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I found this article on www.voiceyourself.com (a website started by Woody Harrelson and his wife Let me know what you all think!

 

Highs and lows of a hemp diet

 

The Guardian Unlimited | UK, Tuesday, December 5, 2006

 

You would have to have been on another planer for the past couple of years to have not noticed the intensive campaign to put Omega 3 in everything we eat at the moment - it's even in eggs.

 

Nutritionists, however, say that the amount of Omega 3 in these foods is usually minute, compared with the quantities you can get by eating oily fish.

 

The trouble is, environmentalists, along with vegetarians are more than a little concerned by reports suggesting that at least 75% of the world's fish stocks are either exploited or significantly depleted. So where do we go for an Omega 3 fix?

 

Those that go to health food shops or visit the specialist food section at their supermarket, will have noticed the invasion of hemp-based foods in recent months. Hemp oil, hemp seeds, hemp bars, hemp sauce and even hemp bread are among the foodstuffs now available.

 

It is perfect timing really, as according to nutritionists, the hemp seed contains the perfectly balanced 3:1 ratio of both the essential fatty acids Omega 3 and 6. On top of that hemp grows plentifully on almost any type of ground and doesn't really require any pesticides.

 

Convinced that hemp could be "the future", and assured that I couldn't get high or overdose on it, I decided to see how many different ways I could fit this new green superfood into my diet during a normal working week. It wasn't as difficult as it might sound.

 

Monday

 

Breakfast: Organic apple & cranberry hemp bar from Mother Hemp.

 

Lunch: Veggie burger and salad with plenty of hemp oil from Yaoh and balsamic vinegar.

 

Dinner: Hemp spaghetti from Yorkshire Hemp and sundried tomato pesto from Mother Hemp. I drizzle some hemp oil on too - as long as you don't actually heat it up you'll get all the benefits.

 

Tuesday

 

Breakfast: Natural yoghurt with dried fruit, honey and a good handful of hulled hemp seeds stirred in.

 

Lunch: Busy, so have two Yaoh hemp bars - one with pineapple and coconut and the other with apple and cinnamon.

 

Dinner: Noodle stir-fry with some very tasty hemp sauce (like soy sauce).

 

Wednesday

 

Brunch: Working from home so have a late brunch of hemp seed and rye toast loaded with grilled tomato, tofu and mushrooms.

 

Dinner: A cheese and tomato topping with pancakes made from Yorkshire Hemp's pancake mix.

 

Thursday

 

Breakfast: I've been very organised and soaked a pack of shelled hemp seeds overnight so I can make some milk using my Yaoh milk maker. After a minute or so the machine delivers a couple of pints of the stuff. It tastes mostly of water, but is drinkable and feels very healthy. The machine can also make milk from almonds and other nuts.

 

Lunch: Gillian McKeith hemp bar and later in the afternoon some flavoured hemp seeds from the Good company - a decent alternative to crisps and nuts.

 

Dinner: I make a warming winter stew with lots of root veg and thicken it up with some hemp flour. Has a bit of a grainy, spicy taste and texture, not overly keen.

 

Friday

 

Breakfast: Make a hemp milk smoothie with bananas and strawberries

 

 

Lunch: Rye/hemp bread with soup

 

 

Dinner: A big salad with roast vegetables and cous cous with hemp seeds stirred in.

 

The verdict

 

The oil and hemp sauce are probably the most hemp popular products available at the moment. Hemp oil is quite strong, a bit like walnut oil or how you'd imagine brazil nut oil would taste. You can mix it with other oils or a bit of balsamic or white wine vinegar if you find it a bit intense on its own.

 

I think the bars will become a regular habit, they had a good flavour and were very satisfying.

 

Most are raw and don't contain any sugar, butter or salt, unlike most other supposed "health" bars. The pancakes made a good meal, as did the pasta and pesto, although it would be hard to drag me away from wholewheat pasta permanently.

 

The milk wasn't exactly to my taste, but neither was soya milk when I first tried it, so I'll preserver and probably stick to mixing it with something sweeter.

 

The recommended amount of hemp to get all your omegas is 100 grams of seeds or 30 grams of oil each day. I've easily managed this and think I could keep it up. You can just have a spoonful of oil if you think you haven't had your quota.

 

I could be imagining it, but after a few weeks of keeping going with some of the foods, I'm sure I feel more alert and my nails definitely look healthier.

 

Note: A full version of this feature appears in the January issue of Lifescape magazine

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I eat quite a bit of hemp in various forms. I put hemp seed on salad, on granola in the morning sometimes. I have hemp powder that I make shakes and smoothies with, have hemp waffles from time to time, we make killer vanilla hemp banana pancakes, put hemp seed on our vegan pizza, and I have hemp nut butter on sprouted grain toast sometimes too (like peanut butter, but green and hempy). There's also some hemp in Vega, which I consume a fair bit of. Oh yeah, and hemp bars a lot too. I'm pretty sure I have a hemp t-shirt, and we use hemp grocery bags. Is that a lot of hemp?

 

I think hemp is a great food - its nutritional properties are widely touted and it's sustainably grown and totally organic.

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How is Hemp Nut Butter? I was going to look for it and see how it tasted.

 

It's an acquired taste I think. Doesn't taste like peanut butter. Maybe what "broccoli butter" would taste like if there was such a thing. It's green, so it looks a bit funny on your toast, and it has a very veggie/healthy kind of taste to it. I didn't care for it too much when I first tried it, but after a few eatings, I grew to like it. It's a nice alternative to peanut butter and tahini. Give it a try, if you don't like it, well, at least it's good for you!

