Q: What are your thoughts on wheatgrass juice?  The stuff I have read is pretty powerful, but it's hard to know who to believe, as you know.

A: Two things about wheatgrass:

1. It's good stuff. Lots of phytonutrients, shown to be effective in some clinical trials  (ulcerative colitis, increasing iron in blood cells in cancer patients, liver cancer, burns, wounds). Tons of anecdotal evidence as well, about 75 years worth.

If you grow it yourself and juice it fresh cut, you're getting a lot more nutrients than from a head of broccoli trucked across the country from California.

2. It's a plant, and should be thought of as a food, not a "treatment." If we think of most diseases (cancer, heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, MS, etc.) as normal bodily processes that spiral out of control in the absence of proper nutrition, then wheatgrass, as part of a nutrient-dense diet including lots of fresh green vegetables and other types of fresh, frozen and cooked produce, will have an impact on that process. Study after study has shown that good nutrition can stop and even reverse disease.

There are a lot of people in the "alternative" health community who think of wheatgrass as a supplement, rather than part of a healthy diet. Stay away from "wonder substances," like Noni, that are touted to have miraculous properties. If they do "give us energy" or suddenly "detoxify" us, it's almost certainly our body's response to toxins in the substance that we work hard to flush.

We can ingest all the miracles we need from fresh fruits and vegetables.