Wheatgrass, Returned

I wrote a post, last summer, about Clint and I trying Wheat Grass Juice. In summary, it was costly, tasted lousy, and research didn't turn up anything to substantiate its claims. I received this comment, verbatim, today [highlights are mine]:

I think you need to become more educated. The benefits of wheatgrass are real and extremely beneficial. Its very ignorant of you to read an article by some unknown person with no credentials and make a assumption. I have been studying health and nutrition for 16 years and i can tell you that wheat grass is packed with goodness and does help many people. The only placebo effect is in your own mind making you think the juice in no good just because your taste buds dont like the taste. That's obsurd. Sometimes things that dont taste great are really good for us and you're not a child so not everything needs tobe sugar coated. Knowledge is power.

I responded in the comments, because I stand behind what I write. If you're interested in the Jerry Springer catfight, go 'head and check it out the comments.

But this isn't about the catfight, it's about something else altogether.

What I don't get IS: If you have knowledge about a subject—and I do believe that everyone knows something I don't—how do you possibly stand to share it with the next person by belittling them?

I understand that we can sometimes engulf ourselves in our interests so entirely that it's hard to wrap our minds around the fact—yes, the FACT—that there are other people in the world that have any idea that what we deal with on a daily basis even exists.

I have friends that are nurses. They can look at a man's earlobes and know he's more prone to heart disease than others. My friends, though, don't walk up to that man and say:

"Have you not looked in a mirror at your own earlobes? Go ahead and kill yourself, moron!"

The friend that brought that to my attention, years ago, was sharing the information with me. She was not disgusted that I had no idea. She didn't think I was an idiot for being oblivious; it was merely one of her everyday realities.

If you have a certain expertise, share it with us! We're abolutely fascinated. If, however, you want to shove it down our throats as a means of spreading your tailfeathers, in the interim suggesting that we are idiots, then you lose entire credibility.


I'm serious: Anyone with any smarts is walking back to their car, rolling their eyes at your blow-hard-edness, and not in the least impressed with what it was you had to say. Even if you were right.

Don't beat people up! How hard is that to understand?

See, the nutritionist commenter that loved the Wheatgrass actually had a chance with me.

If he or she had said, for instance,

Dear Lori,

OMG, I wish you'd give this stuff another chance, even though you didn't think it tasted good. I swear to God, if you try it for one week, you won't be sorry. It has x, y, and z vitamins, and I know it costs a lot, but I double-dog-dare you to write a negative post about Wheatgrass Juice after trying it for one week. Put on your nose plugs and do a shot, Lori, and you. will. not. be. sorry.

Man, I SO would have gone for that. I wanted that stupid Wheatgrass to be a miracle cure. I wanted it to give me energy and make me lose weight, and to make my sister's cancer go away.

But all I got was someone calling me ignorant and absurd.

Somehow, I'm still not sold.

Go Figure.