Entry #432777, added on 06-12-06 @ 12:21 am EDT
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| What's This about Wheatgrass? | Entry #432777 |
By popular demand—actually one request by a popular Blogger, emmyloo, whose inquiring mind wants to know more, I’ve been “inspired” to write about the subject of wheatgrass. Wheatgrass was brought to the American consciousness in 1963 when Dr. Ann Wigmore founded the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. The Institute’s program for total health and wellness centered around fresh raw fruits and vegetables, sprouts and wheatgrass, which is juiced for its amazing health benefits. Today there are many such Institutes, under different names, such as the Optimum Health Institute, which adhere to the programs Dr. Wigmore began more than thirty years ago.
I first heard about wheatgrass in the mid nineties while I was living in Bastrop at the Arabian horse farm. The farm’s owner, Judith Connelly, was acquainted with Russell Nees, who was the brother of the administrator of Optimum Health Institute (OHI) in San Diego. OHI was looking to open another branch and Russell, along with his wife Mary Helen had been through the program many years before when Mary Helen was diagnosed with cancer. They were instrumental in persuading OHI San Diego to open a facility between Austin and Bastrop. Judith went to work as the administrator and hired SilverValkyre loves YOU!   to learn to grow the wheatgrass. I went to work in the office.
While we were at OHI, we basically learned all about wheatgrass and the many benefits to be derived from a fresh raw vegetarian diet. Wheatgrass is the basis for all the Wigmore type Institute programs. Wheatgrass is juiced in a special juicer and given in one ounce “shots” to drink. The health benefits have been carefully documented over the years and have had some amazing results with cancer patients, people suffering from a variety of “incurable” diseases and those who just generally want to improve their health as well as athletes who seek to improve their performance. Why all the hoopla? One ounce of freshly juiced wheatgrass contains all the nutrition of roughly one to one and a half POUNDS of fresh raw vegetables. Wheatgrass juice contains a wide range of vitamins and minerals, as well as all the essential amino acids, and is a complete protein.
The underlying hypothesis behind all this nutrition is that the human body was created to be able to sustain and heal itself with the proper nutrients. I could get really technical really fast on why we aren’t getting the proper nutrients, but that would take a long time to write up and you’d get sick of reading it anyway. Suffice to say Dr. Wigmore found if the body received the proper “building” materials, it could indeed generally heal itself without the need for drugs, surgery or other artificial means. If you are interested in hearing more about this, check it out online by running a search of Ann Wigmore, Hippocrates Institute, Optimum Health Institute or Wheatgrass benefits ... or go here for starters: http://www.rawfood.com/wigmore.html
When we left OHI, SilverValkyre loves YOU! and I went into business growing wheatgrass to supply to the juice bars in the Austin area. After that, the story gets a little complicated. Silver and I probably know as much about cultivating wheatgrass as anyone on the planet. We have the knowledge and the expertise, we love the wheatgrass and sprouts and we know what we are doing, in case I didn’t mention that ...  The problem always enters the picture because to get started you need a lot of money to get everything set up. Because Dr. Wigmore found in her studies hard red winter (Siberian) wheat had the most nutrition, hard red winter wheat is the wheat in the biggest demand for the institutes and juice bars. Hard red winter wheat has to be kept in stabilized growing conditions, ideally at 68 degrees and grown under grow lights because the sun makes too much heat (unless you are cultivating the crop full-grown in the fields, in which case you need to be in Siberia or at least someplace like Nunn, Colorado.
To be continued ... |
© Copyright 2006 Chalaedra (UN: chalaedra at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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