Barleygreen®

As our lives become more hectic and our world becomes more polluted, it becomes  more and more important that we help our health as much as possible. One of the  most important ways to do this is through diet.

There have always been casual links between health and diet, and  epidemiological studies (studies of populations) have proven many of them true.  With the data from these studies, we have moved to the laboratory and identified  elements in plants that may benefit health, such as phytochemicals. The U.S.  Department of Agriculture has acknowledged the possible health benefits of  plants in its dietary guidelines. The 1995 guidelines say, “The antioxidant  nutrients found in plant foods (vitamin C, carotene, vitamin E, and the mineral  selenium) are presently of great interest to scientists and the public because  of their potentially beneficial role in reducing the risk of cancer and other  chronic diseases.”

This all points to the importance of diet, what you eat can, and does, affect  your health.

Green Grasses

Barley grass is one of the  green grasses - the only vegetation on earth that can supply sole nutritional  support from birth to old age. Agronomists place this ancient cereal grass as  being cultivated as early as 7000 B.C. probably in the dry lands of southwestern  Asia. In the West, barley grass was first known for the barley grain it  produces; there is written mention of the grain as early as 2800 B.C. in  Babylon.

Before green grasses undergo the reproductive cycle that creates the grains,  they are in the grass stage, and the grasses contain about the same vitamins and  minerals as dark green vegetables. When grasses are harvested at a young age,  they have a different chemical makeup from their adult counterparts. For  example, wheat grass has 32 g of protein per 100 g. Wheat grass has about 23,000  International Unites (IUs) of vitamin A per 100 g, while wheat flour has none.  We can see then that the young grasses offer us great nutrition.

Barley grass is considered the most nutritional of the green grasses. After  studying green plants for decades, Dr. Yoshihide Hagiwara, the creator of  Barleygreen, said, "It was clear to me, then, that the leaves of the cereal  grasses provide the nearest thing this planet offers to the perfect food. For  reasons of palatability, higher nutrient content, and favorable harvesting  features, green barley stands out as the best among these".

Barleygreen®

Barleygreen is an ideal  product for increasing the benefits of your diet. Extracted from the green  leaves of young barley plants, Barleygreen is made through a patented process  that ensures that taking Barleygreen® is as close to eating raw barley grass as  possible. In the patented process, the juice is squeezed out of the barley grass  and then spray dried at low temperatures, ensuring that the plant enzymes remain  active and that the nutrients are protected. This means that when you use  Barleygreen, you get a true juice: from a young plant, to a juice, to a powder,  to you.

Other green juice products on the market are not true juices. The leaves are  picked, but instead of being juiced, they are ground or milled. This means that  they have lost their enzymatic activity and that fiber remains in the product.  And although fiber is good for you in the right circumstances, in this  circumstance it is not: The small fibers can become trapped in the villi of the  intestine and cause distress. From a plant, to a grind, to you. Never a juice.

Nutrients in Barley Grass

Barleygreen  provides you with the healthful nutrients found in barley grass. Barley grass  contains eighteen amino acids, including the eight essential ones that is, the  amino acids that we must get from our diet. The body cannot produce them itself.

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, which are the major  constituents of every cell and body fluid (except urine and bile) and are  necessary for the continual cell- building, cell regeneration, and energy  production that we need for life. An added benefit of the green barley leaf  proteins is that they are polypeptides, smaller proteins that can be directly  absorbed by the blood, where they promote cell metabolism (the chemical changes  that we need to live) and neutralize substances that are bad for our health.

Enzymes, Vitamins, and Minerals

Green barley leaves contain a multitude of the body’s spark plugs, enzymes.  Enzymes are the catalysts for the body’s essential chemical reactions and are  responsible for our digestive processes, for providing cellular energy, and for  antioxidant effects.

Despite the importance of  enzymes, most people do not get the enzymes they need. This is because heat  destroys enzymes, and most of our foods, whether cooked at home or processed,  are heated and the enzymes destroyed. Dr. Yoshihide Hagiwara, the creator of  Barleygreen, believes that there may be thousands of active enzymes in green  barley. This belief is based on tests that use the enzyme superoxide dismutase  (SOD) as a marker enzyme. If the marker enzyme is found in an active state, it  can be safely assumed that other enzymes found in green grasses will also be in  an active state.

Green barley leaves also contain a wide spectrum of vitamins and minerals.  Among the vitamins are beta carotene and five  B vitamins, including vitamin B12 (which is often thought to come only from  animal sources). Barley grass also contains folic acid  and the antioxidant vitamins C and E. Minerals include calcium, iron, magnesium,  and phosphorus. A recent laboratory analysis on green barley grass has turned up  traces of more than 70 other minerals.

Chlorophyll

Green barley grass also contains chlorophyll. Chlorophyll has been studied  for its potential as a deodorant, in stimulating tissue growth, and in  stimulating red blood cells in connection with blood supply. Perhaps most  remarkable is the similarity between chlorophyll and the red pigment in blood.  Research in the 1940s demonstrated that the two pigments react the same during  breakdown.

According to an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Jan.  4, 1995), chlorophyll fed to laboratory animals reduced absorption of three  dietary carcinogens: heterocyclic amines (found in cooked muscle meats),  polycyclic hydrocarbons (found in smoked and barbecued foods), and aflatoxin (a  mold on peanuts). The chlorophyll formed complex compounds with the carcinogens  while they were still in the digestive tract, limiting their bioavailability.  Chlorophyll has also been found to be beneficial in the treatment of calcium  oxalate stone disease; to reduce fecal, urinary, and body odor in geriatric  patients; and to accelerate wound-healing.

Alkalinity and More

Green barley grass has a high alkalizing effect, which helps balance the  ratio between acidity and alkalinity in our body fluids. Our cells cannot  adequately function if the body’s pH (which measures acidity and alkalinity)  does not fall within a narrow range. Most processed foods are acidic, and when  we consume too many of them, the body’s acidity-alkalinity balance is upset.

Green barley grass contains buffer minerals such as sodium, potassium,  calcium, and magnesium. Buffer minerals neutralize acidic materials and can help  the body maintain a healthy acidity-alkalinity balance.

Recently, research has unveiled many other possible benefits of green barley  leaves. A new antioxidant, 2”-0- glycosylisovitexin (2”-0-GIV), has been  isolated and reported to have antioxidant activity equal to or superior to  vitamin E.

Barleygreen®: A Total Food

Barleygreen®  captures the nutrients in green barley grass and its power is found in the  combination of these nutrients. Barleygreen is a whole food concentrate; that  is, it is as close to its natural state as possible and, thus, supplies the  nutrients in a natural proportion. As Dr. Hagiwara has said, “Barleygreen should  not be recognized by discussing the amount of its vitamins and minerals. The era  of focusing on a single vitamin or mineral is gone,¦ much more attention is  being focused on biological phenomenon. When you use YH Int’l  Barleygreen®, you  increase the benefits of your diet.