Hemp Products – why you should eat them

11083901_653632308076590_8374767486296258176_n

Hemp seeds are a superfood, did you know that they are the most nutritious seeds in the world? The first time I heard about the benefits of hemp seeds (milk, oil, etc) I thought it was just something the Dutch had come up with to keep their rights of growing their own hemp plants (yes we can have three of them). After some research though, I realised that the products of this plant are indeed great for your health.  Don’t ‘worry’ about getting high, I’ll give you a short explanation and tell you about its health benefits.

Difference hemp and marijuana

Hemp and Marijuana both come from the same plant – Cannabis Sativa L. Marijuana is used for the medicinal, recreational or spiritual use involving the smoking of cannabis flowers.

Hemp is used for more than just cooking purposes; paper and fabric are made from it as well, because of its high amounts of fibre. Hemp used for these purposes contains about 0.3% – 1.5% THC whereas marijuana contains about 5% – 10% or more THC (which is what makes you high). Since I’m guessing that you’re not planning on trying to smoke your hemp seeds this is not that relevant.

Health benefits

Raw hemp has got many health benefits. To name a few of them: lower cholesterol and blood pressure, better immune system, better blood sugar control, faster recovery from injuries, more energy and weight loss. How come that hemp has got so many benefits?

Hemp is:

  • Vitamin E rich.
  • Easier to digest than eggs, cheese, milk, meat and other high protein foods.
  • As far as known there is no such thing as a hemp allergy.
  • A great source of essential fatty acids like Omega 3, 6 and GLA.

Essential fatty acids in hemp seeds

Why pick hemp seeds over any other type of seeds? Well the balance of omega 6 and omega 3 is perfect in hemp seeds, this perfect balance can not be found in any other type of seeds. The oil in hemp seeds has only 10% saturated fatty acids but does contain about 80% unsaturated fatty acids (the ‘good’ fat!). Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are not produced by our bodies and thus have to be obtained by what we eat, hemp seeds are a great way to get your daily doses in!

Amino acids

Hemp seeds provide you with all 20 amino acids, which also means the 9 essential amino acids (EAAs) which your body can not produce itself.

Conclusion

I could give you a whole list of all important nutrients in hemp seeds but it would be extremely long and to not to lose your attention I kept it short. If you’re really interested though just look it up online. For now I think that the message is clear, hemp seeds are great to include in your ‘diet’!

Putting hemp seeds in my yoghurt totally works for me. Maybe it’s time to use my Dutch rights and start growing my own hemp plants. Okay just kidding, I won’t. They are so easy to get at local shops that growing them yourself probably isn’t even worth the time.

hemp

4 thoughts on “Hemp Products – why you should eat them

  1. Hemp is a miracle food for me, which I believe the UK and other countries should really produce more of, in all forms! such diversity from one organic material and food source..
    Great article, worth a read and adapting your diet to include.

    Like

  2. You’re absolutely right. Hemp is a great product that most people are not aware exists. Another great product is organic chia. It provides an excellent source of protein and fiber and compliments hemp as part of a nutrition plan.

    Keep the information coming. Your followers will truly benefit!

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s