Wheatgrass Juice
Is the magical mystery juice all it's blended up to be?
Filed under Consumer Ripoffs, Fads
| Skeptoid #06 November 09, 2006 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe Also available in Japanese |
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The other day, I was getting a pineapple smoothie for lunch, when I happened to notice a poster extolling the virtues of wheatgrass juice. I didn't know too much about it, except that I've heard a lot of people talk about it as if it's the second coming. So out of curiosity, I began reading.
My friends, the English language does not contain adequate hyperbole to do justice to the tons of manure printed on this poster. If the average person can take even half of this poster seriously, then the ignorance and gullibility of the general public is much worse than even I would have ever guessed.
The poster was a list of claims, almost all of which centered around chlorophyll, of which it said wheatgrass juice is a rich source. Chlorophyll, as you know, is used by plants to synthesize proteins and sugars, using radiation from the sun to power a chemical reaction, converting carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground into proteins and sugars, exhausting oxygen as a waste byproduct. Humans and other animals, not surprisingly, don't work this way. We get our proteins and sugars by eating food; our bodies have no special use for chlorophyll.
Now, I'm not saying that there's anything unhealthy or bad about wheatgrass juice. It's probably at least as healthy as just about any other plant that you could put in your juicer and blend into green syrup. I probably wouldn't rate wheatgrass as high on the nutrition scale as a proper vegetable, but I doubt very much that there's any harm in it. However, wheatgrass juice proponents don't merely claim that it's healthy. They've assembled the most outrageous list of vague medical conditions that it cures, and all sorts of types of wellness that it supposedly promotes. Since these claims are all entirely unsubstantiated, and sound far fetched to say the least, this is certainly a product you should approach skeptically. Let's take a look at some of these claims.
Wheat grass is high in oxygen like all green plants that contain chlorophyll, and the brain functions at an optimal level in a high-oxygen environment.
While it's true that if you cut off the oxygen supply to your brain, its function will be somewhat less than optimal, it's not true at all that chlorophyll is a good source of oxygen. I suggest you continue to rely on your lungs for that, which are probably better, since you don't have leaves. All types of chlorophyll have only trace amounts of oxygen. Chlorophyll is a carbohydrate, thus its makeup is overwhelmingly carbon and hydrogen. The molecule has as many as 127 hydrogen and carbon atoms, but only 5 or 6 atoms of oxygen, 4 of nitrogen, and one lonely magnesium atom. Incidentally, this also refutes another claim: that the high magnesium content of chlorophyll builds enzymes that restore your sex hormones. Interesting, given that enzymes are proteins made of amino acids, which contain no magnesium at all. I have no idea whether a single atom of magnesium restores sex hormones, whatever that means, but if so that's one hell of an atom. If you want magnesium, take a vitamin pill. If you want oxygen, take a breath. If you want sex hormones, get a girlfriend.
Wheatgrass juice has been proven to cleanse the lymph system, building the blood, restoring balance in the body, removing toxic metals from the cells, nourishing the liver and kidneys and restoring vitality.
The grammatical errors are from the poster, not from me. Let's take these one at a time. First, the claim that it's been "proven" to do any of these things. Notice that these claims are very vaguely worded: "restores balance", and "builds the blood". This is deliberate. If they tried to be specific, they would get into trouble with the FDA. If you make a claim that a product is intended to diagnose, mitigate, treat, cure, or prevent a specific disease, and your product has not been tested and is therefore unregulated, you're in violation of the law (21 U.S.C. 343(r)(6)). The wheatgrass people of course can't actually submit their product for testing against any particular diseases, because of course it would fail. So they are relegated to making only vague, untestable claims like it "builds the blood" and "restores balance".
As for whether the ingestion of wheatgrass will lower the levels of toxic metals in your cells, I wasn't able to find any research that supports this. However I did find research where living wheatgrass was found to be one of the grasses most susceptible to the absorption of zinc and cadmium from the soil through its root system, so it's more likely to be contaminated with these metals. If lowering your toxic metal levels is important to you, wheatgrass is the last thing you should put on your shopping list. And, of course, this is all founded on the assumption that you have toxic metal problems that need to be addressed. Before you seek out quack remedies for this unusual illness, first find out from a medical professional that this is indeed a problem you have, and don't go only on the assurance of a health food store owner who wants to sell you something. Probably the best thing you can do is stop chewing the lead paint off your windowsills.
It contains most of the vitamins and minerals needed for human maintenance, including the elusive B12.
Sounds compelling! But it sounded less compelling when I turned away from the poster, and looked at the store's own nutritional facts chart. The only vitamins present in a 2-ounce shot of wheatgrass juice are 15% of your daily allowance of Vitamin C, and 20% of iron. The rest of the vitamins and minerals, "elusive B12" included? Zeros, all the way down the board. The bottom line is that a shot of wheatgrass juice offers far less nutrition than a single Flintstones vitamin pill.
I would welcome a scientific test of wheatgrass juice. I challenge wheatgrass proponents to pick any supposed benefit of wheatgrass juice, and substantiate it in a real test. And by a test I don't mean a report from a hippie whose energy fields have been rejuvenated. I mean one of their claims that some sick people might actually believe and are avoiding important medical treatment as a result, such as the claim that wheatgrass juice will reduce high blood pressure. That's easy enough to test in a real, peer reviewed, double blind clinical trial. Take notice that the wheatgrass proponents have not done such a test, and there's probably a very good reason they've avoided it. Approach far fetched claims with skepticism, especially those that have not been, or cannot be, substantiated.
