Is Wheatgrass A Fad?

People have been drinking wheatgrass juice for decades, and even centuries according to some sources. However, wheatgrass juice does seem to get a lot of media attention that claims it is a fad. So is wheatgrass juice just a passing fad? Yes and no. Some people have been drinking wheatgrass juice everyday for years. Others order a shot at the juice bar once in a while. The fact is that it takes quite a bit of effort and seriousness to grow your own wheatgrass, juice it, and drink it consistently. Drinking it every day is when you are going to see the results. Yes, a shot here and there is good for you, but you probably won't see much change in your health this way. There will always be people who will try new things out, especially stuff that claims to make you healthy.
Here is a funny example:

In 2000, the TV show Sex And The City shows Samantha bringing a guy to a health-food restaurant to give him wheatgrass. The owner of the restaurant said that after the show aired, his sales of wheatgrass went up 55%.
Not bad. Of course many people who try wheatgrass juice do so only once or twice and give up.

A Rude Awakening

This week the Humane Society Of The United States revealed the disgusting findings of an undercover worker sent to document what goes on inside a cow slaughterhouse in California. You can read about the results in this Los Angeles Times article. The findings mostly show that cows that are too sick to even stand up and lying in their own poop are still killed and fed to our children at school. Although I wasn't very surprised at the outcome, I suspect it will disgust many people who haven't thought much about where their food comes from. If you haven't given much attention to the origins of your food, now is a good time to start. The US Department of Agriculture is supposed to inspect these places, but they were definately not present during the 6 weeks this undercover worker was employed. If you think the USDA will make sure what you are eating is actually safe, think again. The reason cows that can't stand are not supposed to enter the food chain is because they might have mad cow disease. In my opinion, we can only ignore things for so long before a major health disaster comes along.
What can we do? Make sure you know where your food comes from. I eat a vegan diet of locally grown foods. I know the farmers who grow my vegetables. I see where the rice is grown. This way I can remove many of the scary "unknowns" from my diet.

Battle Of The Hand-Crank Wheatgrass Juicers

When it comes to manual wheatgrass juicers, you generally have 2 main choices: Plastic or Stainless steel


Each has certain advantages and disadvantages, and since I have used both kinds, each for a long time, here are my thoughts.

The plastic one is light and easy to move around. It is also cheaper, so if you aren't sure if you will stick to growing wheatgrass, you can use this kind at first to try it out. The disadvantages of the plastic kind are that they aren't as durable, and won't last as long. I started out with the Healthy Juicer, a plastic one, and it worked fine for me. That said, I now use a stainless steel manual juicer and it is definately better.
Here are the advantages of using a stainless steel juicer like this one.

1. It is virtually indestructible, and will last a long, long time. I don't think I could break mine if I tried. I expect it to be around long after I am around! This makes the price worth it. It will however break your other dishes if you accidentally drop it in the sink!
2. It extracts the juice better than the plastic kind. I can put the pulp in 2 or 3 times to make sure I get most of the juice out. With the plastic kind, it gets stuck if you try to put the pulp in a second time. The amount of extra juice you can squeeze out with the metal juicer is quite a bit--about 20%-30% more. If you get 15 ounces out of a tray, this will give you 4 extra ounces--Sweet!
3. Stainless steel won't rust, and it stays very clean.
4. It builds up your amr muscles, since it takes some effort to crank it around. (If you can't crank it around, consider an electric wheatgrass juicer)

In my opinion, the stainless steel juicer wins hands-down. Happy Juicing!

Superfoods To The Rescue

Lately there seems to be much talk about called superfoods. Superfoods are foods that contain especially high levels of antioxidants or other nutrients. Some of the most well-known superfoods are

• Blueberries - rich in antioxidants and phytoflavinoids
• Green or black tea - also rich in antioxidants
• Wheatgrass - made up of 70% chlorophyll and many other nutrients and antioxidants
• Tomatoes - contain lycopene, thought to have antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties
• Oats - seems to help lower cholesterol levels
• Cacao (chocolate) - rich in many different nutrients
• Flax seeds - omege-3 fatty acids
  

There are many other foods that fall into the "superfoods" category as well. For a lot more info on superfoods, check out this wikipedia page.
These foods are meant to be eaten as a way to prevent things like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other sicknesses. They can also help bring you back to optimum health if you are sick. Many people use them as a Detox Cleanse. Additionally, none of the superfoods are processed. They are all in their natural, raw state. You never seem to see superfood chips or pizza!

Although some so-called health experts warn people that there is no such thing as superfoods, I disagree. My reasoning is that these days any anything that promotes the eating of fruits and vegetables is a good thing. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements for junk foods like burgers, pizza, and candy. When was the last time you saw a tv commercial for broccoli? Probably never. Some critics of superfoods seem to think people will try to live on blueberries and wheatgrass alone. This is doubtful. Of course the best diet in my opinion is a vegetarian healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, with foods that fit into the "superfoods" label mixed in whenever possible as well. Juices are one of the best ways to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Check out these juicing recipes for some great ideas.

