Alfalfa is a highly nutritious green plant that’s been cultivated worldwide for several centuries.
Although it was originally grown as a fodder crop for livestock, alfalfa is becoming increasingly prevalent in green superfood powders and other natural health products - principally because advances in nutritional science have allowed us to identify a number of uniquely nutritious qualities in this seemingly innocuous plant...
To start with, Alfalfa has been shown to provide an incredibly wide variety of important minerals, including iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, sodium and potassium. While the importance of some of these compounds (particularly calcium and iron) is widely understood, the simple fact of the matter is that all of these important micronutrients are needed to support your body’s delicate internal system, and many of them are understood to play a large part in promoting proper pH balance in our cells and tissues.
Alfalfa also contains a number of other important micronutrients too though, including Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Vitamin K. Like the trace minerals listed above, all three of these important vitamins are thought to be very important in encouraging optimum health, and they are widely understood to fulfil a number of important functions on a cellular level. According to Christopher Vasey’s book The Acid Alkaline Diet, the vitamins E, C and K can help to remove harmful oxygen free radicals from your system, to promote better immunity and to improve the health of your blood and bones respectively.
It's not all about the vitamins and minerals though. Aside from its micronutrient content, alfalfa is also prized for its high chlorophyll content, which has led to its widespread use in the formulation of numerous natural liquid chlorophyll supplements. Chlorophyll, or “plant blood” as it is sometimes known, is the green pigment that enables plants to convert sunlight into energy. On a molecular level, chlorophyll has a very similar structure to human haemoglobin, which allows it to act as a replacement for our own red blood cells – increasing the oxygen levels in our blood, and helping to properly nourish your body’s most vital cells and tissues.
In addition to this, it is our understanding that there are numerous other health benefits associated with Alfalfa’s high chlorophyll content too, including the ability to act as an anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant and a chelating agent that can aid in the removal of many heavy metal toxins introduced to your system by environmental and dietary contaminates.
Why Does Alfalfa Have Such A Unique Nutrient Profile?
There are a number of reasons for Alfalfa’s unprecedentedly high mineral and micronutrient content, but the most frequently cited explanation is an unusually vigorous root system, and an unprecedentedly deep root profile.
According to the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, this deep root profile allows it to reach previously untapped mineral reserves underground that haven’t been depleted by intensive farming and other environmentally destructive industrial practices. It also allows alfalfa to absorb a unique variety of different nutrients too; given that it can reach many different soil horizons (or layers).
How can I add Alfalfa to my Diet?
Although alfalfa isn’t widely available in supermarkets, introducing this highly nutritious green grass to your diet isn’t particularly difficult. It’s probably best to start by turning to a good green superfood supplement, particularly one that has a high grass content, and that focuses on providing a good spread of nutrition. For best results, pick a carefully dehydrated powder like Green Vibrance Powder or pHresh Greens, as these powders are prepared in a way that preserves the full nutrient density of the raw alfalfa grass, without denaturing many of the delicate micronutrients that it can provide. The other added benefit of a carefully dehydrated greens powder is that they also provide a wealth of supplementary nutrients from their other ingredients that can actually help to actively improve your body’s ability to absorb and metabolise the beneficial minerals found in alfalfa.
If you are primarily interested in alfalfas high chlorophyll content, you might also be interested in our liquid chlorophyll supplement, which is made using nothing but purified water and alfalfa. For more information on that, please click here, or use the contact form above to send us an email. We always enjoy hearing from our clients & friends, and welcome any enquiries.
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