Price: £9.50

Quantity: Add to Basket

Click below to enlarge:

Barley Grass Powder 120g

Ingredients: 100% Organic Barley Grass Powder

This is pure, unadulterated, whole leaf, powdered Organic Barley Grass. Harvested from the young shoots of outdoor, sun grown barley grass grown in mineral rich, fertile New Zealand soils.

Add to water, juice or smoothies for a highly alkalizing and nutritious green superfood drink. Can also be sprinkled on mueslis, salads or cakes.

On a weight per weight basis, Barley Grass contains seven times more Vitamin C than Oranges, five times more iron than spinach, ten times more calcium than milk, and is a significant source of Vitamin B-12.

Charles F. Schnabel, an agricultural chemist,  stated that fifteen pounds of Barley Grass or Wheat Grass is equal in overall nutritional value to 350 pounds of ordinary garden vegetables. This translates to our 120 grams of Barley Grass being equivalent  in overall nutrition to 2.4 kilograms of  ordinary garden vegetables.

What is Barley Grass?

The primary form of food is grass. Wherever there is sun, water and earth, there is grass.  Wheat, rye, corn, rice, oats, barley, sorghum, millet, spelt and kamut all make grass. Grasses have been a dominant worldwide source of human food throughout history. Grasses are concentrated sources of carbohydrates, B vitamins, fatty acids, minerals, fibre and protein. They have migrated with our species from ancient times and places to the modern world

One third of the planet is covered by grass and even in the cemented cities across the planet, grass fights back through the sidewalk cracks. Nevertheless, we largely ignore it. The highest civilizations of the past have coincided with the best grass lands. The Egyptian goddess of fertility Isis is purported to have discovered the wheat grain in Phoenicia (the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, also known as the Fertile Crescent). It is the cradle of Western civilization and many of our cereal grasses originated there. Ceres (cereal) is what the Romans named the goddess of agriculture. Wheat is part of the genus triticum, along with oats, barley and rye. It has varieties such as hard, soft, spring, red, gold, durum, semolina, and so forth. Wheat alone is cultivated on one third of the planet's farmland, and grains in general account for half of the world's agriculture.

Plants as Medicine, Grass as foods

Plants have been the source of our medicines for thousands of years. Our modern drugs are largely synthetic replicas of nutritional factors found in plants. Our earliest drugs--aspirin, penicillin, and quinine--all came from nature. Even the earliest research of the 1930's identified the young cereal grasses as complete foods. All known nutrients were found including other unidentified ones called grass juice factors. Today, they would be labelled phytochemicals. A whole food is a complex bundle of thousands of chemicals. Squeezing out isolated nutrient fractions dissipates its magic. Grass contains hundreds of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, phytochemcials, anti-oxidants, cellular RNA and DNA all in concentrated form. It all starts in the soil. The earth feeds the plants and the plants feed us. Grasses vary in nutritional content, depending on where it was grown, when, and how. The nutritional analysis will vary from place to place, grower to grower and farm to farm. Seasonal temperatures and rainfall vary year to year. From soil, to water to weather, disorder is the fundamental law of nature. Our grass is grown in the most fertile soils in New Zealand.

Complete Life sustaining food…

Whole dehydrated grass is 25% protein (meat has 17% and eggs have 12%). We could define grasses as protein foods, but there are other foods like algae with up to 72% protein. Nutrition is not a weight lifting contest. It's not about more protein, but more balance. It's not quantity, but quality and the most important quality factors are variety and balance. Grass is a balanced food containing a broad spectrum of high quality vegetable nutrition. Grasses are a complete life sustaining food. Based on the studies, if you had to choose one food for survival, it ought to be grass.