Hot weather growing

Growing wheatgrass in hot weather can be a bit of a challenge at times. I have dealt with this problem myself many times, since the summer here gets above 90 F (30 C) and it is also humid. While it is hard to grow good wheatgrass in these conditions, it is definately possible. Here are some ways to deal with

THE HEAT

• If you leave your wheatgrass in direct sunlight on a hot day, it will start to wilt and turn yellow quickly, even if you water it enough. Don't leave it directly in the sun, especially during the hottest times of the day--from 10 Am to 3 PM. You can make a little shade-cloth tent to put over it that filters out some of the hot sun. Make sure you leave enough room for plenty of air to circulate around the grass.
• When you soak your wheat seeds, only soak them for 3-6 hours. They can begin to ferment in hot weather if you soak them too long.
• If you leave the air conditioner on in your house during day, put the wheatgrass inside by the window. This way it gets plenty of sunlight but stays cooler.
• Don't put as many seeds on each tray. Crowding the wheatgrass when it is hot and humid means less air can circulate and will lead to wilting and mold. You can grow extra trays with less seeds on each one.
• Let a fan blow on your trays during the day if they are outside and it is very hot. This increases air flow and inhibits mold growth.
• And if all else fails, you can always try growing in the basement where it is cooler (if you have one) with grow lights.

1 shot o' wheatgrass = 2 kilos of vegetables

There are claims on many websites that 1 shot of wheatgrass juice gives you the same nutrients as 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of fresh vegetables. The source of this claim seems to come from a guy named Charles F. Schnabel, who allegedly said that "Fifteen pounds of wheatgrass is equivalent to 350 pounds of the choicest vegetables". Many websites and juice bars claim this on their websites. I have pondered this for quite a while, and I think this statement is very misleading. First of all, they don't tell you which fresh vegetables they are comparing wheatgrass to. Secondly, they don't tell you which nutrients they are measuring. Different vegetables have different amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Here is the nutritional data of wheatgrass tablets and powder that I found on a website that sells wheatgrass stuff. It seems to me that wheatgrass juice does in fact contain a lot of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, although none in extraordinarily high concentrations. In addition, many vegetables contain a lot of these same vitamins and nutrients as well.

So what do we conclude from all of this? My feeling is that there is something else about it that makes wheatgrass healthy for us. Maybe it is the fact that 70% of wheatgrass juice is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll sure makes plants grow quickly, but can it work for people? Another idea to ponder is that cows and horses live almost entirely on grass. If you watch a horse graze, you will notice that they don't really like the old, tall grass. They prefer to eat the newly grown shoots because these contain the most nutrients and taste better. The fact that cows and horses can grow to be huge and full of muscles just from eating grass is in itself proof enough for me that wheatgrass juice works. Somehow grass contains enough vitamins and nutrients for them to grow big and strong, so I am willing to add it to my diet of other healthy foods.

Does wheatgrass juice make you want to barf?

There comes a time when every wheatgrass juice drinker has reached his/her limit for the day. You get this queezy feeling after you drink your juice, and there is nothing you can do about it. Some people feel this way when they first start to drink wheatgrass juice. I was fine for a while, and slowly increased the amount I drank, and then one day I felt like I wanted to puke. I guess that is your body's way of telling you how much you should be drinking. I am writing this post because it happened to me again this morning. While some people fell like this the first time they try wheatgrass juice and swear to never drink it again, I just take it as part of the process. Since it only happens to me once every few months, it is no big deal. Try taking small amounts when you first start on wheatgrass, and slowly increase your intake until you reach your limit again.

If you are taking lots and lots of wheatgrass juice to recover from sickness, my suggestion is to spread it out over the day. Take some in the morning, afternoon, and evening. This way you maximize absorbtion and minimize queeziness!

Indoor growing with grow lights

Since wheatgrass grows best with 14 hours of sunlight and warm weather, the dark winter months are definately a problem. Luckily for us, there is an easy solution: Use a grow light. Grow lights are lightbulbs that are designed to replicate the sun's energy. They have gotten better and better over the years, and some work quite well. You can leave the wheatgrass by the window during the daytime while the sun is shining, but when the sun goes down, turn on the grow light to make sure your grass gets 14 hours of light so it can grow up big and strong. You can also grow wheatgrass in the basement or somewhere that gets no natural light at all, using grow lights exclusively. Somewhere large enough to get air circulation will work much better than a small closet.
What happens to wheatgrass if it doesn't get enough light? Wheatgrass will grow very slowly. It does this because it thinks it is still winter (which it probably is), and wheatgrass only starts to grow quickly when it is warm and has plenty of sunlight--which happens in the spring.
Though you can grow wheatgrass with 10 to 12 hours of sunlight a day and cool weather, it definately grows really slowly. Additionally, you will most likely end up not getting your juice for a couple of days because your next tray is too small to be cut. If you are going to grow wheatgrass all year long (which I highly recommend), you should definately invest in a good grow light. The easiest kind of growlight to use is the kind that screws right into a regular light bulb fixture like this one. They are cheap too--about $10-$20, and will last at least a year. You can screw it into a clamp-on light fixture, and clamp it onto somethnig about 2 feet above your growing wheatgrass tray. If you have more than one tray growing, you can stack them vertically on a shelf, and set the light at a 45 degree angle so the light hits all of the trays. It is also a good idea to turn the trays around once a day so the grass grows evenly. If you are really gung-ho, or are thinking about growing on a large scale, you can set yourself up with some long fluorescent growlights. Have a good winter!