We tested dozens of similar products to determine which ones offer live enzymes that flourish in large quantities.
Test Results: Barley Grass
The test results show that Hallelujah Diet’s BarleyMax offers one of the highest amounts of health-boosting enzymes on the market. Not only does BarleyMax offer a rich volume of enzymes, it was also formulated so that the living nutrients can easily and readily benefit the body.
| PRODUCT | Beta-galactosidase, U/100 g | Beta-glucosidase, U/100 g | Alpha-mannosidase, U/100 g | Acid Phosphatase, U/g | Leucine Amino-peptidase, U/100 g | N-acetyl Beta-D-glucosaminidase, U/100 g |
| BarleyMax | 9.02 | 7.72 | 160. | 41.2 | 120. | 110. |
| BarleyMax AF | 13.12 | 6.022 | 156.12 | 29.41 | 114.15 | 102.24 |
|
Just Barley, from Pure Planet |
9.519 | 8.37 | 166.19 | 34.29 | 95.61 | 117.19 |
| BarleyMax Berry | 5.439 | 2.006 | 149.91 | 49.62 | 139.49 | 90.88 |
|
Barley Grass Powder, from Earth Circle Organics |
6.441 | 5.992 | 142.26 | 33.16 | 63.36 | 94.85 |
|
Barley Grass Juice Powder, from VitaCost (Earthblends) |
8.016 | 6.852 | 102.44 | 17.49 | 71.89 | 38.33 |
|
Green Magma, from Green Foods |
9.519 | 2.735 | 79.42 | 16.19 | 73.32 | 48.67 |
|
Barley Grass juice, from NOW Foods |
2.815 | 3.08 | 89.87 | 23.17 | 72.39 | 83.62 |
|
BarleyLife Traditional, from AIM, Int’l |
9.09 | 0.75 | 98.8 | 22.7 | 55.5 | 41.1 |
|
Barley Grass Juice Powder, from VitaCost |
6.084 | 4.583 | 83.36 | 19.42 | 68.16 | 38.7 |
|
BarleyGreen, from YH Int’l |
7.16 | 2.29 | 84.5 | 16.4 | 46.1 | 33. |
|
Alka Green, from Morter Supplements |
2.119 | 2.31 | 37.25 | 0.34 | 6.525 | 11.18 |
|
Greener Grasses Alkalizer from Healthforce Nutritionals |
4.08 | 0.56 | 11.9 | 2.95 | 4.83 | 4.04 |
|
The Amazing Trio (Barley Grass, Wheat Grass & Alfalfa) from Amazing Grass |
2.13 | 0. | 8.27 | 0.05 | 7.86 | 4.05 |
|
Kyo-Green, from Wakunaga |
1.789 | 0. | 0.6814 | 0. | 8.809 | 2.044 |
|
Barley Grass, from Pines |
0.3579 | 0. | 0. | 0.01 | 8.809 | 4.618 |
|
Barley Grass, from NOW Foods |
0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 10.4 | 3.79 |
|
Barley Power, from Green Supreme |
0. | 0. | 8.071 | 0. | 5.003 | 0.6057 |
|
Wheat Grass, from NOW Foods |
0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 7.435 | 1.537 |
|
Barley Powder, from Nature’s Way |
0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 4.334 | 0. |
|
Barley Grass, from Frontier Natural Products |
0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. |
| PRODUCT | % Rank B-gal | % Rank B-gluc | % Rank A-manno | % Rank Acid Phos | % Rank Leu Amino-peptidase | % Rank B-D-glucosaminidase | Average Rank | RANK |
| BarleyMax | 68.8% | 34.9% | 71.9% | 42.4% | 86.0% | 93.9% | 66.3% | 1 |
| BarleyMax AF | 100.0% | 27.2% | 70.1% | 30.3% | 81.8% | 87.2% | 66.1% | 2 |
|
Just Barley, from Pure Planet |
72.6% | 37.9% | 74.7% | 35.3% | 68.5% | 100.0% | 64.8% | 3 |
| BarleyMax Berry | 41.5% | 9.1% | 67.3% | 51.1% | 100.0% | 77.5% | 57.8% | 4 |
|
Barley Grass Powder, from Earth Circle Organics |
49.1% | 27.1% | 63.9% | 34.2% | 45.4% | 80.9% | 50.1% | 5 |
|
Barley Grass Juice Powder, from VitaCost (Earthblends) |
61.1% | 31.0% | 46.0% | 18.0% | 51.5% | 32.7% | 40.1% | 6 |
|
Green Magma, from Green Foods |
72.6% | 12.4% | 35.7% | 16.7% | 52.6% | 41.5% | 38.6% | 7 |
|
Barley Grass juice, from NOW Foods |
21.5% | 13.9% | 40.4% | 23.9% | 51.9% | 71.4% | 37.1% | 8 |
|
BarleyLife Traditional, from AIM, Int’l |
69.3% | 3.4% | 44.4% | 23.4% | 39.8% | 35.1% | 35.9% | 9 |
|
Barley Grass Juice Powder, from VitaCost |
46.4% | 20.7% | 37.4% | 20.0% | 48.9% | 33.0% | 34.4% | 10 |
|
BarleyGreen, from YH Int’l |
54.6% | 10.4% | 38.0% | 16.9% | 33.0% | 28.2% | 30.2% | 11 |
|
Alka Green, from Morter Supplements |
16.2% | 10.5% | 16.7% | 0.4% | 4.7% | 9.5% | 9.7% | 12 |
|
Greener Grasses Alkalizer from Healthforce Nutritionals |
31.1% | 2.5% | 5.3% | 3.0% | 3.5% | 3.4% | 8.2% | 13 |
|
The Amazing Trio (Barley Grass, Wheat Grass & Alfalfa) from Amazing Grass |
16.2% | 0.0% | 3.7% | 0.1% | 5.6% | 3.5% | 4.8% | 14 |
|
Kyo-Green, from Wakunaga |
13.6% | 0.0% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 6.3% | 1.7% | 3.7% | 15 |
|
Barley Grass, from Pines |
2.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 6.3% | 3.9% | 2.2% | 16 |
|
Barley Grass, from NOW Foods |
0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 7.5% | 3.2% | 1.8% | 17 |
|
Barley Power, from Green Supreme |
0.0% | 0.0% | 3.6% | 0.0% | 3.6% | 0.5% | 1.3% | 18 |
|
Wheat Grass, from NOW Foods |
0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 5.3% | 1.3% | 1.1% | 19 |
|
Barley Powder, from Nature’s Way |
0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3.1% | 0.0% | 0.5% | 20 |
|
Barley Grass, from Frontier Natural Products |
0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 21 |
