Wheatgrass
Wheatgrass is the freshly sprouted
Like most
Wheatgrass juice is often available at
History
Wheatgrass is traditionally used in both Persian and Indian[citation needed] festivals and rituals. Hindu sow wheat or barley seeds on the first day of Navaratri pooja[citation needed] and offer the saplings to the mother goddess on the last day as part of the rituals[citation needed]. However, the consumption of wheatgrass in the Western world began in the 1930s as a result of experiments conducted by Charles Schnabel in his attempts to popularize the plant.[2] By 1940, cans of Schnabel's powdered grass were on sale in major drug stores throughout the United States and Canada.[3]
Cultivation
Wheatgrass can be grown indoors or outdoors. A common method for sprout production indoors is often on trays in a growth medium such as a potting mix. Leaves are harvested when they develop a "split" as another leaf emerges. These can then be cut off with scissors and allow a second crop of shoots to form. Sometimes a third cutting is possible, but may be tougher and have fewer sugars than the first.[5]
Schnabel's research was conducted with wheatgrass grown outdoors in Kansas. His wheatgrass required 200 days of slow growth through the winter and early spring, when it was harvested at the jointing stage. He claimed that at this stage the plant reached its peak nutritional value; after jointing, concentrations of chlorophyll, protein, and vitamins decline sharply.[6] Wheatgrass is harvested, freeze-dried, then sold in tablet and powdered concentrates for human and animal consumption. Indoor-grown wheatgrass is used to make wheatgrass juice powder.
Nutrition and health claims
Nutrient | Wheatgrass juice | Broccoli | Spinach |
---|---|---|---|
Protein | 860 mg | 800 mg | 810 mg |
Beta-carotene
|
120 IU | 177 IU | 2658 IU |
Vitamin E | 880 mg | 220 mcg | 580 mcg |
Vitamin C | 1 mg | 25.3 mg | 8 mg |
Vitamin B12 | 0.30 mcg | 0 mcg | 0 mcg |
Phosphorus | 21 mg | 19 mg | 14 mg |
Magnesium | 8 mg | 6 mg | 22 mg |
Calcium | 7.2 mg | 13 mg | 28 mg |
Iron | 0.66 mg
|
0.21 mg | 0.77 mg |
Potassium | 42 mg | 90 mg | 158 mg |
Data on broccoli and spinach from ] |
Proponents of wheatgrass make many claims for its health properties, ranging from promotion of general well-being to cancer prevention. However, according to the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support the idea that wheatgrass or the wheatgrass diet can cure or prevent disease".[8]
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Extracting wheatgrass juice with a manualjuicing machine.
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Wheatgrass juice
Nutritional content
Wheatgrass is a source of
The nutrient content of wheatgrass juice is roughly equivalent to that of dark leafy vegetables.
See also
- Wheat sprout
- List of juices
References
- ^ "Wheatgrass". WebMD.
- ^ Murphy, Sean (13 October 2002). "Wheatgrass, healthy for the body and the bank account". ABC Landline. Archived from the original on 2 December 2002. Retrieved 6 October 2006.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-878736-97-0.
- The National Council Against Health Fraud. Archivedfrom the original on 21 June 2018.
- ^ "4 Ways to Grow Wheatgrass". wikiHow. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
- ^ "Site Dedication and Construction Preliminaries, 1921-1923". Ahr-kc.com. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
- ^ a b "USDA Nutrient Database". Retrieved 6 November 2007.
- ^ "Wheatgrass". American Cancer Society. November 2008. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
- ^ "wheat grass Nutrition Facts & Calories". SELF Nutrition Data. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
- ^ Ipatenco, Sara. "How Much Protein Does Wheatgrass Have?". SFGate. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
- ^ Bodla, Ramesh. "A study on wheat grass and its Nutritional value". ResearchGate. Food Science and Quality Management. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
- ^ Melina, Vesanto, MS, RD & Davis, Brenda, RD: "The New Becoming Vegetarian", pages 186–187. Healthy Living Publications, 2003.
- ^ "Nutrition Facts". Nutritiondata.self.com. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
External links
- Bar-Sela G, Cohen M, Ben-Arye E, Epelbaum R (2015). "The Medical Use of Wheatgrass: Review of the Gap Between Basic and Clinical Applications". Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry (Review). 15 (12): 1002–10. PMID 26156538.
- Shermer, Michael (August 2008). "How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results [aka 'Wheatgrass Juice and Folk Medicine']". Skeptic (column). Scientific American. 299 (2). Archived from the original on 2018-06-21. Retrieved 10 June 2018. Alt URL
- Dunning, Brian (9 November 2006). "Skeptoid #6: Wheatgrass Juice". Skeptoid. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
[A] shot of wheatgrass juice offers far less nutrition than a single 5-cent ... vitamin pill, and at about 100 times the price.