WHAT A BUNCH OF WHEATGRASS
Last Sunday I walked in to my local grocery store where I was offered a sample of wheatgrass juice and some related promotional materials. While I’d seen it all over town for years, I’d never given wheatgrass much thought. To my surprise, the promotional material made a whole range of what seemed to be outrageous claims, ones that immediately raised warning flags for me.
The pamphlet, from swheatgrass.ca, said their product is a “cancer preventative.” They explained that their wheatgrass “contains vitamin B17 and abscisic acid which aid in combating cancer.” These claims seemed patently absurd on their face but I thought I’d do some internet research to find out more.
So what is the deal with wheatgrass? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic and the American Cancer Society:
The wheatgrass diet was developed by a Boston resident, Ann Wigmore ... Wigmore’s notion that fresh wheatgrass had value came from her interpretation of the Bible and observations that dogs and cats eat grass when they feel ill ... In 1982, the Massachusetts Attorney General sued Wigmore for claiming that her program could reduce or eliminate the need for insulin in diabetics and immunization in children. She later retracted her claims ... In 1988, the Massachusetts Attorney General sued Wigmore again, this time for claiming that an “energy enzyme soup” she invented could cure AIDS. Wigmore was ordered to stop representing herself as a physician or person licensed to treat disease.
Further, they explain that “there are no human studies to support the many lofty claims made for wheatgrass or wheatgrass diet programs” and add that, “one very small study suggested that it may help people with colitis, a bowel problem.” Critically, they also go on to explain that because wheatgrass is sold as a dietary supplement “producers are not required to prove that their product is safe or effective, as long as they don’t claim the supplements can prevent, treat, or cure any specific disease.” And yet this is exactly what the people from swheatgrass.ca are doing. I’m not sure about the legal situation here in Canada but at the very least this has to be false advertising. I hope you will agree that (if it isn’t criminal) it’s at best evil to profit in this way: through making baseless claims that prey on people with very real illnesses and very real fears.
So what are vitamin B17 and abscisic acid then? Well, as it turns out, not only is “vitamin B17” not a vitamin in any sense but there are a host of pharmacological and toxicological studies that show amygdalin or laetrile, the other names given to “vitamin B17” (or C20 H27 NO11) to be ineffective as a cancer treatment and even dangerous. As a matter of fact, according to the National Cancer Institute of America and other sources, the supposed anti-cancer agent in “vitamin B17” is cyanide. Yes, cyanide, that same potent toxin that’s been on offer as a cancer cure by alternative medicine and snake-oil communities since the 1890s. In recent years the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sought jail time for people marketing and profiting from laetrile as cancer treatment, calling it a “highly toxic product that has not shown any effect on treating cancer.” As for abscisic acid, it’s a plant hormone; and as far as I can tell it has only been shown to be an anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic in mice. So, like laetrile, I don’t know where the human anti-cancer claims come from.
Among other apparently false and misleading information, the wheatgrass promotional material also claims that “1oz of wheatgrass = 2.5lbs of fresh organic green vegetables.” While I’m not entirely sure what this statement is intended to mean, I found that, according to the National Agriculture Library’s Nutrient Data Lab, one ounce of wheatgrass appears to contain less nutrients than an ounce of any number of vegetables (broccoli or spinach, say.)
So not a single claim on the swheatgrass.ca document appears to be wholly accurate. In fact, much of it appears not only demonstrably false but also intentionally misleading. Perhaps worse still, neither the woman handing out the drink nor the promotional material warns that wheatgrass may cause serious allergic reactions such as nausea, headaches, hives, or swelling of the throat. They also neglect to mention that if you are pregnant or breastfeeding you should not use wheatgrass – a warning made by leading doctors and national institutes of health around the world.
While my neighbourhood grocer has all kinds of unhealthy products on his shelf, I wonder why he’s supporting this particular product in this way? (Pepsi and Doritos don’t pretend to be healthy alternatives and don’t claim to raise your IQ or cure you of HIV either.) I wonder if he looked into wheatgrass or this particular business at all before endorsing it and putting it on display and on sale for the public?
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