Consuming green salads is an important part of our diet. But you would need to eat a gigantic salad grown in ultra-mineralized organic soil to even attempt getting close to the same amount of nutrition as just one small serving of barley grass juice. Young shoots of barley grass contain similar nutrients as those found in salad vegetables, but in much higher concentrations.
Barley grass contains an outstanding array of micro nutrients. It contains all eight essential amino acids, making it a good source of protein; a total of eighteen amino acids are contained in this superfood. There are also carotenoids including beta carotene; vitamins including B1, B2, B6, folic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin K, and vitamin C; minerals including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, zinc, and numerous trace minerals; and enzymes including SOD (superoxide dismutase), a powerful antioxidant enzyme that protects our cells from free radicals amongst other important functions.
These days, there are so many people suffering from the consequences of eating an overly acidic diet. There is a large body of research proving that cancer and many other diseases thrive in an acidic body but not in an alkaline one. Barley grass is highly alkaline and is great at bringing the body back to a healthy acid and alkaline balance.
Barley grass is also a great source of chlorophyll. Amongst the many beneficial things that chlorophyll does for the human body, it also acts as a deodorizer and decreases body odor. Chlorophyll has additionally been proven to build human blood—it actually increased the blood count in anemic people.
You don’t have to be put off by taste either. Barley grass juice has a more neutral taste than other grasses. For many, it is more pleasant to drink.
Barley grass powder is much easier to prepare than growing and juicing your own barley grass. But care must be taken while it is produced so that the process preserves all its nutrients. Most companies process the barley grass using high heat which has been found to destroy much of the nutritional value. So be sure to only use barley grass from companies that provide raw or cold processed barley grass.
I recommend consuming products that mix barley grass with other grasses. This creates a synergy of all the superfoods, delivering more benefit than any one of those superfoods could provide alone. The best mix available by far is Ormus Supergreens by SUNWARRIOR.
Craig B Sommers ND, CN
Learn more about Dr. Craig Sommers
