I'm No Longer a Wheatgrass Virgin

A couple of weeks ago I changed the way I eat. Mostly because I'm paranoid. You hear so many bad things about additives, as well as what high fats and chemicals can do to your organs.

There's one eating plan out there that has a few different names, but the version I use is called the Loma Linda Diet. I don't know if it was really developed by Loma Linda, but under the various names the description remains pretty consistent. It was supposedly developed to help heart patients lose weight rapidly so they can have surgery, or something like that. Again, I'm not sure of the validity of the claims. What I do know for a fact is that the diet works. It works fast, and I never feel hungry, tired or unhealthy. Why? Because it consists of all natural whole foods, and you can eat as much as you want on most days.

Anyway, back to my topic.

Since I've been on this diet I have become more interested in raw recipes so I can eat more raw foods than cooked. I came across a Natural Health magazine (I'm now a subscriber!), and read it cover-to-cover the other night. One of the articles was about the benefits of wheatgrass.

The whole article was good, but the one sentence that has stuck in my mind is this: "Drinking two ounces of wheatgrass is like consuming three and a half pounds of vegetables."

Wow.

The article went on to describe the taste (very sweet), and that it contains vitamins A, B12, C and E, folic acid, phosphorus, iron and calcium. It also contains a highly absorbable form of protein and a significant dose of phytochemicals (prevents disease and attacks cancer cells).

Again, wow.

It also detoxifies the liver, cleanses the colon, and purifies the bloodstream, which all enhance the immune system.

Okay, I'm in.

I go to Jamba Juice last night and order up my favorite all fruit drink, Pomegranate Paradise, with an antioxidant add, and I ask for an ounce of wheatgrass.

Being a wheatgrass virgin, I thought the wheatgrass would be blended in, but it wasn't. It's in a tiny little cup, served on a pretty green plate.

I sit down with my two drinks and prepare for my super-nutritional blast off.

SIDE NOTE: I am not an adventurous eater. I don't eat anything that, to me, is weird. This would include calamari, frog legs, snails, and anything along those lines. I also do not eat rare or raw meat of any kind, including fish. I do, however, stray outside the box if it is something of a vegetable or fruit nature. (Have I mentioned I LOVE vegetables? And fruit, but mostly vegetables).

I approach the dark green miracle liquid first with a sniff. A small alarm goes off in my head ("This smells like the front lawn.")

But they say it's sweet, so I keep going...

I taste a molecule or two. Yep, definitely the front lawn. But sweet.

I'm a little concerned at this point, but because it's so healthful (and, after all, it's of the vegetable/fruit nature, so I'm not panicking) I decide to drink it the most painlessly way I know: Chug it.

"Over the teeth and past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes!"

GULP.

I follow up with a very palate-cleansing, but un-feminine, sucking down of my smoothie. Not bad. I have a little residual grassy taste, but very minute and manageable. And I have my first dose of wheatgrass energizing my cells and fighting off disease!

Yay!

(I think I'll wait a few days before I go for round two. This is definitely an acquired taste...)