Vitamins, Minerals & Aminos

According to Charles Schnabel, "only one-half ounce of 40% protein dehydrated grass would supply 18,600 units of vitamin A, 113 milligrams of vitamin C and 5.7 grams of the best quality protein in the world. This is more Vitamin A than supplied by the entire 84.5 ounces of food in the USDA recommended optimum diet and more vitamin C than is supplied by the entire 30 ounces of fruits and vegetables." Grass is a wonderfully balanced source of nutrients. Excellent for all minerals major and minor, it is especially high in calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as trace minerals such as zinc and selenium. All are important for cardiovascular and immune system function. Grass has all of the B-vitamins, including the crucial biotin, folic acid, pantothenic acid, an abundance of choline and is a vegetable source of B12. Protein is 2% in fresh wheatgrass juice and up to 45% in barley grass juice powder. Protein in grass is in the form of polypeptides--simpler, shorter chains of amino acids--that enable faster, more efficient assimilation into the blood and tissues. Grass includes at least 20 amino acids, both essential and non-essential. Its spectrum of vitamins is so broad, that in 1939, dehydrated grass was actually accepted by the American Medical Association as a natural vitamin food.

Grasses are also abundant sources of quality vitamin K, the blood-clotting vitamin. The body needs it to form the enzyme prothrombin, which creates fibrin that clots blood. It also acts as an antidote for certain poisons. There is a powerful antioxidant in barley grass called 2'-0-GIV. This isoflavonoid is both soluble in water and fats and is highly stable. This means it is capable of permeating both the fat and aqueous cell membranes in order to fully protect the cell from the damaging effects of oxidation. It is more potent than vitamins E and C but when taken together, the synergistic effects are profound. Barley grass has all three in good quantity. It is a preventative for arteriosclerosis and is just as effective as any prescription drug for this disease, without any side effects.

Chlorophyll

Grasses, along with alfalfa and algae, are the richest sources of chlorophyll on the planet. Chlorophyll and the grasses are essential to life on the planet. Green plant cells are the only ones capable of absorbing energy directly from the sun. The primeval energy for all life is thus light. A green plant needs only a few seconds to capture that energy, process it, and store it in the form of a chemical--chlorophyll. This process of converting light into energy is called photosynthesis. One of the reasons chlorophyll is so effective is its similarity to haemin. Haemin is part of haemoglobin, the protein portion of human blood that carries oxygen. Studies as long ago as 1911 show that the molecules of haemin and chlorophyll are surprisingly alike. The primary distinction is that an atom of magnesium binds chlorophyll and haemin is bound by iron. Severe anaemia is reversed rapidly by chlorophyll administration. It is an important medicine for healing bleeding gums, canker sores, trench mouth, pyorrhoea, and gingivitis, even sore throat.

Chlorophyll has the unique ability to be absorbed directly through the mucous membranes, especially those of the nose, throat, and digestive tract. It makes a great mouth wash and an excellent dentifrice, especially in powder form. Chlorophyll's unique ability to kill anaerobic, odour-producing bacteria is the reason it covers up the smell of garlic, fights bad breath, body odour, and acts as a general antiseptic. These bacteria live without oxygen and are destroyed by chlorophyll's oxygen-producing agents. Dr. Otto Warburg, the 1931 Nobel Prize winner for physiology and medicine, concluded that oxygen deprivation is a major cause of cancer. Unlike many drugs, chlorophyll has never been found to be toxic at any dose. Not one of the 9,000 species of grasses that cover our planet is poisonous, unless it was chemically sprayed by a human. Chlorophyll may also provide us with protection from low level X-ray radiation from electronic equipment, TVs, computers, cell phones, etc. Radiation-poisoned lab animals recover when chlorophyll-rich vegetables are added to their diet.

Carotenoids

Chlorophyll is only one of the important pigments in grass. There are other pigments such as carotenoids--alpha carotene and the famous beta-carotene, xanthophylls and zeaxanthin to name a few. There is an abundance of these phytonutrient pigments in grass. There are up to 18,000 units of beta-carotene per ounce of grass. This vitamin A pre-cursor has significant immune-enhancing properties including the promotion of T-cells. High levels of this anti-oxidant nutrient are associated with reduced cancer and cardiovascular disease risks. Another important vitamin and antioxidant abundant in grass is vitamin E. Grasses have a water soluble form of E called a-tocopherol succinate, which stimulates the production of T-cells, antibodies, interleukin2 and interferon among its many immune system functions. This form of vitamin E is very effective in suppressing the growth of cancer cells in-vitro. In addition, it has the ability to increase production of prolactin and growth hormone in the pituitary gland.

