radicals in the body. Anti-Oxidants also clean the body of free radicals, which can reduce or eliminate cell mutation (or avoid it if taken regularly prior to the onset). Cell-mutation takes place in the early stages of cancer and other terminal illnesses, and free radicals contribute to the mutation.


Despite it's somewhat strong taste (wheatgrass is an acquired taste!), wheatgrass is, without doubt, a miracle performing natural product which mother nature has already provided for our good, yet few people know of or are aware of it's benefits. Wheatgrass is such a concentrated source of chlorophyll and other nutrients that about 2 ounces of juice provides the same nourishment as up to 4 pounds of fresh green vegetables!


Have you had your wheatgrass shot today? If not, it's time you tried this incredible wonderfood.


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