Or just rice/beans to make an energy dense fermented product. Answer Save. These symbionts can break the bond in cellulose for the animal its living in. Can humans eat and process grass? Close. As a practical food source, however, your lawn leaves a lot to be desired. 16 Answers. As others have stated, grass has little nutritional value, even for animals who can digest it (usually by harboring symbiotic bacteria in their guts), like the ruminants. Log in. This subreddit has been created to serve as a neutral ground for exchanging and discussing scientific evidence relating to human nutrition. For people, cooking helps break down the fibers, but it may just not be very palatable. In regard to protein, this is ubiquitous in grasses. Was wondering if humans can do this and get protein from grass… I know that we are omnivores, but surely the ability to eat pretty much ANYTHING that's edible would have been an evolutionary advantage? No idea if it does anything beneficial but its definitely digestible. Favourite answer. it would be better if you blended it to make soup then it could be digested easily. But in all fairness, for the most part humans only eat the grains of the grass. Posted by 5 years ago. I know that humans can't digest cellulose because we lack the proper enzymes. In principle, people can eat grass; it is non-toxic and edible. Plants don’t provide a lot of protein for humans or animals. Posted by 2 years ago. Wheat, oats, barley, corn, and other grains are cereals, part of the broad family of grasses. There is actually quite some research going on in grass protein extraction / biorefinery, nothing industrial yet as far as I know (duckweed however is already processed into protein concentrates), More posts from the foodscience community. Young greens are preferred as far as I can tell. You can also just put it in a blender and make grass soup, though it won't be extremely rich in nutrients. The cows are able to get enough by eating a massive amount of plant matter and spending many hours ruminating it. save. Wheat, barley, rice, corn, etc, are all grasses. is there any nutritional content in grass humans can use? Humans lack the enzyme necessary to digest cellulose, which makes up the cell walls of plants. Sure you can! The edible grasses excellent for human consumption are generally cereal grain grasses, for example wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa grass, as well as oat grass. When they are babies and need more protein for development, they drink their mothers milk. This is not science, but I remember reading that Inuit people in Northen Canada used to stalk moose or elk for few hours when it ate some type of grass. The cool rainy months bring forth lots of young tender grasses. We don't have such symbionts so we'd simply starve. In fact, grass seeds constitute the primary staple of the diet of most humans around the world. It seems so weird that we eat lettuce and celery but not grass. got me thinking. Make sure to like ,share and subscribe. yes you can. patchouligirl. Could humans take an enzyme pill that would allow them to eat grass? Humans absolutely can eat grass. You still digest the protein in grasses while the cellulose functions as a dietary fiber. As a practical food source, however, your lawn leaves a lot to be desired. 2. As for grasses, you eat the seeds of them, wheat, oats, corn, rice. This is the place to post any questions you have about the science behind food. Animals that eat grass have adapted digestive systems. Even in silage not all the cellulose is fermented. Where does the protein in the mother's milk come from? However there are better substrates than grass, like grass seed for example to make mushrooms. Cereals, for example, are all grasses including oats, wheat, rye, etc. Find out 9 ways marijuana could be influencing your health. Please read our Posting Guidelines before you contribute to this submission. but you can cook it if you want to. Archived. Humans don’t. I don't think there is a human foodstuff made from fermented grass and forbs -- called silage -- where bacteria have broken down the cellulose for us into glucose. 3 comments. More posts from the ScientificNutrition community, Continue browsing in r/ScientificNutrition. Corn, wheat, rice, etc are all grass that we eat regularly. Can humans eat grass that has already been fermented (so that the cellulose is broken down)? . Join now. Explained. 4 years ago. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Is that not right? This video by theknowledgeablefamily tells you whether humans can eat grass or not? Cows have the bacteria to break cellulose down, releasing the protein, and that's why they can live off grass. Press J to jump to the feed. Cows and other mammals can eat grass because they have special bacteria living in their stomachs called symbiont bacteria. Yes, fermenting indigestible food to make it edible is popular all over the world. 100% Upvoted. Join now. Ask your question. Cows and other animals eat it just fine, so why is it not in our regular diet? Cows and sheep are ruminating animals. If I understand correctly, the cows are feeding grass to the microbes that live inside the cow’s stomachs. But that's only because they can digest the grass much better than we can. Close. No macroscopic animals digest cellulose on their own. Hi all, this is my first post here. In principle, people can eat grass; it is non-toxic and edible. That way cows can get energy from grass. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Wheat, barley, rice, corn, etc, are all grasses. People can actually eat grass. Looks like you're using new Reddit on an old browser. Why cant humans eat grass ? Can humans eat and process grass? Was wondering if humans can do this and get protein from grass, the way herbivores do. Unlike humans, cows are ruminants and have four stomach chambers enabling them to digest grass. Cows eat grass, doesn't mean you can! If you choose to comment and participate in the sub, scientific rigor is expected! A2A Grass ,as such cannot be eaten in its raw form as its difficult to digest. Taste would be questionable, but the nutrients could be extracted. Right, seeds are very different from grass itself -- which humans cannot derive nutritional value from. . Humans lack the enzymes and digestive fauna to effectively break down grass, so it would be highly inefficient, and would probably result in … You could definitely eat fermented grass which is known as silage. ELI5: Why don't humans eat grass like we do other vegetables? Grass contains a lot of silica, the main ingredient in many rocks including quartz and sandstone. Before the use of the plough grass was seen as a treat in many a country. 1. Okay no sources but years ago when I was studying this I got the impression was that we can not eat grass because it has pathogens that our stomach can not deal with, whereas cows are well-equipped to deal with it. Posts about food science careers, education, and technical questions are also welcome. Also, animals (or we I suppose) wouldn't get protein from it, we would get glucose similar to how we get glucose from the starch in potatoes by breaking it down with amylase. can humans eat grass? I thought the protein in grasses is locked behind the cellulose walls. Was wondering if humans can do this and get protein from grass, the way herbivores do. We don’t have any of these symbiont bacteria, so we can’t digest the cellulose in grass. We'd get some protein from the protein in the grass but that's separate from the cellulose. We aren’t designed to break down the cellulose in grass to get out the nutriments. 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