by now, some of you may have heard about this quickly becoming popular healthfood. my own quest for it started around 2001. i had a client who made me do some graphic design work as marketing material for a BARLEY grass product. i always do research for design work so this made me read more on the product and inevitably, it lead me to wheatgrass also.
i quickly learned i needed a specialized juicer for it and the seeds. unfortunately, around that time, it was not that easy (at least for me) to acquire stuff like this from abroad. my interest in it waned for a while but was rekindled when i started researching about the raw foods and sprouts. still, due to lack of resources and general laziness, my interest waned again. so imagine my delight when i just recently heard my sister-in-law was growing some wheatgrass practically at the place where we hold office. i immediately gave her a call and ordered some of my own from her sources. i started growing my first batch of wheatgrass last month, early December 2008, but i hesitated to post about it until i have had some first hand stories to tell.
this is because in as much as there are many proponents of wheatgrass, there are also some detractors. however, i noticed that most of the detractors have not yet tried wheatgrass themselves. their animosity mostly lies in the reasoning that there is not enough research on it and that the wheatgrass proponents claim too much.
in all fairness, i am more of a believer here than a skeptic. this is mostly because i have also noticed that inasmuch as there are few precise scientific studies on wheatgrass, there is an abundance of anecdotal reports that attest to its efficacy. proponents also point out quite reasonably that funding for more research on wheatgrass are not as forthcoming because there is no money in it for big pharmaceutical companies. growing wheatgrass is free AND it cannot be patented.
it is really quite easy to grow and is a potentially fun project to do especially if you have even the slightest penchant for gardening or for science projects. and even if you don't have an inclination at all for any of these, it is still very easy. all you need is motivation. a great motivator for me is the fact that it is potentially a "fountain of youth" because promotes good health and therefore youthful vitality. hey, if it will make my teeth and bones stronger, my skin better, my cholesterol count lower, my blood oxygen content higher, and remove heavy metals in body that may i have ingested through the years, and provide me with valuable antioxidants to counter the toxins from the unhealthy air and food i take in everyday making it an anticarcinogen... why should i not at least give it a chance. i am always hell bent on trying out anything at least once in my lifetime anyway. why not something potentially healthy this time.
information abound on the internet about the health benefits of wheatgrass. after all it's been there for quite some time. here are some links just to get you started. a google on it produces more:
http://www.sprout.net.au/wht_benefits.html
http://www.ayurvediccure.com/wheat_grass.htm
http://www.juiceitup.com/wheatgrass.html
http://www.drwheatgrass.com/research/ref.htm
oh yeah... i regret that i have not at least started out with an executive checkup to find out my health status before i started on the wheatgrass regime. i wish i had so i can compare the difference more concretely but i can say this after just roughly over a month of doing wheatgrass: my Nanay's blood pressure went down from 140-150 systolic to 120. my use of inhalers for my asthma has decreased. even my 5 year old Reine who just had the sniffles and a cough, was out of it after just 3 days. just for all that, i think i'm pursuing the growing and the juicing of this green goodness.
i'll make me a photo record of how i grew it--step-by-step--on my next post!... :-D
hello au. :) missing your scrappy-ness but am glad you have this other blod that i can hop to. :)