Super oxide dismutase (SOD)

Barley and wheat grass are both abundant, inexpensive sources of superoxide dismutase (SOD). This is a powerful anti-oxidant and anti-aging enzyme. SOD is a proven anti-inflammatory for arthritis, edema, gout, bursitis, etc. Testing SOD activity in barley grass can be a yard-stick for measuring overall enzyme activity. If the heat-sensitive SOD is active, so are all the other 80+ enzymes in grass. Grasses are a veritable enzyme soup, with their cells dancing with metabolic activity. A veritable brew of oxygen, enzymes, protein, phyochemicals, chlorophyll, carotenoids, fatty acids, trace minerals, all rushing to revitalize all your cells.

Indoor or Outdoor Grown Grass?

When grown indoors there is accelerated growth, which causes the indoor plant to put most of its energy into growing leaves rather than roots. Thus, very few minerals can be absorbed from the roots and utilized to produce more complex nutrients. The soil in trays is only 1-2 inches deep and the roots are barely mature enough to assimilate nutrients no matter how good the soil. In contrast, our New Zealand Barley Grass develops deep roots, pulling up minerals and manufacturing vitamins over 60-200 days of slow growth. The seeds are widely sown about three inches apart, allowing them to stool out or form additional leaves (culms) from the roots. Sun beats down on the field crop for 4-8 weeks. Such exposure and slow growth in the cool fall or spring turns the grass into a solar collector, storing high concentrations of energy in its leaves. This provides a full spectrum of chlorophyll, trace minerals, and micronutrients. This is how the grass was designed to grow.

Recent research & Benefits

Research has shown that Barley Grass contains an active ingredient called proanthocyanidin - a powerful plant chemical that works at a cellular level. It is able to prevent cells from damage caused by harmful free radicals and other toxins, and helps protect immune system cells - thereby reducing the risk of inflammation, infection and cancer.¹

More recently, researchers from the School of Bioresources, University of Andong in Korea, isolated yet another potent plant chemical in Barley Grass called lunasin. Also present in soya, lunasin is renowned for its ability to prevent skin cancer cells from multiplying.

Korean scientists discovered that Barley Grass is a particularly rich source of lunasin, and when they conducted further laboratory studies they found it was able to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells too. While these preliminary findings are certainly very promising, more research is needed to determine whether it is indeed able to prevent the spread of breast cancer.²

Numerous studies have shown that Barley Grass can help treat ulcerative colitis - inflammation of the bowel that causes severe pain in the colon and abdominal area in addition to frequent bouts of diarrhoea, which can eventually leave sufferers seriously malnourished. The condition is linked to low levels of friendly bacteria in the gut and an accumulation of toxins in the bowel. Barley Grass helps reverse this by stimulating the growth of friendly bacteria, which in turn helps reduce inflammation and improves symptoms.

Recent research carried out by Japanese scientists from the Department of Internal Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, has revealed that Barley Grass also contains a particular type of protein (rich in the amino acid glutamine) and a special type of fibre (rich in hemicellulose). Both of which are able to help ulcerative colitis by repairing and stimulating the growth of cells lining the inside of the bowel wall. Glutamine in particular is credited with possessing an ability to nourish and improve the metabolism of these cells.

Barley Grass also helps combat ulcerative colitis by lowering the amount of inflammatory chemicals in the bowel, including one called epithelial NF-k, and by regulating the water content of the stools. Not only are these actions beneficial in terms of helping to improve the symptoms of colitis but they may also play an important role in reducing the frequency and duration of any relapses.³

In a study performed at the Nutrient Food and Feed Division, in Tokyo, scientists selected 18 patients with ulcerative colitis. Over the course of four weeks, half of the participants received standard anti-inflammatory medication (including steroids) and the other half were treated with up to 30g of Barley Grass extract each day. At the end of the study, all of the patients in the Barley Grass group reported significant improvements in their symptoms - including fewer episodes of diarrhoea and less pain - compared to the group receiving conventional medication.