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So true. That's why I think it neat that my 6 year old son has already sampled and is savvy on almond butter, cashew butter, hemp butter and sesame butter.

 

As soft as the shelled hemp nuts are, I would suspect that one could easily make their own with a food processer, perhaps adding a bit of hemp oil or grape seed oil if initially "pasty" in texture. I might just try this sometime. I know that with the hemp nuts I purchase, the milk I make is pure white--whiter than soy. I don't think it would look as "green" as the commercial product I've bought in the past.

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How is Hemp Nut Butter? I was going to look for it and see how it tasted.

 

 

Not great, IMO. Also looks kind of 'poopy diaper' because of the color.

 

 

(But if Nutiva made it, it might taste better, since their hemp protein powder tastes better than other brands: more 'nutty' and less 'green.')

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That'd awesome, the problem is that hemp still ''too'' expensive, it could be a lot cheaper if people weren't afraid of hemp, the problem is that most of people don't really know the difference between hemp and marijuana, they think it's all the same, so we end up paying a fortune for something that should be cheap as wheat, or even cheaper.

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That'd awesome, the problem is that hemp still ''too'' expensive, it could be a lot cheaper if people weren't afraid of hemp, the problem is that most of people don't really know the difference between hemp and marijuana, they think it's all the same, so we end up paying a fortune for something that should be cheap as wheat, or even cheaper.

 

That's where we step in and get the demand up for it. Whenever people ask me how much soy I take in, I instead go on about the "better" protein staple foods that I eat, and hemp is normally among them.

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Buncha dang hippi's I tell ya...

 

I have at least a little hemp pretty much daily. Often I just eat the seeds plain by the spoonful or I'll throw some in with whatever I'm eating - esp. on salads. Of course there is lots of hemp in all Vega products & I also get more from cereals, waffles etc.

 

Like Odidnetne said, the more of a demand for hemp we create - the cheaper & more common it will be!

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Hemp is so expensive here in America, because we have to get it imported from Canada (Nutiva and Manitoba Harvest). We can not grow it here in America. We will have to have a huge demand here before they change the laws so we can grow hemp here in America. (Outlawed in 1938).

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Hemp is so expensive here in America, because we have to get it imported from Canada (Nutiva and Manitoba Harvest). We can not grow it here in America. We will have to have a huge demand here before they change the laws so we can grow hemp here in America. (Outlawed in 1938).

 

I wonder why..

 

---

 

Lucky me i'm moving to Amsterdam.. i hope Hemp is cheap over there....

 

is it?

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We can not grow it here in America.

 

The pendulum is once again swinging in the other direction:

 

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/464/north_dakota_first_state_legalize_hemp_production_licenses_available_in_january

 

Hemp will be the new soy in a matter of years, there's no doubt about that in my mind. And predictably, of course the disinformation/disparagement campaign will follow suit, this time not over phyto-estrogens and phytates but over the "narcotic" connection. Prices for hemp will fall though as it slowly gains public acceptance (5000 years of usage notwithstanding) and we will be treated to a marvelous array of new products as hemp production spreads to other states. Oh, and about that time we should be seeing a remake of "Reefer Madness" as well, lest anyone get any ideas about hemp paper, plastics, car parts, etc. like that Henry Ford nut.

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It isn't going to happen. The federal government won't let it go that far. As in the article, the law is there made by the state, but the federal government has to OK it first. Doubt it. Unless they get a great Hemp Lobby to sway the DEA.

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I'm more optimistic. I'm not willing to state that will see something along the lines of a U.S. Govt. backed "Hemp for Victory!" campaign like what occurred in the 1940s or a referendum passed where it's illegal for farmers in the U.S. to NOT grow hemp (late 1700s), but in time this nation will join the ranks of all other industrialized countries that cultivate hemp.

 

The rationale for disallowing the farming of hemp has much more to do with maintaining the status quo where industry is concerned. William Randolph Hearst and other venture capitalists with ties to pulp mill and oil industries were the ones responsible for making hemp illegal in 1938, after all.

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Whether the federal government lets it get far or not this time, the fact that a state has finally legalized hemp production is progress, in my opinion. More states will follow suit. Hopefully people will continue to demand hemp by way of their voices, their votes, and their consumer choices... so that the necessary change will happen.

 

I don't think I've ever heard it called "emp"

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Whether the federal government lets it get far or not this time, the fact that a state has finally legalized hemp production is progress, in my opinion. More states will follow suit. Hopefully people will continue to demand hemp by way of their voices, their votes, and their consumer choices... so that the necessary change will happen.

 

I don't think I've ever heard it called "emp"

 

If that state has a lot of farmland, making it cheaper would be great progress. I wish it was Pennsylvania, you could grow so much here, as opposed to wasting it on dairy farms.

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Whether the federal government lets it get far or not this time, the fact that a state has finally legalized hemp production is progress, in my opinion. More states will follow suit. Hopefully people will continue to demand hemp by way of their voices, their votes, and their consumer choices... so that the necessary change will happen.

 

I don't think I've ever heard it called "emp"

 

If that state has a lot of farmland, making it cheaper would be great progress. I wish it was Pennsylvania, you could grow so much here, as opposed to wasting it on dairy farms.

 

They're going to have to do something with all that unused farmland in a couple years, after all the vegans in Pennsylvania show all the other people how healthy and cool it is to be vegan, and the whole state quits consuming dairy. The land might as well get used for hemp, right?

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