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Nutty Hemp a Hot Food Trend
01.15.07|MSNBC|By Phil Lempert

One of the hottest food trends for 2007 may well have its origins dating back thousands of years. Take a look down the aisles … and it's all about hemp!
Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber and food. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp and in fact Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.

First thing to understand is that "hemp" is NOT "marijuana."

Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified as Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of different varieties, which is a member of the mulberry family. Industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).

Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. The hemp plant is tall and stalky and the marijuana plant is short, shrub-like, and has "buds". It's an annual plant that grows from a seed, and because of its quick growth (average of 4 months) it requires limited pesticides.

In Canada and the European Union, only varieties containing less than 0.3% THC in their flower portions are permitted as commercial crops. Hemp growing has been illegal in the United States since the early 1950s, but the importing of foods made from hemp seeds and oils is allowed. Before the seed is used as a food ingredient, the hull is usually removed, effectively removing all but the most microscopic amounts of THC. The shelled hempseeds used in food each typically contain less than 3 parts-per million (ppm) of THC. For example, if 20% of a food's ingredients are shelled hempseeds, and assuming a 2 ppm THC level, a human being would have to eat 50 lbs of the food in question to become intoxicated.

Thirty countries around the world permit the cultivation of industrial hemp and the subsequent use of hemp by-products in human food. Regulations governing acceptable thresholds for human ingestion vary quite considerably between these jurisdictions or are simply non-existent. For example, Canada's food safety regulator, Health Canada, currently permits foods to contain up to 10 ppm THC but is expected to revise this level to 2 ppm. In Switzerland, government policy mandates below a 20 ppm limit. In contrast, U.S., regulators prohibit any level of THC in food — an assessment based in large part upon a 1937 U.S. tax act on marijuana.

Why Foods from Hemp?

Hempseeds are actually nuts (31% of the nut is fat) with a nutty flavor similar to pine nuts and while the nuts are very small, they are big on nutrition, with up to 35% of the hemp nut being protein. Most of this protein is edestin, a highly digestible storage protein. Unusual for plant protein, hempseed protein contains all nine essential amino acids in a favorable ratio for human needs.

There are twenty different types of fatty acids that our body needs for optimum health. We can manufacture all but two (2) of these twenty - known as the Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs); OMEGA-6 Linoleic Acid (LA) and OMEGA-3 Linolenic Acid (LNA) the source of these two come from our foods nutrients. To be most effective, these two EFA’s need to be consumed in a balanced ratio; the World Health Organization recommended ratio is 4:1.

The hempseed is one of the most balanced sources of omega-3 and omega-6 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). Studies link many common ailments to an imbalance and deficiency of EFAs in the typical Western diet: too much omega-6 and not enough omega-3. Fish and fish oils are typically recommended because they provide the omega-3 derivatives of SDA, DHA, and EPA, but for some consumers the concern over the contamination of fish by mercury and other environmental toxins (which has led the FDA to warn pregnant women and nursing mothers to restrict their fish intake) hemp’s omega profile is a good alternative to fish. The seeds also provide other phytonutrients, including phytosterols and carotenes as well as Vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

Hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the "good" fats) and it is also rich in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk.

Since the early 1990s, shelled hempseeds have been used as a food ingredient in a wide variety of foodstuffs, including baked goods, snacks, breakfast cereals, beverages, frozen desserts, tofu, and milk substitute.

Let’s Taste Some Hemp!