Chapter 3
How Wheatgrass Chlorophyll Works

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, Nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. - Thomas A. Edison

Many theories about the active ingredients of green plants have been offered over the years. However, while we are not totally sure as yet why chlorophyll, abscisic acid, and the variety of enzymes found in plants work, and how they work, we do know many of the ways these substances can help humans and animals. Some of the general findings will be presented in this chapter, including evidence of the remarkable blood cleansing and building abilities of chlorophyll, its effect on the circulatory system and oxygen supply, and its role in detoxifying and regenerating the liver. I will also discuss its use as a body deodorant. Chapters 6 and 8 will discuss how wheatgrass affects specific ailments.

GUARDING AGAINST ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS

With such a great emphasis placed on cleanliness in our society, it's a wonder so few people are concerned about the problem of internal filth. After years of living in polluted surroundings we shouldn't be so naive as to believe that we have eliminated efficiently and perfectly every toxin we have consumed via the food we eat, air we breathe, and water we drink. In reality, not one person alive is unaffected by environmental hazards.

Air currents carry toxic levels of lead, cadmium, and carbon monoxide, which affect our liver, lungs, and metabolic functions. Our water supply is contaminated with chlorine bleach and sodium fluoride, which can cause headaches and nausea. The food we purchase in supermarkets contains chemical additives such as nitrates, monosodium glutamate, Nutrasweet (aspartame), bleaching agents, and synthetic antioxidants like BHT and BHA—all of which can cause allergic reactions and place an excessive strain on the liver and excretory organs.

Only recently have the contaminants in our air, food, and water been tested to see exactly what harm they do us. The results are grim. Some of them are carcinogenic (cancer- causing) or mutagenic (capable of altering genes or DNA, and possibly affecting future generations). Since we can't really avoid all of these things in our environment all of the time the best we can hope to do is strengthen our bodies so we can coexist with them, and yet not be devastated by them.

Chlorophyll can protect us from carcinogens like no other food or medicine can. It acts to strengthen the cells, detoxify the liver and bloodstream, and chemically neutralize the polluting elements themselves.

Japanese scientists working along with Yoshihide Hagiwara, M.D., found that the enzymes and amino acids in young grass plants deactivated the carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of 3,4 benzpyrene, a substance found in smoked fish and charcoal-broiled meats. The enzymes in grasses have also been shown to neutralize the toxicity of various nitrogen compounds found in automobile exhuast. According to Tsuneo Kada, director of the Japan Research Center of Genetics, these tests show that grasses have a wider range of metabolic activity than animals and humans, and are capable of more efficient neutralization and detoxification of certain pollutants. It has been my experience that by including wheatgrass juice in the diet, we can protect ourselves from pollution. The enzymes that seem to be particularly effective in strengthening the body's defenses are superoxide dismutase (SOD), protease, amylase, and catalase.

A recent experiment by Dr. Chiu-Nan Lai at the University of Texas points in the same direction. Dr. Lai showed that wheatgrass juice had a powerful anti-mutagenic effect. In addition, it showed anti-neoplastic ability (the ability to fight tumors) without the usual toxicity of drugs that also inhibit cell-destroying agents.

WHEATGRASS ENZYMES: TOP-NOTCH BLOOD CLEANSERS

The many active compounds found in grass juice can cleanse the blood and neutralize and digest toxins in our cells.

I like to think of the human body as a gigantic biologically active chemical factory. Under the skin, millions of chemical actions and reactions take place all the time. The force behind many of these delicate metabolic operations is enzymes. Long considered catalysts (substances that affect the rate of chemical reactions, but are not changed by them), enzymes are now understood by many scientists to be more than mere supplementary material; they are life energy itself. Whether you want a cut on your finger to heal or you desire to lose five pounds, enzymes must be called upon to do the actual work. In fact, every action from thinking to digesting food or moving your legs requires the activity of thousands of enzymes. Enzymes are especially vital to the process of blood cleansing.

We can employ two basic types of enzymes in the process of cleansing and rebuilding our blood, and, ultimately, our bodies. The first group is indogenous enzymes, which are found inside us. While this group is powerful and capable of great detoxification, indogenous enzymes do wear out with age. Their lifespan and abilities can be extended if we help them from the outside by adding exogenous enzymes, like the ones found in wheatgrass juice, to our diet.

