Eat Your Weeds
by Virato

Two decades later, I am still an advocate of a plant food diet, and I grow my own spouts. However, this week’s column is not about vegetarianism.

Americans may be the best fed people, but nutritionally, we are also one of the most starved on the planet. In spite a growing array of chemical food supplements and additives, we are experiencing an epidemic of "junk-food malnutrition" in this country. Just this past week, I saw a television report of Rickets appearing in several Chattanooga area children. The bad news--over 65% of Americans are chronically ill because their diet lacks the vital force that more primitive, basic foods can provide..

There is a serious need to look beyond the fresh produce we purchase at the supermarket. US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) research indicates that our method of farming removes top soil minerals at a faster rate then in the worse days of the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s. According to the USDA, over 90% of Americans are failing to meet the basic nutrient needs of their bodies! And while agribusiness has removed the essentials, they have added ever-increasing poisonous pesticides to our salads.

Americans eat too few chlorophyll-rich greens, and the rare few who do eat dark greens in the amounts our ancestors did, do it by adding supplements made from chlorophyll-rich algaes and grasses to their diet.

Organically grown green foods have amazing power. In the spring, weeds and grasses are tender and delicious with high nutritional value. However, you don’t have to run out into the fields to gather them. Greens can be grown in you house or apartment within a few days with or without soil--for example buckwheat, lettuce, sunflower, spinach, wheatgrass, mung, alfalfa and a wide variety of sprouts and herbs. Many health food stores carry powder and capsules of grass, algae, herbs and weeds. A low temperature drying process preserves most of the nutrients including the enzymes and chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll is the basis of all green plant life activity, and is the blood of plants. In fact, the breakdown of chlorophyll and the breakdown of human blood have almost the same molecular structure. Noble prize winner, Dr. Hans Fisher, showed that the two structures are identical except for magnesium in the center of the green pigment, and iron in the center of blood pigment. Extensive research has also shown how these organic compounds are interchangeable. All forms of anemia (low level of hemoglobin), even pernicious, have been successfully treated with raw, chlorophyll rich greens.

A comprehensive 1,200 case report on the therapeutic effects of chlorophyll, published in the American Journal of Surgery, showed that brain ulcers, ulcerated varicose veins, deep internal infections, etc., were cured through the use of this near miraculous life food.

Other studies with wheatgrass include cancer research. Dr. Chu-Nan Lau, MD of Anderson Hospital in Dallas, TX, reported that wheat grace juice produced an immunization effect against carcinogenics. The University of Chicago in a recent study, showed that even lethal radiation exposure loses potency when dark greens are included in the diet.

Dr. Arthur Robinson, of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, showed that a raw foods diet with wheatgrass reduced cancer incidence by 35%. Dr. Laurence Badgley, MD, author of Healing AIDS Naturally, has used a wide variety of holistic programs and green supplements with a raw foods diet, always leading to success.

Mark Simpson, MD, with Chattanooga’s Wellness Clinic, has seen positive results in patients suffering from eczema, hair loss, brittle fingernails, and other disorders, when he had them switch from a meat-based to a starch-based (vegetarian) diet. "There’s no question that "nutriceuticals" can also play a major role is supplementing the deteriorated nutritional quality of our fruits and vegetables," says Dr. Simpson

It seems that a diet high in chelated minerals, enzymes, and nucleic acids, as found in the food concentrates of grasses and sea weeds, provide the building blocks for a healthy immune system.

So, maybe Popeye was right all along! Until next week, check out your reality. You might be surprised!

Virato’s Bio:
Virato, born in Brooklyn, NY, come to us via Asheville, NC where he was editor  of The Resource, and Philadelphia, where, for the past 18 years he was editor of New Frontier Magazine, an international journal of new thought consciousness. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge from spending time with, and  interviewing, Hollywood and TV stars like Academy Award nominee, Ellen Burstyn, Touch By An Angel’s Roma Downey and Academy Award recipient for Best Actor, Alan Arkin …to world renown healers, scholars and spiritual leaders like Dr. Rubert Sheldrake, Deepkak Chopra, Ram Dass, Kitaro, Timothy Leary and the Dali Lama. 
You may send him e-mail at virato@mindspring.com

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