Eat wheatgrass to keep docs away

By Francis P Barclay

Fed up with trying high-scheduled and high-priced drugs? Return to nature and eat grass. Yes, eat grass, with a rethinking that it is meant for you also.
In the 1940s, Yoshihide Hagiwara, a Japanese and owner of a pharmaceutical company, had personally formulated many medications. But, working with drugs made him ill. He thought, ``If drugs made of chemicals could make one sick, then how could they make a person well?''
He began to study the Chinese way of healing, and found what the father of Chinese medicine said ``It's the diet that maintains true health and it's the best drug''.
But the food value of what we eat is almost lost in the way we deal with it. Cooking and processing. Here comes wheatgrass, which can satisfy most of the nutritional demands of human body.
Wheatgrass (Agropyron Elongatum) is one of the best sources of living chlorophyll. It can cure a wide range of ailments - from simple anaemia to leukaemia; from an ordinary skin rash to skin cancer and from worms to
ulcers.
Apart from chlorophyll, wheatgrass has over 100 elements, essential for man. If grown in organic soil, it will absorb 92 out of the 102 known minerals from the soil.
A doctor says, 15 kg of wheatgrass is equivalent to 350 kg of carrot and lettuce. It can bring down sugar level in blood.
People are however unfamiliar with wheatgrass and its benefits. In Coimbatore, it is being sold in the form of juice at a few places. In Chennai, the grass is sold in 20 gram packets at a few food stores.
According to Dr N S Shanmuga Vel, Director, Sri Gayathri Nature Cure, doctors in Coimbatore prescribe wheatgrass for anaemia, ulcer, skin alergy, diabetes, piles. ``Acidity increases due to infelicitous food habits, and it can cause cancer, rheumatic ailments apart from inflammation in heart and kidney. The clorophyll in wheatgrass helps cleaning the blood and restores alkalinity in the blood.''
A research officer in botany at the Central Research Institute for Siddha, Dr Sasikala Ethirajulu, says, ``People here have profound belief in `Arugam pullu', denoted as `Durva' in Ayurveda. Numerous researches have proved the efficacy of it. However, on wheatgrass, it's quite a nought. The 2,000-year-old `Chakra's Samhita' tells about the benefits of wheatgerm oil, which is used in cosmetics. But it doesn't tell anything about wheatgrass.''
Dr T Thiru Narayanan, physician at the Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research, says, ``Wheatgrass of seven-day-old in juice form is good for health, for it contains a lot of enzymes and vitamins.''

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HOW TO TAKE
One can take a mouthful of it in the morning and chew it till the cud becomes white. The cud can also be eaten for roughage. In juice form, a healthy person can take 1/4 to 1/3 of a glass everyday. But, it must be taken immediately after juicing. For a patient, 1/4 to 1/2 glass is needed to start with. This can be increased to two to three times during the day.
Wheatgrass can be applied externally on the spot of cancer or ulcer as a poultice. Its juice can also be used as a rectal implant for cleaning, using an enema syringe.

HOW TO GROW
Growing wheatgrass is quite simple. Soak unpolished wheatgrains for a night in water. The next day, it can be sown in the ground or in a pot or container. Keep it covered with a newspaper till green blades appear. When
the grass is about eight inches long (usually happens around the seventh day from the day of sowing), it's ready for harvest.