We can only get the benefits of the many enzymes found in grass by eating it uncooked. Cooking destroys 100 percent of the enzymes in food. A certain amount of enzyme activity is also lost by prolonged exposure to air, processing, or drying. This is why I recommend that you grow your own wheatgrass and drink it within minutes of juicing.

In addition to enzymes, wheatgrass also contains amino acid chains (polypeptides) and bioflavonoids (compounds related to vitamins) that also help cleanse the blood and other tissues. The amino acids are absorbed directly into the blood. As well as neutralizing toxic substances like cadmium, nicotine, strontium, mercury, and polyvinyl chloride, by changing them into insoluble salts which the body can eliminate more easily, they stimulate cellular metabolism. The flavonoids act to detoxify cells and prevent their deterioration.

HOW WHEATGRASS BUILDS BLOOD AND STIMULATES HEALTHY CIRCULATION

Wheatgrass juice contains liquid oxygen. Oxygen is vital to many body processes: it stimulates digestion (the oxidation of food), clearer thinking (the brain utilizes 25 percent of the bodily oxygen supply), and protective oxygenation of the blood (a defense against anaerobic bacteria). It also promotes better circulation of the blood, ultimately nourishing every cell in the body.

In a conversation I had with Dr. Arthur Robinson, cofounder of the Linus Pauling Institute, he mentioned that it seems wheatgrass juice has a dilating effect on the blood vessels themselves. That is, it makes the blood vessels larger so that blood can flow through them more easily. Increased circulation means better nutrition to the cells and more efficient removal of waste from them as well; both processes are important in terms of healing or rebuilding the body. Dr. Otto Warburg, a German biochemist, won a Nobel prize for his study which revealed that cancer cells cannot exist in the presence of oxygen. Therefore, he surmised that any cancer therapy, if it were to work, would have to increase the oxygen content of the blood, especially at the site of the cancer. We will talk more about wheatgrass and cancer later.

Numerous experiments on animal and human subjects have shown chlorophyll to be effective in treating anemia (a low serum iron count). As many as 30 percent of all women beyond the age of puberty in the United States may be anemic. For men the rate of anemia begins to increase at the age of fifty. The major symptoms of anemia are fatigue and loss of appetite.

To produce healthy, iron-rich blood, key vitamins like B12 and folic acid, minerals like iron, copper, and potassium, and protein must all be present in adequate amounts in the diet. It is next to impossible, however, to obtain all of these from meals comprised of white bread or white potatoes, broiled meats, canned vegetables, and processed foods. While these items may contain minimal amounts of essential nutrients, processing and cooking destroys them or renders some of them non-absorbable. Since wheatgrass is always used raw, it is a good source of all the nutrients mentioned above—in a form in which they can be readily converted by the body into healthy red blood cells. The more red blood cells, the more iron-rich the blood will be.

As the Hughs and Latner study I referred to earlier pointed out, chlorophyll extracted from green plants has shown the ability to increase the hemoglobin count in experimental animals in a short period of time (see page 10). Years ago, it was commonly given to patients with iron deficiencies and proved to be effective in restoring the blood to normal.

WHEATGRASS AND LIVER FUNCTION

Another benefit of chlorophyll is the stimulation and regeneration of the liver—the main organ of detoxification in the body. The liver is the real workhorse of the body, performing more than five hundred different functions, from digestion and storage to cleansing the blood and reorganizing nutrients. Unfortunately, 90 percent of our liver function can be destroyed before any serious symptoms arise, and at that point it can be too late to correct the problem. Since the liver is responsible for removing toxic substances from our blood, when it is damaged by fatty degeneration, infectious microbes or other irritants, it weakens our blood cleansing abilities.

Three compounds found abundantly in wheatgrass help the liver stay vital and healthy. Choline works to prevent the deposition of fat, magnesium helps draw out excess fat in the same way magnesium sulfate (epsom salts) will draw pus from an infection, and potassium acts as an invigorator and stimulant.

