This nutrient-packed “Green Food” May Fight Several Types Of Cancer, Clear Up Skin
Problems, And Heal Ulcers.
WHAT IS IT?
– Barley grass (Hordeum vulgare) is the seedling of the barley plant. It is usually harvested about 200 days after germination, when the shoots are less than a foot tall.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE –
A concentrated source of nearly three dozen vitamins and minerals, barley grass is particularly rich in vitamins A, C, B1, B2, folic acid, and B12; calcium; iron; potassium; and chlorophyll. Unlike most plants, barley grass provides all nine essential amino acids (those which your body can’t produce).
HEALING
CLAIMS – Barley grass is a powerful antioxidant that is believed to help the body kill cancer cells and overcome a variety of ailments, including acne and ulcers.
What DOES BARLEY GRASS DO?
– An antioxidant called alpha-tocopherol succinate – a potent relative of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) may be responsible for much of the plant’s anti-tumor action, according to Allan L. Goldstein, Ph.D., head of the biochemistry department at George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., who has studied barley grass. Though its mechanism is unknown, alpha-tocopherol succinate seems to inhibit several types of cancer, including leukemia, brain tumors, and prostate cancer.
According to Yoshihide Hagiwara, M.D., a researcher in Japan and author of the book “Green Barley Essence” (Keats, 1985), barley grass helps cure skin diseases and ulcers by promoting the growth of new cells. It is not known exactly how this happens, although barley grass is high in chlorophyll, an antibacterial green pigment.
THE EVIDENCE – There have been no clinical trials of barley grass. In an experiment at George Washington University, Goldstein and his colleagues exposed leukemic cancer cells to dehydrated barley grass extract. The extract killed virtually all of them. Encouraged, the researchers then subjected brain cancer cells to the extract. It eradicated 30 to 50 percent of these cells. In a third trial, the extract inhibited the growth of three types of prostate cancer cells by 90 to 100 percent.
Dehydrated barley grass has 11 times the calcium of cow’s milk, 5 times the iron of spinach, and more protein than sirloin steak. About 2 teaspoons (6 g) of barley grass powder contains the following*;
CALORIES 17
PROTEIN 1.4g
CALCIUM 30mg
IRON 3mg
POTASSIUM 170mg
VITAMIN A 3,120
VITAMIN B1 15 mcg
VITAMIN B2 140 mcg
FOLIC ACID 52 mcg
VITAMIN B12 1.7 mcg
VITAMIN C 19 mg
CHLOROPHYLL 32.6 mg
*NUTRIENT VALUES VARY DEPENDING
ON HARVESTING AND PROCESSING TECHNIQUES.