In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy my pineapple and banana smoothies, no wheatgrass juice, bee pollen, or extract of ginseng needed.
You should follow me on twitter here.
© 2006 Skeptoid Media, Inc. Copyright information
References & Further Reading
Alberts, B., Bray, D., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., Walter, P. Essential Cell Biology: An Introduction to the Molecular Biology of the Cell. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998. 12-13, 432-434.
Bidlack, W., Meslin, M. "Nutritional quackery: selling health misinformation." California Pharmacist. 1 Feb. 1989, Volume 36: 34-43.
Jarvis, W.T. "Wheatgrass Therapy." National Council Against Health Fraud Resource Documents. National Council Against Health Fraud, 15 Jan. 2001. Web. 9 Nov. 2006. <http://www.ncahf.org/articles/s-z/wheatgrass.html>
Lister, C. "Wheat Grass Nutritional Analyses." Crop & Food Research. The New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research Ltd, 12 Sep. 2002. Web. 9 Nov. 2006. <http://www.barleyleaf.co.nz/rightpages/WheatGrass.html>
Ross, Sharon. "Functional Foods: The Food and Drug Administration Perspective." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1 Jun. 2000, Volume 71, Number 6: 1735S-1738S.
Reference this article:
Dunning, Brian.
"Wheatgrass Juice." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
9 Nov 2006. Web.
2 Sep 2010. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4006>
Discuss!
5 most recent comments | Show all 249 comments
Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name & city.
I started drinking about one ounce of wheat grass juice a day and within 6 weeks, i noticed that a planters wart that was on my toe was nearly gone. It had been there for 10 years and i wasnt going to spend the time and money to have it surgically removed. It has never come back since. I spoke to a health food store owner and he explained that wheat grass juice would have that remedy effect for a nmuber of reasons that i am not going to go into here ... I have known people who were diagnosed with cancer and traditional treatment was doing little if any good at all. They began wheat grass juice therapy and the cancer disapated. The same goes for a person who was diagnosed with HIV, total remission. The proof is in the pudding and whether or not a treatment is substanciated, when u are looking at a possible short lived life, try different things and see what works best for u. nothing ventured nothing gained.
Danny Nova, Lake Hopatcong, NJ
August 19, 2010 10:17am
Unless of course you spend that short life drinking wheat grass juice, instead of getting a cure that has a success rate that is better than a placebo.
Seriously Danny, if it was that effective then the UK government could save billions each year by replacing expensive cancer treatments and HIV meds with wheatgrass juice. With no active ingredients and no supporting evidence.
But wait! The shelf stacker at the Health Food Store told you! My god, and I was wasting my time talking to doctors, chemists, and people with a pharmacists degree. I should have asked the manager of the Weigh and Save!
Tom H, Kent, UK
August 19, 2010 11:48am
Seriously Tom,
No active ingredients or supporting evidence ??
Not True !
Why do they call a doctors legal certificate on the wall
"License to Practice Medicine" ?
What if Wheat and Barley juices are found out to indeed renew abnormal cells ?
My ,,,what are we to do with the surplus of hundreds of billions of currency ?
HJ Erickson, St.Paul/ Mpls
August 21, 2010 5:30pm
What exactly is your point HJ? That Wheatgrass Juice MUST work because Doctors have to apply for federal control?
Yes lets look at your thought experiment; what if Barley cured cancer. Well for a start the rich pharmaceutical companies would get even richer by investing in barley farms just as the price was about to sky rocket. Doctors would get rich by having a cancer treatment that was cheaper than we have now and more effective. NICE would be over the moon and spend millions making NHS barley clinics.
People dont make money by making exspensive drugs nobody can afford. Theymake money from cheap drugs that lots of people buy. They make money from asprin sold in tesco for 12p. One penny per pill.
If wheatgrass juice works why is the National Health Service not using it? Why is it not in the BMJ or the Lancette? Why is there not a wealth of peer review data proving the clinical effectiveness?
Because it is bunk is why.
Tom H, Kent, UK
September 02, 2010 4:03am
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Ben, there may be ways to avoid the need for meat in your diet,as numerous vegetarians will attest. Unfortunately just munching unwashed vegtables isn't the answer. Vegetarians and vegans still have to have a balanced diet.
Your body still needs a number of vitamins, minerals, protiens and nutrients. Go and have a look at the episode "what we eat". Been there? Seen the list? Good. Meat is a convenient package that contains stuff we need. Our ancestors needed those nutrients, and so do we. There may be other ways to get those nutrients, but we have not outevolved them. To say that suggests you dont know what evolution is, or how the human body works.
Do not mistake the fact that we now have a global market with a much wider variety of foodstuffs available to us to fulfil dietry requirements for some kind of change to the human body.
Infact, as a canterbury man take local figure the Foraging Man as an example. He foraged for food in hedgerows and natural sources for an entire year. His adopted lifesyle hadto cover all his dietry needs. And it needed a hell of a lot more than unwashed vegtables.
Tom H, Kent, UK
August 12, 2010 1:59am