- YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

What is wheatgrass juice?
It's a super healthy juice derived from squeezing fresh wheatgrass through a masticating juicer. It is vivid emerald green with a complex and powerful flavour - hints of vanilla, liquorice root, raw peas and aniseed can be detected in it.

How is it used?
It is very densely grown using organic compost in seed trays or punnets, and harvested as needed by cutting with a sharp knife and feeding into a type of heavy-duty juicer called a masticating juicer.

What is the yield?
As a guide to yield, one 'shot': 30ml is about 1 fluid oz and a tray of wheatgrass yields approximately 8 shots per tray. This is a typical juice bar portion, and the amount recommended for increased vitality and cell health.

Why is it so powerful?
Wheatgrass is powerful because it is packed full of phytonutrients, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Often referred to as a green superfood by natural health experts.

Why juice it fresh?
By far the most potent form of wheatgrass is the fresh juice because nutrients are lost in the pasteurisation and drying of dried and powdered wheatgrass products. Like many raw and highly nutritious foods, fresh wheatgrass juice is highly active chemically, and best drunk straight away. There's no wheatgrass like fresh wheatgrass!

Why do you need a special juicer?
The very common centrifugal or citrus juicers cannot extract juice from the strong fibres of grass. Their high speeds create heat, which destroys sensitive nutrients. Wheatgrass needs the heavy-duty action of a masticating juicer to slowly press the fibres. Wheatgrass juicers extract maximum juice, will also juice any other fruit and vegetables, and are very easy to clean! Aconbury Sprouts sell hand or electric wheatgrass juicers on our website.

What mixes make a good cocktail?
It's a matter of taste. Natural health experts recommend it is drunk neat, but some people find the taste too sweet. It mixes successfully with other fruit and vegetable juices: especially green juices, spinach and celery. Try with mineral water, apple, lemon, grapefruit, tomato, celery or cucumber juices; ginger adds a spicy zing. You can even make a very fine raw gaspacho with it. Avoid mixing it with orange juice as this may be too acidic.

Does wheatgrass juice contain any gluten? Or pollen?
No, neither.

Why must wheatgrass be juiced?
Because humans do not have the digestive ability to process grass, we can only benefit by breaking down the strong cell walls and ingesting the juice.

How was wheatgrass discovered?
Green juices were dubbed 'concentrated sunlight' by Dr Bircher-Benner (1867-1939), a Swiss doctor and pioneer of dietary health, most famous for inventing muesli. He was convinced that health care should be much more than just medical treatments. In 1897, he founded a sanatorium in Zürich where he practised therapies which included a daily walk, bathing and sunbathing. He even set up exercise equipment, a kind of forerunner of today's fitness centres.
Dr Bircher-Benner strongly advocated the consumption of more fruit and vegetables, which were traditionally regarded as foods for the poor. Contrary to orthodox medical doctrines of his time, Dr. Bircher-Benner continued to believe in what he called "the food of sunlight", meals based on natural raw ingredients.

In the 1930's, an agricultural chemist called Charles Schnabel in America's Great Depression brought his poultry and his family back to A1 health using wheatgrass juice, and went on to develop a sizeable industry based on wheatgrass juice. After World War 2, a new slogan was pioneered by the burgeoning chemical industry: Health through Chemistry; and wheatgrass fell victim to the growing taste for pills and potions. Dr Ann Wigmore and her colleagues have done more recent pioneering work with fresh wheatgrass at the Hippocrates Institute in Florida. Read more at www.hippocratesinstitute.com

What are the benefits of wheatgrass juice?
Substantial benefits in wheatgrass and the juice extracted from it have been identified, mainly by American research and FDA data.

Wheatgrass is highly active chemically and contains many phytonutrients important for general well-being and vitality.

Grass is the complete food of so many animals, it contains a broad spectrum of vitamins and minerals. A shot of wheatgrass juice is like a single complete supplement. It is a vegetable source of vitamin B12, and also vitamins A, C and E. Wheatgrass contains minerals including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and selenium.

Return to our main Wheatgrass page for details.

Where can I find out more?
Try this American site for more information:
www.wheatgrasskits.com

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