When we talk about “green foods,” we’re referring to a group of foods that includes young cereal grasses like barley grass and wheatgrass, as well as blue-green algae plants like spirulina and chlorella. Nutritionally, they are close cousins to dark green leafy vegetables, but offer far greater levels of “nutrient density”—in other words, an ounce of these concentrated green foods contains much more of the beneficial phytonutrients found in an ounce of green vegetables.
Spirulina is a concentrated source of GLA, and a 10-gram serving has 235 mg. As a comparison, a dailydose of 500 mg of evening primrose oil has only 45 mg.
The results of many experimental studies show that green foods have marked beneficial effects on cholesterol, blood pressure, immune response and cancer prevention. Survival medicine reserves a special place for these plants and features how they can be used for radical detox and concentrated nutritional medicine. Most of my personal experience is decades long use of spirulina and my recommended natural chelation formula, Heavy Metal Detox (HMD, uses chlorella. Spirulina is easily integrated into a juice fasting program. It’s like the afterburners on a military jet—pour it into the juice and everything is intensified. One could use wheatgrass and barley grass juices if a person is willing to grow, harvest and juice them on a daily basis.
There is very little nutritional difference between wheatgrass and barley grass, although both act exceptionally well as free radical scavengers that reduce inflammation and pain.
About the only thing wheat grass juice doesn’tcontain is a significant amount of calories.
Barley grass is an excellent source of nutrients that the body needs for growth, repair and wellbeing. A biologist named Yasuo Hotta from the University of California, La Jolla, found in barley grass a substance called P4D1. This substance not only has strong anti-inflammatory action but was also shown to actually repair the DNA in the cells of the body. This aided in the prevention of carcinogenesis, aging, and cell death. He reported in a Japan Pharmacy Science Association meeting that P4D1 suppresses or cures pancreatitis, stomatitis, inflammation of the oral cavity, and dermatitis, and also lacerations of the stomach and duodenum.
Some people have difficulty tolerating wheatgrass juice perhaps because it is extremely detoxifying. Barley grass juice is milder so far as the detox effect, although quite bitter in taste compared to the sweetness of wheatgrass juice. Besides chlorophyll and a myriad of vitamins, minerals and enzymes, barley grass is said to have 30 times as much vitamin B1 as in milk, 3.3 times as much vitamin C, and 6.5 times as much carotene as in spinach, 11 times the amount of calcium in cow’s milk, nearly five times the iron content of spinach, nearly seven times the vitamin C in oranges, four times the vitamin B1 in whole wheat flour, and 80 micrograms of vitamin B12 per 100 grams of dried barley plant juice.
Barley grass contains the enzyme superoxide dismutase, which protects the cells against toxic free radicals.
In his book, Fasting to Freedom, Ron Lagerquist said, “Fasting on water has become a near impossible exercise for a body that has been fed on the modern diet. It’s hard to tell this to someone who believes juice fasting is a compromise, cheating, not real fasting. But I can tell you juice fasting is as rigorous today as water fasting was in Christ’s day.[1]
Every two or three days, as the body goes into a deeper levelof dumping wastes, the energy may go down, and resistanceand fears as well as symptoms may arise. Between thesetimes, we usually feel cleaner, better, and more alive.Dr. Elson M. Haas
Headache is not at all uncommon during the first day or two of a fast. Fatigue or irritability may arise at times, also dizziness or lightheadedness but these symptoms are diminished when using fruits and vegetables processed with a juicer or even a regular blender instead of pure water. Juice fasting is the oldest, fastest and safest (biochemical) method of removing unwanted weight and increases physical wellbeing, helps you to stay slim, healthy and vital, and is a huge help in the breaking of addictions. As the physical body detoxifies, rejuvenates and regenerates, the mind begins to function more efficiently. During the fast, the digestive system has a rest, freeing up energy for other things. This energy is used by the mind—bringing mental clarity. Fasting develops mental will power and increased control over the senses and mind.
[1] http://www.freedomyou.com/fasting_book/juice%20fasting.htm