What's all the fuss about hemp?

Ok, when I mention the word hemp, I bet you think of marijuana, hippy flower chicks and a psychedelic pattern. yep, it is all that and more....BUT take a look in your local health food shop and you will see hemp is popping up everywhere, sold as seeds, milks, oils and protein powder drinks.  

Last week I thought I might see what all the fuss is about so I hot footed on down to the James St health food store and bought some hemp seeds to add to my super healthy cookie batch. They are quite expensive at around $72 a kilo so perhaps not something you would be adding to your daily diet (unless you are super rich of course!)

Seeds of the plant, cannabis sativa, supposedly contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life. Apparently no other single plant source has the essential amino acids in such an easily digestible form, nor has the essential fatty acids in as perfect a ratio to meet human nutritional needs.  Big wrap isn't it!

 

Now I know what all of you are thinking.."Does it make you high?", well no, no it doesn't. Hemp is a legal cousin of cannabis, which contains only minute amounts of the drug ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol or THC for short. Typically, hemp contains below 0.3% THC, (while cannabis grown for recreational use can contain anywhere from 2% to over 20%) which isn't enough for any physical or psychological effects.

Hemp seeds can be eaten raw, ground into a meal, sprouted, made into hemp milk, prepared as tea, and used in baking. The fresh leaves can also be consumed in salads. As I mentioned I added them to my 'nothing but healthy biscuits' along with some chia seeds and it gave the biscuits a lovely nutty, soft textured taste.  Even the girls loved them!

 

So, even though hemp seeds have been around for century's and is very environmentally friendly due to it requiring few pesticides and no herbicides, it is nice to have the options of adding these 'superfoods' to our diets.

 

Have you tried hemp yet?  Do you think it is something you would like to try?