In addition, further tests revealed that Barley Grass had succeeded in increasing the amount of friendly bacteria in the patients' bowels too. According to Dr Kanauchi, who led the study: "Oral treatment with hordeum may have the potency to reduce clinical activity of ulcerative colitis. We believe that these results support the use of hordeum administration as a new adjunct therapy for this condition".⁴

There is also mounting evidence to suggest that Barley Grass may play an important role in the fight against heart disease and stroke. A stroke is caused by a blood clot which blocks the circulation of blood in a particular area of the brain, resulting in muscle paralysis, difficulty in speaking or swallowing, and memory problems. Heart attacks are caused in much the same way, in that a blood clot blocks the circulation of blood, although this occurs within the arteries of the heart rather than the brain.

It therefore follows that in order to reduce the risk of blood clots forming and triggering either of these two potentially fatal conditions, the blood must be kept as fluid as possible. This is where Barley Grass is proving so invaluable.

Japanese researchers have shown that 250ml of Barley Grass tea taken just once, improves the flow of blood for several hours.⁵

Not only that but Barley Grass also possesses another impressive heart and brain protective benefit. Scientists from the Department of Nutrition, China Medical College in Taiwan, have reported that Barley Grass leaf extract reduces the amount of LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol.

This is the 'bad' form of cholesterol which, when present in excess, can block the arteries and lead to a heart attack or stroke. The scientists gave 15g of Barley Grass leaf extract to a group of 36 patients who had high LDL cholesterol levels in their blood. They found that, after four weeks of treatment, both the levels of LDL and the amount of harmful free radicals circulating were significantly reduced.⁶

Of all the grasses, barley grass has probably been researched the most, due to the efforts of Dr. Yoshihide Hagiwara who researched over 150 different plants over a period of 13 years. He found that barley grass is the best source of the nutrients that the body needs for growth, repair and well-being.

Barley grass contains a substance called P4D1; it not only has a strong anti-inflammatory action, but has also been shown to actually repair the DNA in the body's cells. P4D1 aids in the prevention of carcinogenesis, aging, and cell death. Research studies indicate that barley grass juice is much stronger than steroid drugs but has fewer, if any, side effects.

Many doctors and health practitioners have reported that barley grass juice helps in the treatment of a variety of illnesses, including arthritis, migraine headaches, asthma, fatigue and gastro-intestinal disorders, and can help in clarifying the skin. Barley grass is also credited with helping in more serious illnesses such as blood clots, diabetes, and cancer.

According to research ⁶ regular supplementation with barley grass reduced the levels of cholesterol and oxygen free radicals in the blood of type 2 diabetics. Researchers have said that this amazing plant can be used as a preventative, if not therapeutic, approach to remaining disease-free.

References:

1. Marles MA, Ray H, Gruber MY. Phytochemistry 2004, 64(2):367-383
2. Jeong HJ, Lam Y, de Lumen BO. J Agric Food Chem 2002, 50(21):5903-5908
3. Bamba T, Kanauchi O et al. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2002, 17(8): 8818-824
4. Kanauchi O, Suga T, Tochihara M et al. J Gastroenterol 2002, 37(14):67-72
5. Suganuma H, Inakuma T, Kikuchi Y. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 2002, 48(2):165-168
6. Yu YM, Chang WC, Chang CT et al. Diabetes Metab 2002, 28(2):107-114

Bibliography & Links:  

http://www.tuberose.com/Grasses.html 

http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/article/2846/barley-grass.html

http://www.cocoonnutrition.org/catalog/page_springreen.php

http://www.kcweb.com/herb/barley.htm

Important Note: This product is a food supplement and should not be used as a substitute for a varied diet. Please consult your healthcare professional before taking food supplements. The information provided above is for informational purposes only, it has not been evaluated and is not a replacement for professional advice or care. If you require nutritional, medical, or other expert services, and/or are suffering from a medical condition please seek appropriate professional care. The product above is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any illness or disease. Under UK law only a medical doctor may treat illness and disease.

Be the first to review this product!

• Tell a Friend
• Write review / comment

Important Note: Please read our Disclaimer.

Customers who bought this also bought…

Oregano Oil 30ml

Floral Face Toner

Raw Chocolate Face Pack