Bob Terry, Ph.D.
Nutrition Advisor, GreenFoods Corporation

Health conscious consumers today are looking for more than wholesome, nutritious food to maintain good health, they also want to protect themselves from the ever-increasing number of toxins in our environment. While periodic use of internal cleansing and detoxification programs help to eliminate the body's toxic overload, the best solution is to gently detoxify our bodies every day through our diet. Therefore, optimal nutrition should include foods that not only supply us with all the nutrients necessary for cellular metabolism but foods that also help us detoxify daily.

Unfortunately, thousands of toxic chemicals pervade our environment and continuously pose a risk to our health. Furthermore, common food preservatives such as BHT and sorbic acid may cause adverse reactions in people sensitive to these chemicals. Although the ideal solution for pesticides and herbicides would be to eliminate their use, this prospect seems unlikely and, even if this were to occur, toxic residues would probably remain in the environment for many years afterwards as has occurred with DDT. Eliminating food additives from our diet is also problematic since their use is widespread and few commercially acceptable substitutes are available. The good news is that nature provides us with an abundance of fresh green plants that can help our bodies neutralize and eliminate toxic chemicals we ingest from our water, air, and food. Of course, we need to choose green plants that do not contain the very substances we want to eliminate.

Over the last 20 years, research done by Dr. Yoshihide Hagiwara and colleagues in the United States and Japan has shown that young green barley grass is an extremely potent detoxifier. Barley grass juice contains abundant chlorophyll, antioxidants, enzymes, and other phytochemicals that neutralize free radicals and other unfriendly chemicals, including pesticides and food preservatives.

In 1978, Dr. Yoshihide Hagiwara revealed the detoxifying power of our barley grass extract, called Green Magma, in breaking down an insecticide (malathion), and two chemical food additives (sorbic acid and BHT)[1]. His research found that Green Magma effectively decomposed the insecticide, malathion, and the food preservatives, sorbic acid and BHT. Heating Green Magma causes it to lose its ability to breakdown either malathion or sorbic acid indicating that enzyme activity in Green Magma may be responsible for its actions. However, heat treatment does not affect Green Magma's ability to destroy BHT leading Dr. Hagiwara to suggest that BHT is adsorbed onto proteins rather being metabolized by enzyme activity. The following year, Dr. Hagiwara and colleagues reported that barley grass juice contained numerous enzymes that may help neutralize toxins, including superoxide dismutase, cytochrome oxidase, peroxidase, catalase, fatty acid oxidase, and transhydrogenase [2].

In the 1990's, Dr. Shibamoto and Dr. Hagiwara isolated, identified, and studied the properties of a potent bioflavonoid antioxidant, named 2"-O-glycosylisovitexin or 2"-O-GIV, in young barley grass [3]. They showed that 2"-O-GIV was particularly effective in preventing the free radical oxidation of fatty acids, fish oils, and lecithin caused by ultraviolet light and natural chemical reactions in blood [4]. Amazingly, it is also very effective in preventing the formation of two toxic by-products, acetaldehyde and malonaldehyde, that result from the oxidation of alcohol in beer [5]. These two toxins may be responsible for the adverse reactions alcohol can produce, including hangovers, impaired liver function, and damage to cellular DNA.

Other exciting research recently published by Dr. Shibamoto along with Dr. Hagiwara and colleagues, found that young barley grass extracts effectively degraded a variety of organophosphorus pesticides including malathion, chlorpyrifos, guthion, diazinon, methidathion, and parathion [6]. Incubation of the individual pesticides with a 3% solution of barley grass juice for several hours resulted in the complete degradation of both malathion and chlorpyrifos along with a significant breakdown of parathion by 75%; diazinon by 54%; guthion by 41%; and methidathion by 23%. They also confirmed Dr. Hagiwara's previous finding that barley grass juice's ability to break down malathion is lost when barley grass is heated to 120 degree C, most likely due to destruction of enzyme activity by heat. Further research into the manner in which barley grass juice degrades pesticides and other toxins is under way.

While Dr. Shibamoto and colleagues continue their important research, it is now clear that Green Magma contains numerous beneficial substances that help us detoxify our bodies in a natural and effective manner. Because Green Magma contains certified organic young barley grass, it will not burden our bodies with additional toxins.

In summary, research is helping to better understand why Green Magma provides the many benefits that thousands of regular consumers of Green Magma already know about -- better looking hair, skin and nails, increased energy levels, improved digestion, and fewer illnesses -- clear indicators of good nutrition and a detoxified body.

References:

1. Hagiwara, Y. Study on green juice powder of young barley (Hordeum vulgare L) leaves II: Effect on several food additives, agricultural chemicals, and a carcinogen. Presented at the 98th National Meeting of the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Science (1978).

2. Hagiwara, Y., Sayuki, S., Miysuchi, T., Otake,H., Abe, S., Kuramoto, M., and Takada, K. Study on green barley extract. Presented at the 99th National Meeting of the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Science, Sapporo (1979).

3. Osawa, T., Katsuzaki, H., Hagiwara, Y., and Shibamoto, T. A novel antioxidant isolated from young green barley leaves. 1992, J. of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol. 40 (7): 1135-1138.

4. Miyake, T. and Shibamoto, T. Inhibition of Malonaldehyde and acetaldehyde formation from blood plasma oxidation by naturally occurring antioxidants. 1998, J. of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol. 46 (9): 1135-1138.

5. Nakajima, S., Hagiwara, Y., Hagiwara, H., and Shibamoto, T. Effect of the Antioxidant 2"-O-Glycosylisovitexin from young green barley leaves on acetaldehyde formation in beer stored at 50 degree C for 90 days. 1998, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol. 46 (4): 1529-1531.

6. Durham, J., Ogata, J., Nakajima, S., Hagiwara, Y., and Shibamoto, T. Degradation of organophosphorus pesticides in aqueous extracts of young green barley leaves (Hordeum vulgare L). 1999, J. of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Vol. 79: 1311-1314.

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