Up to this point, I have never ingested wheat grass (at least to my knowledge) in any form. If you don’t know about wheatgrass, it’s that grass you see at juice bars where the dude behind the counter starts cutting some, puts it in the blender, and then charges you $20. I’ve asked myself, “Why would anyone order that?” many times in the past. However, I’m the type of guy who tries to not knock it until I’ve tried it. So, here goes.
When I opened this jar of Pines Wheatgrass I had no idea what I would find. Grass, I assumed, in large chunks like the remnants of a freshly-mowed yard. However, when I unscrewed the lid, a green puff floated out and went right up my nose. What the?! A powder? What do I do with this? I got a spoon and put it directly in my mouth to test it. Y’all, don’t do that; just don’t. It’s not good.
So then I read the directions (after the fact) and it said to mix this powder with “water or juice.” I went with water, and followed the specified proportions–it tasted like nothing. No taste, really, but it smelled like fish food–meh. I needed something more exciting, I wanted to know the true passion of those hip kids at the juice bars cutting grass and putting it into their smoothies. So, I decided to wing it, and I came up with the following concoction:
2 cups of blueberries
2 cups of strawberries
1 quarter cup of Pines wheatgrass powder
a bit of orange juice
fill up to the top of fruit with cold water
…what is that? My lovely array of fruit immediately turned into raw sewage. Despite what it looks like, I know what’s in there and it’s basically just fruit and water. So, not wanting to back down, I took a big swig of this fruit sewage…and it really wasn’t that bad.
I can’t say I really tasted the wheatgrass–but I knew it was there. It smelled like grass big time, and I could feel the remnants of the powder in my mouth (but that might have been flashbacks from my initial raw wheatgrass trauma). So, then I asked the question, what does wheatgrass even do? Why should I even add this tasteless powder to my delicious fruit smoothie?
People have eaten wheatgrass for thousands of years; that’s just a fact. I don’t know if that’s because of some innate quality of wheatgrass or because there just wasn’t much else to eat (I don’t think bacon was around yet). I did some pretty basic research into the matter, and the American Cancer Society says that there’s just not a whole lot of evidence about the curative properties of wheatgrass. However, at a pure chemical level, wheatgrass is a source of Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese and Selenium. It’s not like you’re throwing back pork rinds, because there is some health benefit, but you shouldn’t skip a chemo treatment for wheatgrass. From my understanding, a little bit of this powder is a like eating a whole lot of vegetables. It’s something your mother would approve of, but you should probably use it more as a supplement than a replacement.
My first experience with this wheatgrass powder from Pines was a pretty positive one. You need to undershoot how much you think you should use, because this powder goes a really long way. Also, be sure that you mix it with some fruits or something, because water and wheatgrass is just too torturous to undertake willingly. I think I’ll finish off this bottle of wheatgrass powder slowly, over time, just to see if I can experience any long-term benefits. Only time will tell, but I can at least say that I’ve tried wheatgrass now.
