plant digestibility, was Magnesium

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

What I've been asking you, and I probably didn't do it very clearly, is

*what specifically* is it about domestic green leafies that makes them more

digestible than grass in your opinion? In other words what is the chemical

or physical makeup in spinach that makes you feel it's more digestible than

wheatgrass?

I don't know the precise composition of these various plants, but am

thinking they are all cellulose, water, starch, protein and lipids. They

*all* contain indigestible cellulose. So, I'm thinking I'm getting *more*

nutrition from the powdered grass and grass juice than I am from eating a

plate of steamed spinach, for example. But, if I juiced the spinach, it

would be as digestible as the powdered leaf/juice.

Me:

>Basically, I'm wondering why any domesticated leafy green veggie would be

>any more digestible, such as spinach, kale, etc. than a wild (or domestic)

>plant such as grass?

P:

>>>>Just for starters because domesticated plants have been bred for energy

density and digestibility to such a degree that they don't obviously

resemble their wild ancestors. That doesn't mean that all crops have been

bred all the way to the point that they're 100% healthy for you, but

they're certainly lots more edible than their wild ancestors and cousins.

***I'm not so sure modern wheat grass resembles its wild ancestors

either...perhaps some one else knows. But again, I come back to the

question - what exactly makes these plants (domestic) more digestible? Do

they have *less* cellulose than grass? Have they been bred to contain less

cellulose? I know domestic grains have been bred and bred, largely to be

energy dense and survive storage, but am not aware of ways in which domestic

plants have been bred to be more digestible...

I'd also have to wonder if all of this breeding you refer to might just

breed out some of the most important chemical components of domestic

plants - antioxidants, that are there to protect plants from the sun's

heat/light oxidizing their lipids, especially those high in PUFAs.

Suze Fisher

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

mailto:s.fisher22@...

-