Most people know that “grass” isn’t something a human being can eat. However, when referring to a grass supplement, most people are talking about green powder supplements that contain superfoods like wheatgrass, spirulina, and many more! Let's dive into what a grass supplement is and what the best ones are below. 

What Is a Grass Supplement?

Both the superfood and greens supplements movements have been alive in western societies for several decades, but the tradition of adding grass supplements to maintain a healthy, well-rounded diet are relatively new here. While they are just starting to make their way into the mainstream nutritional and supplement market in the west now, different eastern cultures have been using grass supplements in their food, teas, and medicines for hundreds of years. 

A grass supplement can come in several different forms: juices, powders, pills, or tablets. They can also use a host of different grasses, each with its own unique properties, benefits, and tastes. Some of the most widely used are wheatgrass (the most well-known in the west), alfalfa grass, and barley grass. 

Depending on what you are looking for, different supplements or regimens will utilize different strains of these powerful grasses, or some may include a combination to increase overall health & well-being. Let’s go through some of the benefits of different grasses and grass supplements, and what they can do for you and your health.

Are Grass Supplements Good for You?

While there are various ways to take grass supplements and different benefits that come from the types of grasses used, they are all in effect good for you (albeit in different ways). Most are powerful antioxidants, provide a plethora of vitamins & minerals, and others work to help different systems of the body to clean the blood, produce new blood cells, and keep your body running in prime form. 

Understanding the focus that more people are beginning to put on their health, different manufacturers of health products have begun to utilize these powerful health benefits of grasses by adding them to their products as a way to supercharge what they provide.

This has created a way for people who want to take advantage of the benefits that grasses provide to do so in their preferred manner. If you want to just drink one shake a day and have it provide all of your daily vitamins and minerals, there are great protein shakes and greens powders that can allow you to do that. If you are the type of person who likes to space your vitamin & mineral intake throughout the day, you can take different supplements with every meal.

Whichever way you choose, there are a wide variety of options to get all of the goodness provided by grass supplements into your diet.

What Types of Grass Supplements are There?

We’ve already covered that grass supplements can be taken in various forms (juices, powders, pills, or tablets), so now let’s go through the types of grasses that are used in supplements, and what each provides for your overall wellness.

Wheatgrass Supplements

Wheatgrass became very popular in the west in the 1990s-2000s for the uber-healthy, often being included in juices or shakes as a way to supercharge weight loss. But studies conducted over the past several decades have shown that this grass supplement provides far more benefits than merely weight loss. Wheatgrass has been proven to be a tried-and-true superfood, providing a wealth of health benefits to all who take it.

Let’s go through some of the health benefits that wheatgrass provides:

• Weight loss
• Aids digestion
• Eliminates toxins from the body
• Boosts the immune system
• Helps to prevent cancer
• Fights infections
• Lowers cholesterol levels
• Reduces heart inflammation
• Provides powerful antioxidants
• Helps to regulate your blood sugar
• Improves cognitive function
• It may even help to battle Alzheimer’s disease

Wheatgrass comes from the newly-sprouted leaves of the common wheat plant. It was believed to be great for weight loss because wheatgrass is extremely low in calories yet densely packed with vital nutrients. Some of those nutrients are:

• Calcium
• Iron
• Magnesium
• Vitamins A, C, E, K, and B-complex vitamins
• Proteins
• Enzymes
• 17 amino acids
• Chlorophyll
• Phytonutrients
• Antioxidants

Alfalfa Grass Supplements

Alfalfa is an interesting plant for many reasons. Firstly, it’s actually a legume but is also considered an herb. Alfalfa has been grown as feed for livestock for hundreds of years. It was the preferred feed for savvy livestock herders and ranchers because of its wealth of nutrients that it provides compared to other feed sources, especially on a calorically-based diet. Funny enough, this is the same reason that Alfalfa is so popular with humans as well - although until recently it was mostly used as a medicinal herb.

Let’s go through some of the health benefits that alfalfa grass provides:

• Helps to lower total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and triglycerides
• Helps to increased HDL (good) cholesterol
• Lowers blood pressure
• Acts as a diuretic
• Increases breast milk production
• Can help to treat arthritis
• Improves metabolic health
• Provides antioxidants
• Can provide relief from the symptoms of menopause

Much like wheatgrass, alfalfa grass is often used to supplement weight loss because it is extremely low in calories but high in nutrients. One cup of alfalfa grass contains only 8 calories, but has all of the following nutritional benefits:

• 8% of your daily Vitamin K needs
• 3% of your daily Vitamin C needs
• 3% of your daily Folate needs
• 2% of your daily Thiamine needs
• 3% of your daily Riboflavin needs
• 2% of your daily Magnesium needs
• 2% of your daily Iron needs
• 6% of your daily Copper needs
• 1g of protein
• 1g of carbohydrates (from fiber)

Barley Grass Supplements

Drinks made from barley grass called aojiru have been popular in Japan for hundreds of years, because their culture has long known the health benefits that can be derived from this grass. While eastern cultures have been imbibing this grass supplement for centuries, it is just now catching on here in the west, but it is catching on to a storm of popularity.

