Barleygrass--the other green grass! Many people have turned to us to find out why they should try barley grass juice as opposed to wheatgrass. We hope to answer this question in this month's Wheatgrass Habit Newsletter. While much of the hype and interest is about wheatgrass; much of the research done on grass was done on Barley!

In order to understand the part that barley grass plays in the restoration of health, we must first discuss tentative causes of disease. Let us begin by thinking about the center or the hub of the human body. It is the stomach and the first guardian of the inner sanctum of the body. It is represented around the pupil of the eye and looks much like the hub on a wheel. When the stomach is healthy, the hub is the same color of the iris. When it is unhealthy or deficient in organic sodium it is either lighter or darker than the iris. Lighter is acute and darker is chronic. We know that the human body is not only physical, mental, and spiritual but is also chemical. It is in the chemical realm where the physical problems of the human body begin.

When a person eats a high animal protein, high sugar, and low fiber diet, certain chemical reactions take place in the stomach. A high protein animal diet requires first that the stomach secrete a large amount of hydrochloric acid so that the food can be broken down into amino acids which can be used by the body. In the process of this initial digestion, there is always either an acid residue or an alkaline residue. These foods leave an acid residue after the breakdown. This food along with the hydrochloric acid that mixes with it in the stomach cannot be allowed to traverse the small and then large intestine as it would do damage to delicate tissues, so the body uses minerals, the chief one being organic sodium, to buffer this acid residue. The lining of the stomach has the greatest amount of sodium in the body and protects the stomach from the hydrochloric acid. The bile that comes from the liver is rich in sodium. This joins with the contents of the stomach to buffer the acid as it leaves the stomach and traverses the intestines.

Day after day, month after month, year after year, if a person eats predominantly the typical American food diet (predominantly flesh foods) which leaves a residue of acid and neglects to eat a high amount of fruits and vegetables, which leave an alkaline residue rich in minerals, these minerals, mainly organic sodium, then potassium, then calcium and magnesium are used up.

Dr. Bernard Jensen, known as the father of Iridology, devoted his life to studying and developing iris analysis. Each part of the body and each organ including the brain is represented in the iris of the eye. Each part can look different depending upon the health of the body. Jensen studied and related how the iris changes not only in color but in configuration when certain dietary changes are made. His work contains the basic knowledge of how diet affects the inner tissues and organs of the body. Most importantly he presents his knowledge in before and after pictures so that almost any student can understand the concepts. His work includes the use of foods and certain herbs that are rich in specific minerals to restore health and vitality to different organs or tissues of the body. His many books are used as textbooks for those who wish to learn this fascinating science. It is alternative medicine and is being accepted each year by more and more medical doctors as they eschew drugs and embrace natural medicine. (See Iridology, the Science and Practice in the Healing Arts. Volumes I and II by Bernard Jensen, D.C., N.D.)

There are myriads of techniques for drugging or performing surgery upon the human body. Modern allopathic medicine is a method of suppressing the illness. For example, if one has a continuous rash, steroids such as cortisone are given to suppress it. The cream pushes the rash or illness further down into the body so that the skin stops breaking out. However, the sickness is still in the body, just further down in the tissues.

Natural medicine seeks to strengthen the tissues using certain foods and plants that are high in organic minerals. When the tissues are strengthened, the body then has the ability to expel the poison or corruption through the skin or wherever it is the easiest. There is no technique that can surpass Jensen's method because he can actually look into the human body and access information which can be had in no other way and then prescribe those certain foods or herbs, which will provide the life giving and healing elements which nourish the tissue of the body, allowing it to strengthen, and then heal itself.

Rich Anderson, student of Dr. Bernard Jensen, and author of Cleanse and Purify Thyself, Volumes I and II says, "When the body becomes low in organic sodium, it is forced to go to another part of its self to retrieve the electrolyte, and it will do this even if it has to kill its own cells. When it begins to retrieve organic sodium from within itself, the most benign and efficient pathway is the bile. This way it can avoid having to directly injure itself. However, the removal of sodium from bile, though harmless in the beginning, has a devastating chain reaction."

