Vitamins and Minerals in Green Barley Juice
Below is a section from a book by Nutritionist, Dr Mary Ruth Swope called “Green Leaves of Barley”.
Vitamins: Balanced and Naturally Chelated
We are all becoming increasingly aware that we need sufficient amounts of all the vitamins. Often those foods which are naturally high in vitamins do little good when consumed in processed form because vitamins can be altered during processing.
For example, the iron component will change under heat to iron oxide, not easily absorbed by the body. To treat anemia, iron preparations containing iron reduced to this form are popular but not very serviceable for blood formation. Since green barley contains iron in the organically bonded state (divalent iron), it can be immediately absorbed from the intestinal tract.
I want to stress that vitamins in green barley have not been isolated and then recombined, but are, rather, still in their natural (Chelated) form, bonded to other nutrient factors as nature created them. Throw together similar amounts of isolated or man-made chemicals, and you will NOT produce the same effect.
Barley leaves contain valuable carotene
There is growing evidence through research to show that, as someone said, it would be “cool”for us to learn to “hang out”daily with carrots and green vegetables. Scientists are saying it this way: Beta-carotene protects phagocytic cells from free radical damage. It increases the production of T and B-lymphocytes and enhances the ability of macrophage, cycotoxic cells and natural killer cells to reverse tumor and cancer cell growth.
And guess what! All of this is without any damaging side effects. If you eat too much beta-carotene, which is practically impossible, there is a recipe in the cell for getting rid of the excess without any cell, tissue or organ damage. That’s more than you can say for synthetic drugs, eh?
Research done with rats showed that infections of the ear, bladder, kidney and gut were prevented and/or reversed when adequate amounts of beta-carotene were included in the diet. Young children with chronic ear infections always showed improvement with increased intake of dietary carotene.
I wonder why M.D.’s today use antibiotics (with their high cost, high health risk and low cure rate) instead of beta-carotene? Is it one more illustration of the failure of modern medicine to acknowledge God’s provision for health and healing as superior to their own? It will be interesting to see if we, in America, will ever be privileged to have our doctors acknowledge that nutrition is the foundation of both of these.
How much beta-carotene do you need every day? Authorities differ in their answers, of course. A study done at the University of Arizona at Tucson showed that a single 30 milligram capsule of beta-carotene (equivalent to the amount in about six carrots) reversed pre-malignant leukoplakia in more than 75 per cent of the patients without producing any toxic side effects.
Most authorities agree that a DAILY serving of one-half cup of a deep green leafy vegetable (collards, turnip greens, kale, and spinach) or a serving of a deep-yellow vegetable (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots) is considered adequate for good health.
Since powdered barley leaves have generous amounts of beta-carotene, it is one more reason to take one to two teaspoons daily. That would certainly go a long way toward meeting our beta- carotene need in an inexpensive “instant food”way.
The Vitamin Band Wagon
Many health enthusiasts have gone “vitamin crazy”in the past couple of decades. While I don’t doubt that many have experienced immediate beneficial results, one needs to be careful not to go overboard in order to avoid side effects. Even vitamins, especially isolated vitamins, can throw off the body’s balance.
Hypervitaminosis, caused by excessive vitamin ingestion, is almost always associated with synthetic vitamin preparations, hardly ever with natural vitamins. Since green barley contains vitamins in their natural state, its use will not result in an excessive intake of any particular vitamin.
For example, excess vitamin A can be harmful - but only pure vitamin A in high quantities. Carotene in green barley is called provitamin A, and it becomes vitamin A only as acted upon by the body. It cannot cause hypervitaminosis.Green barley is an excellent source of live, natural vitamins and is sufficient, I would say, as one’s only food supplement. But if you are accustomed to taking more vitamins than in green barley, you might want to continue your regular dosage right along with the green barley. Personally, I continue to take two multivitamins as I always have and also I to 3 teaspoons of green barley a day and feel better than I did with the multivitamins alone.
Quality - more important than quantity
Whichever way you go, I recommend taking only vitamins extracted from food, not synthetic ones. I’m fully aware many synthetic vitamins appear in the lab to be no different from those extracted from nature, but I remain suspicious that what they do in a test tube and what they do in my body might not be the same.
Ultimately, the safest and surest source of good nutrition is from grains, legumes, vegetables (including green plants), and fruits. Adverse effects inevitably follow ingestion of large quantities of unnatural food of unbalanced organic-inorganic nature.
Green Leaves of Barley, by Dr. Mary Ruth Swope,
Swope Enterprises, Inc.
P.O. Box 62104
Phoenix, AZ
85082-2104
Both books can be ordered from Swope Enterprises at 1-800-447-9772
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“A generous man will prosper and he who refreshes others will himself
be refreshed”. Prov 11.23