Barley grass has dozens of different uses, from baking bread to brewing beer. Barley grass comes from the young leaves before they sprout seeds, which means that they are packed with nutrients that would be contained for the plant to continue to grow. Barley is so nutritious, in fact, because all of the essential amino acids in it are complete, making it one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.  

Let’s go through some of the health benefits that barley grass provides:

• Extremely nutrient dense
• Provides cancer-fighting antioxidants
• Full of magnesium that powers enzyme reactions in your body
• Aids digestion
• Full of calcium to aid bone health
• Full of soluble fiber that helps “wash” excess cholesterol out of your body

Barley grass comes from the actual leaf of the plant, and can also be called barley greens or barley greens. The grass is packed full of all sorts of nutritious additions to your daily diet, such as the antioxidants listed above, GABA, and various vitamins & minerals. 

Let’s go through some of the health benefits that barley grass provides:

• 13g of protein per 50g serving
• 15g of fiber per 50g serving
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin A
• Magnesium
• Calcium
• Phosphorus
• Antioxidants

Now that you know what the different types of grasses used in supplements are, let’s go through some of the best grass-based supplements on the market today.

What Are the Best Grass Supplements?

You know what they are and what the benefits are, now let’s dive into the question at hand, what are the best grass supplements? 

Green Vibrance by Vibrant Health

If you’re looking for a way to pack all of the daily health benefits of grass supplements into one punch, there isn’t a better way to do it than by drinking a glass of Green Vibrance by Vibrant Health every day. A daily serving of Green Vibrance provides the nutritional benefits of barley grass leaf powder, oat grass leaf powder, wheat grass leaf powder, barley grass juice powder, oat grass juice powder, and wheatgrass juice powder.

On top of all of the grass supplements, Green Vibrance also provides maximal plant-based micronutrition, antioxidants from other sources beyond the grass supplements, immune support, adaptogens, nutrients for skeletal support, a ton of fiber, liver support, and even 25 billion CFUs of probiotics from 12 different strains.

Maximum Vibrance by Vibrant Health

If you want all of the benefits provided by Green Vibrance listed above but would also like a greens & grass supplement that provides enough protein to be a meal replacement or workout aid, Maximum Vibrance may be exactly what you’re looking for. Maximum Vibrance contains all of the same grass supplements, probiotics, adaptogens, minerals, and nutrients, but it also packs a whopping 20g of plant-based protein into every serving.

Since both Green Vibrance and Maximum Vibrance are both plant-based, vegan-friendly, and certified non-GMO, they can both be used with just about any diet restrictions or choices. If you are a vegan or vegetarian looking for a way to get all of your daily nutrients as well as the plant-based protein needed, Maximum Vibrance is a perfect addition to your daily intake.

Amazing Grass Amazing Trio

There aren’t many powders on the market that can allow you to get the benefits of all of the different grass supplements into one scoop, but Amazing Grass Amazing Trio is one that provides the benefits of wheatgrass, barley grass, and alfalfa grass together. This product is also certified USDA organic, non-GMO, and is a wholefood supplement. If you want the additional benefits of things like probiotics, protein, fiber, and others you will have to get those from other supplements, however.

Triquetra Health Organic Wheatgrass Juice Powder

While the products by Vibrant Health listed above combine all of the major grass supplements into one drink, they often have to be found in separate powders if you want to add wheatgrass, barley grass, alfalfa grass, and oat grass into your diet. If wheatgrass is what you seek, it’s hard to find a better supplement than that offered Trigquetra Health. This wheatgrass juice powder is different from the others because it is grown in the ancient volcanic soil of Utah, providing 75 different trace elements to the mix and adding additional nutrients to your daily intake.

AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens)

You’ve likely seen commercials for or heard celebrities touting the benefits of the Athletic Greens powdered supplement. While this is another good all-source single supplement that you can take to get a lot of the various benefits of grass supplements and others, it does have a few drawbacks that make it less appetizing than those from Vibrant Health. Namely, all of those ads and endorsements cost money, making this one of the most expensive on the market. Additionally, AG1 considers it’s nutritional information to be “proprietary,” meaning you don’t know exactly what you’re getting in every scoop.

Closing

While some cultures, mainly in the east, have been enjoying the health benefits of grass supplements for centuries, they are just beginning to catch on here in the western world. Barley grass and wheatgrass are by far the most popular, but alfalfa grass is a close third and is starting to find its way into many different supplements. 

There are numerous health benefits that grass supplements can provide, whether it be fighting cancer & Alzheimer's, reducing your cholesterol, adding a whopping total of vitamins & nutrients to your daily diet, weight loss, or even helping to keep your head clear. Some of the products listed above, like those from Vibrant Health, provide all of these benefits and many more. And thankfully, many of the companies making grass supplements know that their customers are more health conscious than most, so their products are also non-GMO, plant-based, and even organic in some cases.

If you’re looking for a way to supercharge your diet or just want to pack as many vitamins and nutrients into a single daily serving as possible, the super shakes listed above from Vibrant Health are an excellent way to do so. If you don’t like pills but want to help resolve health issues through whole foods rather than medications, any of the grass supplements listed above can get you on your way.

The west has found ourselves in the beginnings of a health revolution, and grass supplements like those listed above are leading the way!