Hi Joel,

you wrote:
>it does give me pause that ann wigmore had her haircolor turn ungray after
>she adopted her wheatgrass diet.
...
>i've been musing over fragments of information about eating grass & leaves
>lately, wondering if there isn't some kind of connecting thread.
...
>2. greeks, romans, and persian soldiers all travelled with watercress for
its anti-scurvy properties

Yes, leaves and especially herbs are an important part of human
nutrition.
A part we are neglecting in our nutrition even if we are raw fooders.
There is a big fat book here in Germany from Franz Konz that tells a
lot
about herbs and leaves that humans can and should eat. Konz is the
propa-
gator of a nutrition style called "ancient nutrition" (my
translation).
Unfortunately it is strictly vegan so I am not happy with this. But
people
who strictly obey his rules I have been found to be balanced and in a
better mood than raw vegetarians or vegans. The herbs make up for much
of
the missing nutrients from animal foods.
For me it is rarely possible to include herbs because I'am living in a
big city and can't collect them as often as I should. But I take every
opportunity I can get.

>i've wondered about how to experiment with leaf juice without doing the
>potentially destructive testing of feeding it to myself.

Well if you can omit the juicing and get some experience with
instinctive
eating you will be able to detect the eatable herbs and leaves. Your
instincts will tell you. Poisonous mushrooms and herbs will taste so
bad
that you can't eat them.
You should try unknown herbs, mushrooms and leaves only after having
at
least one year of experience. Also it is important AFAIK to eat 100%
raw
then because switching in cooked foods will trouble your instincts and
that could be fatal when you are relying on them for testing herbs.

>i have a bachelor's in zoology from the university of washington, but sort
>of choke on the whole experimenting on rats thing.

No idea if I got this right here. Did you think of testing leaves by
feeding them to rats?? Then I have to tell you this doesn't work. If
the
rat has a need for a leave it can eat it without problems while it
might
be toxic for you, the human.

Instinctive regards,

Stefan