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Complementary Medicine / Wheatgrass as a healing food...
« on: 11/03/2009 16:00:11 »
Hi SteveD,
Long time no post. I was also interested in production values regarding growing wheatgrass. I've been growing trays of wheatgrass for some time, and have noticed that while it's the easiest thing to get some seeds to sprout, it's tricky to get consistent quality trays of wheatgrass. They require frequent watering, the amount of sunlight/light affects how fast the sprouts grow, soil amount and quality is a big factor, and when the tray is harvested and juiced I think has a big influence on the nutrient content.
I've noticed when the sprouts get a bit too much for the tray/soil amount and start turning yellow, the juiced product and effect definitely suffers, and there is only a couple days' window before it gets like this. When you walk into a Jamba J. store and ask for a wheatgrass shot, ever notice half the time the grass in the tray looks like it's dying? One time I was in Hawaii and wanted a shot of wheatgrass. The store there only had precut grass in plastic bags, ?how long it had been harvested.
There may be a wide number of factors affecting nutrient content, and that's why I think potentially prefrozen or freeze dried products or other "grass" supplements may not be as effective.
The previous studies that declare no benefit to wheatgrass in controlled studies I don't think took into account many of these variables, and that another reason why the anecdotal or observational effects that many people describe merits more investigation.
The posters that wave it all away to placebo effect are the ones being closed-minded. Good scientific studies start from observational data, theories and postulates and go from there.
-Cliff
Long time no post. I was also interested in production values regarding growing wheatgrass. I've been growing trays of wheatgrass for some time, and have noticed that while it's the easiest thing to get some seeds to sprout, it's tricky to get consistent quality trays of wheatgrass. They require frequent watering, the amount of sunlight/light affects how fast the sprouts grow, soil amount and quality is a big factor, and when the tray is harvested and juiced I think has a big influence on the nutrient content.
I've noticed when the sprouts get a bit too much for the tray/soil amount and start turning yellow, the juiced product and effect definitely suffers, and there is only a couple days' window before it gets like this. When you walk into a Jamba J. store and ask for a wheatgrass shot, ever notice half the time the grass in the tray looks like it's dying? One time I was in Hawaii and wanted a shot of wheatgrass. The store there only had precut grass in plastic bags, ?how long it had been harvested.
There may be a wide number of factors affecting nutrient content, and that's why I think potentially prefrozen or freeze dried products or other "grass" supplements may not be as effective.
The previous studies that declare no benefit to wheatgrass in controlled studies I don't think took into account many of these variables, and that another reason why the anecdotal or observational effects that many people describe merits more investigation.
The posters that wave it all away to placebo effect are the ones being closed-minded. Good scientific studies start from observational data, theories and postulates and go from there.
-Cliff