CHAPTER EIGHT The Healing Power of Green Foods know by now you know to expect the unexpected from me. You should eat grass. You'll be @ lot healthier. Once, we recognized the value of grass. We no longer do, ‘We dont even really know what grass is. We should. Did you know that we eat the fruits of grass all, of the time? No? Well, did you know that the fruit of grass is grain? Or that wheat, rye, com, rice, oats, barley, sorghum, millet, spelt, kammut, and even bamboo and sugarcane are grasses? Or that grasses offer their greatest nutritive value at a specific point of physical growth, long before the bearing of their fruits? Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote a series of beautiful poems that he called Leaves of Grass, Most of us today are too busy to read Whitman or even contemplate the grass beneath our feet that softens the Earth and makes it so much more of a beautiful habitat. Perhaps no popular writer today writes as knowledgeably about grass as Steve Meyerowitz who observes, “We step on it, sit on it, lay on it, jog on it, picnic on it, walk the dog on it, mow it, water it, in fact, we do most everything on it, for it, or with it except eat it! Wherever there is sun, water and earth, there is grass. From the outback down ‘under to the one inch Arctic tundra of Greenland...to the hundred food tropical bamboo, grass is the most fundamental form of vegetation on the planet.” WHAT PROGRESS LEFT BEHIND—ANCIENT WISDOM FORGOTTEN? In their ancient wisdom, our bodies crave grass. Though vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements can be beneficial to our health, none of these match the nutritive value found in grasses. It is interesting to note that in 1936 cereal grass tablets were considered the first multi-nutrient in this country. Cereal grasses are the only foods in the vegetable kingdom that, even if consumed alone, enable animals to con- tinually maintain weight, strength and optimal health. Grasses are considered to be at or near the base of the terrestrial food chain. The powers of the sun that are trapped in its blades produce rich amounts of chlorophyll and other green photosynthetic pigments. Once, even the prestigious American Medical102 * PATIENT Heal Thyself Association recognized the value of grass. In 1939, the Journal of the American Medical Association Council on Foods announced that Cerophyl, a whole food concentrate made with young rapidly grow- ing leaves of wheat, oats and barley, would be “listed in the book of accepted foods.” But then, follow- ing World War Il, the concept of “better living through chemistry” took hold of the nation. Most of us forgot our ancient wisdom. Vitamins could be synthesized, minerals isolated. Yet, in spite of these wonderful technological advancements, the ancient wisdom of the grasses could not be duplicated within the test tube. NUTRIENT-DENSE GRASS Why do we crave green foods? Cereal grasses—known today as green superfoods—supply many nutri- tional factors that even today scientists cannot duplicate. Is it the chlorophyll—the trapped sunlight— that is the basis for life? Or is it the grass juice factor or enzymes in these plants that are thought to be found nowhere else? We can't deny this fact: cereal grass is perhaps the most nutritious food on this green Earth, Based on data ftom the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrient Data Laboratory, grasses are richer than spinach, broccoli, eggs and chicken in virtually every nutrient category: protein, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin Bg, folate, vitamin By, carotenoids and vitamin E THRIVE ON GRASS In the 1930s and 1940s, America’s leading scientists, led by biochemist George Kobller, worked on grass research at the University College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, Madison, The Kohler team was remarkable. They made the discovery of niacin (vitamin B3), as well as the grass juice factor, a nutri- tive compound in grass that still can't be duplicated by vitamins or minerals. In an experimental study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Kohler and his team compared the growth of animals fed either dried grass powder, lettuce, cabbage, or spinach. For eight weeks, young guinea pigs received only the combination of lettuce, cabbage, spinach, or dried grass powder. The ani- ‘mals receiving the lettuce or cabbage lost weight. With spinach, the animals barely sustained their weight. But with cereal grass, the animals thrived and gained much weight. The researchers noted, “the growth stimulating factor of grass was distinct from all the known vitamins.” This study was confirmed in sub- sequent studies, published in the same journal or presented at the Cornell Nutrition Conference.» MORE ANCIENT WISDOM Better yet, you should eat fermented grass. Most of us have never known the power of fermentation. We often think the superior way to consume veggies and fruit is raw. But this isn't always so. Sometimes proper food preparation methods release important compounds that would otherwise pass undigested and unused through our systems. Fermentation is Nature's method of preparing foods for easy assimi-The Healing Power of Green Foods. * 103 lation in the human body. But most of us don't even know that lactic acid fermentation is driven by ben- eficial microorganisms, producing enzymes that break down foods into useable compounds. Farmers know. In fact, cattle ranchers produce something called silage, which is fermented grass or hay, to feed to their cattle. This predigested grass allows the cows to get more nutrition from less grass. Farmers know that even cows with their multiple stomachs and strong digestive power can use a little help from our little probiotic friends. Every long-lived culture in the world has consumed fermented foods with their meals—fermented vegetables, dairy, meat. The Inuits or Eskimos bury their walrus meat or fish and then pull these out, con- suming this “rotten” meat to inoculate themselves against pathogenic organisms. The aboriginal peoples of Australia buried sweet potatoes in the soil for months, removed them, and then consumed the sweet potato loaded with living microorganisms as a means of stimulating health. Even in this country, our favorite condiments had their origins in lacto-fermented foods. Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, salsa, rel- ish, guacamole, and jams all once were fermented foods replete with enzymes and living bacterial cul- tures that aided our digestion and nutrient assimilation, and protected us from pathogenic organisms. “It may seem strange to us that, in earlier times, people knew how to preserve vegetables for long periods without the use of refrigerators, freezers or canning machines,” note Fallon and Enig. “This was done through the process of lacto-fermentation, Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits putre- fying bacteria. Starches and sugars in vegetables and fruits are converted into lactic acid by the many species of lactic-acid-producing bacteria. These lactobacilli are ubiquitous, present on the surface of all living things and especially numerous on leaves and roots of plants growing in or near the ground. “The ancient Greeks understood that important chemical changes took place during this type of fer- mentation. Their name for this change was ‘alchemy. Like the fermentation of dairy products, preser- vation of vegetables and fruits by the process of lacto-fermentation has numerous advantages beyond those of simple preservation. The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels. These beneficial organisms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps vegetables and fruits in a state of perfect preservation but also promotes the growth of healthy flora throughout the intestine. Other alchemical by-products include hydrogen peroxide and small amounts of benzoic acid. “A partial list of lacto-fermented vegetables from around the world is sufficient to prove the univer- sality of this practice. In Europe the principle lacto-fermented food is sauerkraut. Described in Roman texts, it was prized for both for its delicious taste as well as its medicinal properties. Cucumbers, beets and turnips are also traditional foods for lacto-fermentation. Less well known are ancient recipes for pickled herbs, sorrel leaves and grape leaves, In Russia and Poland one finds pickled green tomatoes, peppers and lettuces. Lacto-fermented foods form part of Asian cuisines as well. The peoples of Japan, China and Korea make pickled preparations of cabbage, turnip, eggplant, cucumber, onion, squash and carrot. Korean kimchi, for example, is a lacto-fermented condiment of cabbage with other vegetables and