Dr. Wattenburg of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine found that when rats were fed a diet containing all the known vitamins and nutrients, but highly purified (our modern diet is 50-75 percent purified), they were unable to manufacture certain enzymes which deactivate carcinogens in the liver. However, when the same rats were fed a portion of greens, they were able to produce the enzyme. The compound in the greens that made this possible is called an indole, and is found in wheatgrass.

Another interesting finding on the ability of grasses to invigorate the liver was reported by Dr. Charles Schnabel in an article called "Grass: the Forgiveness of Nature," published in Acres USA, in January, 1980. Writing on the nutritional and health benefits of young grasses, including wheatgrass, on both humans and animals, Dr. Schnabel compared the overall health of a flock of Leghorn hens receiving 5 percent fresh young grass in their diet to that of another flock of Leghorns being fed identical rations, with the exception of receiving alfalfa instead of grass. The grass-fed hens were far healthier than the others, as indicated by their richer, darker blood and livers (the grass-fed hens had dark mahogany-colored livers, while the alfalfa-fed hen's livers were light tan in color).

Unfortunately, not enough research has been performed on human livers, but there is good reason to believe that the addition of grass to the diet stimulates liver function and enriches the red blood cell count. The tests made by Dr. Thelma Arthur, mentioned in the Preface, also indicate the blood cleansing effect of wheatgrass in humans. At the Hippocrates Institute, guests are instructed to use wheatgrass implants, which involve putting several ounces of fresh wheatgrass juice into the lower bowel and retaining it for about twenty minutes. A portion of the juice is absorbed directly into the portal circulation, which leads to the liver. This method allows the individual to get more chlorophyll directly to the liver than he or she could comfortably drink at once. We will discuss the uses and benefits of wheatgrass implants in more detail later.

DEODORIZING PROPERTIES OF CHLOROPHYLL

One obvious way of testing the effect of wheatgrass on body toxins is the absence of foul body odors reported by users. In a study by R.W. Young and J.S. Beregi, reported in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society in 1980, sixty-two nursing home patients were given chlorophyll in tablet form. Although tablets are less potent than juice, they were nevertheless found to be helpful in controlling body and fecal odors. The chlorophyll also eased the severity of chronic constipation and reduced the presence of gas.

In 1950, Dr. Howard Westcott found that one hundred milligrams of chlorophyll are as good a deodorant as any other. Whereas most deodorants merely cover up a bad odor, he discovered that chlorophyll extracts successfully neutralized offensive odors in foods, alcohol, and tobacco in vitro (in a test tube). Moreover, in patients and volunteers, it effectively neutralized bad breath, body odor from perspiration, menstrual odors, and foul-smelling urine and stools.

In their book Medicine Of Chlorophyll, Drs. Keiichi Morishita and Kaneo Hotta, Japanese scientists who have studied the properties of chlorophyll for years, report that they were able to observe its remarkable deodorant properties. In one test, ten volunteers were given garlic to eat, followed by three to twelve grams of chlorophyll. In twenty minutes, the odor of garlic was not present in eight of the volunteers. The same phenomenon occurred after experimental subjects drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. Body odor, being a secretion from inside the body that begins to smell offensive after it reacts with bacteria on the skin, is a little more difficult to correct. However, in a matter of weeks the secretions that cause the odor can be neutralized.

Scientists have known about the deodorizing properties of chlorophyll for some time. It is for this reason some drugs, chewing gum, breath fresheners, vaginal douches, and antiseptics contain chlorophyll.

The enzymes, amino acids, and chlorophyll in wheatgrass juice contain anti-bacterial compounds that are especially good at destroying anaerobic bacteria that thrive in oxygen- poor blood and tissue. Certain infections, ulcers, and putrefaction are caused in part by anaerobic bacteria that cannot live in the presence of oxygen or oxygen-producing agents such as chlorophyll.

Wheatgrass juice deactivates these anaerobic bacteria and promotes regeneration of the damaged area. Yet it doesn't sting like some antiseptics, and produces no known side effects or allergic reactions.

All of the enzymatic activity in wheatgrass adds up to one vitally important thing—greater strength and resistance to pollutants both outside and inside the body.

Chapter 4 - Life Extension and Rejuvenation Through Wheatgrass

Back to The Wheatgrass Book by Ann Wigmore

Download The Wheatgrass Book by Ann Wigmore (566KB)

Back To Top