"The removal of sodium from bile causes the bile pH to drop. The more it drops, the more acidic it becomes. When bile drops to a certain point, gallstones are formed. Gallstones can cause severe problems, including life-threatening afflictions.

"When the bile becomes acid, it is highly caustic and irritates the intestinal wall. Bile can become so acid that it can burn a hole right through the gut wall: In fact 90 percent of all so-called stomach or peptic ulcers are found in the duodenum near the bile duct. Bile irritation is associated with the development of polyps, bowel tumors, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, (IBS), leaky gut syndrome, and various other bowel diseases.

"Fortunately the body has a protective mechanism that can help to compensate for this dangerous scenario: Mucin secretion. Mucin is a glycoprotein mucus. It is secreted by intestinal glands and can line the intestines, thereby protecting it from acids and other irritants. Mucin is the primal essence of mucoid plaque." (Dr. Rich Anderson, Cleanse and Purify Thyself, Volume I)

The good thing about this scenario is that the delicate tissues are protected. The bad part: If the diet stays the same (high animal protein) the mucin continues to form, day after day, year after year, until it has formed a very heavy mucoid plaque which begins to be a home for all kinds of parasites such as harmful bacteria and viruses which were let in by the stomach because a lack of hydrochloric acid couldn't kill them. "The consequences of acid bile and mucoid plaque include the following: poor digestion, poor assimilation, toxic accumulation, poor peristalsis, mutation or destruction of friendly bacteria, bowel diseases, and the commencement of many chronic and degenerative diseases. And all this caused primarily because of organic electrolyte deficiencies" [or chiefly organic sodium deficiency, because the minerals which are not replaced in the diet become less and less thus exacerbating the problem even further.]

"The next most likely locale for the body to retrieve organic sodium is the stomach. In a healthy person, the parietal cells of the stomach manufacture hydrochloric acid, an essential element in digestion. But in order to do this, it must have large amounts of organic sodium to protect the stomach cells from the hydrochloric acid. It is at this site that we find the greatest store of organic sodium, and if it is diminished, the stomach is forced to stop hydrochloric acid production. For if the hydrochloric acid production were continued without the protection of organic sodium, the hydrochloric acid would burn a hole right through the stomach. Yes, a lack of organic sodium is associated with ulcers. Therefore, a lack of sodium in the stomach not only means a shutdown of hydrochloric acid production; it also means that pepsinogen cannot be activated, nor can proteins be efficiently digested.

"Lack of hydrochloric acid and enzymes devastates digestion. Poor digestion always means that health is diminishing. Not only has that happened, but a lack of the normal hydrochloric acid in the stomach allows potential pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and yeasts to enter the inner sanctum of the gastrointestinal tract.!" (Dr. Rich Anderson, Cleanse and Purify Thyself, Volume I)

Now that the mucoid plaque has become a home for parasites such as harmful fungi, bacteria and viruses other problems arise. One problem is the waste they continually give off, in the process of metabolism and catabolism. This waste in and of itself causes a darkness in the body not only physical and chemical but mental. The mucoid plaque prevents our foods from absorbing into the blood stream properly. Now the cells of our bodies are not only underfed and becoming weaker each day but are surrounded by a murky filth which is hard to cleanse because of the daily inundations of more unhealthy foods.

As the digestive process uses up the organic sodium in the stomach, it then begins to rob it from other parts of the body. If the muscles are robbed, then they become weak. If the joints are robbed of organic sodium, then arthritis begins to develop. Lack of minerals and organic sodium is the beginning of old age as we know it.

What is the good news of this scenario? The good news is that Barleygrass exists. Barley grass is one of the foods which is extremely high in organic sodium. It contains not only organic sodium but the cleanser chlorophyll. Abstaining from the typical American diet and adding lots of grains, fresh fruits and vegetables along with barley grass juice will begin to restore organic sodium to the stomach and other tissues and the restoration of the health of the human body. Other methods of cleansing the mucoid plaque are found in Rich Anderson's books.