The first 5 products are top tier products. Three of them are BarleyMax. Only the Raw Green Grass from Juvo and Just Barley from Pure Planet are in the same category with BarleyMax. The second ones (in green for Average Rank) are mid-tier—they aren’t really good or just awful. The 2 orange products have a tiny bit of enzyme activity in them. The red labeled products at the bottom are almost completely devoid of enzyme activity.
Test Highlights:
Note: U/G stands for units of enzyme activity per gram of powder. Also, the particular enzymes measured were chosen as markers of overall enzyme activity.
What do these test results mean? In completely objective and scientific enzyme testing, BarleyMax proved to be superior in overall rawness of enzymes and therefore richer in living nutrition to enhance one’s health.
How did we test the products?
As we were testing various products, the main goal was to confirm whether each supplement was in fact in its rawest form, thereby offering an abundance of enzymes and heat-sensitive nutrients to truly transform health.
Hallelujah Diet Research Director Michael Donaldson, PhD, tested a panel of enzymes that naturally occur in most plant cells. These particular enzymes were chosen because they are ubiquitous and easy to measure with established scientific methods. To learn more about our testing method and procedure, click here.
If a product tested high in one enzyme, it usually tested high in other enzymes as well. If a product didn’t have any detectable levels of one enzyme, it didn’t have other enzyme activities either. While a single enzyme test may not provide accurate results, measuring several enzymes can yield a consistent picture of the enzymes’ nutritional value.
What distinguishes an enzymatically rich raw-food supplement?
Even if all juice powders and superfood powders came from a pure source such as barley grass, what could make them ineffective by the time they make it to store shelves? There are two main factors that negatively impact the vitality of a product.
First: Heat kills enzymes.
Enzymes begin to perish at approximately 106-107 degrees Fahrenheit and, by the time their internal temperature reaches 122 degrees, they are completely destroyed.
Without any protective measures, a juice powder will lose its enzymatic activity if it is exposed to either slightly elevated temperatures for a long time or to temperatures above 100°F for a brief time. In short, product-development processes that involve high temperatures will quickly begin destroying the enzymes.
Also, when the enzymes are damaged by heat, other elements are also changed or destroyed including essential oils, healthy bacteria and co-factors.
Second, whole leaf powders are very processed.
Barley grass powder made from cut up leaves results in the nutrients staying locked inside the plant cells. This makes these nutrients inaccessible to our digestive system.
Barley Grass Juice Powder vs Barley Grass Powder
There is a huge difference between juice powder and leaf powder. Leaf powder is just expensive hay. Juice powder tastes like fresh squeezed juice from the plant.
It is like comparing grape juice and raisins. Grape juice, though commercially heated and cooked, still tastes a lot like a grape. Raisins taste good, but they don't taste anything like fresh grapes. If you rehydrate a raisin the juice doesn't taste anything like grape juice.
This analogy is even more true for barley grass juice and barley grass powder. The taste and nutrition of the barley grass juice powder is exceptional, and the barley grass powder tastes bad, like hay mixed into water.
In our testing many enzymatically deactivated powder products are actually whole-leaf powders, which are made by drying wheat or barley leaves. They may be cut to a small size before drying and then pulverized to powder after they are dry. The first problem with these products is that it requires more heat or time to dry intact cells than it does to dry a juice already extracted from plant cells. When enzymes are exposed to elevated heat for too long, the enzymes are deactivated in these products.
The second problem is that many cells remain intact in the product. As a result, the nutrition in those cells, although it shows up in a nutritional analysis, won’t do you any good. The plant cells that go down our throats intact will not get digested because we do not have the enzymes to break down cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin, in our system. Only the nutrients that are extracted from the plant cells are available to enhance health. Even if some enzymes remain in the product, many of the nutrients remain locked inside the cell structure of the dehydrated leaves. These products are just expensive fiber.
Our testing demonstrates that Hallelujah Diet’s BarleyMax is one of the few whole-food supplements that yield the highest concentrations of live enzymes and other heat-sensitive elements.
