Did You Know? (by Kenex ltd.)

Hempseed Hempseed is high in protein containing about 30% oil - best known for its good balance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 EFA's as well as GLA. Hempseed is a nutritious source of vitamins and minerals including Beta Carotene, vitamins A, C and E. Hempseeds do not have any cholesterol. Hempseed was a staple food of the ancients, centuries ago. It has been reported that Buda himself ate the delicious hempseed. Hempseeds may be toasted and flavoured with salt, herbs or spices for a nutritious snack. EFA's- Essential Fatty Acids About 20 fatty acids are used by the human body to maintain normal function. Your body can synthesize all but two, Omega-3 and Omega-6, which are essential for good health and must be obtained in proper balance from foods or supplements. "The best balance of which is hemp oil with three times as much W6 (Omega-6) as W3 (Omega-3). There is a wide gap in which there are no natural oils" - Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill - Udo Erasmus. How are you getting your EFA's Hempseeds and hemp nuts are delicious foods or snacks and a good source for EFA's eliminating the need for other nutritional supplements. Hemp oil, flax oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, and black current oil all contain EFA's which can be taken as a supplement. Evening primrose, borage and black current are good sources of GLA but are incomplete in Omega-3 and Omega-6. Flax has a 2 to 1 ration of Omega-3 to Omega-6 but no GLA. "Hempseed oil can be used over the long term to maintain a healthy EFA balance without leading to either EFA deficiency or imbalance. This is because it contains W6 and W3 - EFA's in a better long-term balance: 3 to 1. in addition, it contains almost 2% GLA, the W6 derivative that is a key active ingredient in evening primrose and borage oils." - Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill - Udo Erasmus "Our Smartest move would be to improve diets and life style, but supplementation with GLA is better than doing nothing" - Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill - Udo Erasmus All Natural Product No herbicides or pesticides are used in the growing or production of hempseed. Hemp Nuts Modern technology has made it possible to remove the outer shell (hull) of the hempseed. This dehulling produces the hemp nuts (the meat of the hempseed) with no pesky hulls that may cling between your teeth. The low temperature process does not alter the nutritional value of the hemp nuts. These nuts are particularly nice for those who wear dentures or don't like the crunchy toasted whole hempseed. How to Use Hulled Seeds Straight from the container Sprinkle plain or lightly toasted on salads, pasta, cereals, fruit, for baking bread, pastry Finish baking chicken or fish with coating of plain hemp nuts Grind them into butter - sandwiches, hummus, tahini, salad dressing, dips, milk shake flavouring

Hemp probably evolved in central Asia, where it became the first fiber plant to be cultivated. At this nascent stage of civilization, hemp was one of the threads that held communities together. Humans had previously tamed crops for food, but hemp gave them material readily available for the crafts they had begun to master. The masses relied on hemp for all their clothing: only the wealthy could afford the luxury of silk. An abundance of evidence from burial pits and other sites throughout China demonstrates the continuous cultivation of Asian hemp from prehistoric times. A twelve thousand-year-old Neolithic site unearthed at Yuan-shan included remains of coarse sandy pottery with hempen cord marks covering the surface, along with an incised rod-shaped stone beater used to pound hemp. The oldest pharmacopoeia in existence, the Pen Ts’ao Ching, was compiled in the first or second century BCE from more ancient fragments attributed to the legendary emperor Shen Nung. This book mentions that hemp "grows along the rivers and valleys at T’ai-shan, but is now common everywhere".

The Chinese may have been the first people to make use of hemp’s fiber, but it was in India that the more lofty qualities of the plant were first fully appreciated. Indian mythology assays that hemp was present with Shiva at the beginning of the world. Hemp was not always used in a religious setting. Warriors were know to drink bhang to calm their nerves before battle, and, as everywhere else, the plant was cultivated, hemp was used to cure a wide range of ills.

By the third millennium BCE, the true hemp plant was known in Egypt, where the fibers were used for rope. The ancient Egyptian word for hemp occurs in the Pyramid Texts in connection with rope making. Pieces of hempen material were found in the tomb of the pharaoh Akhenaten, and pollen on the mummy of Ramses II has been identified as cannabis. Hemp was used in the construction of the pyramids, not only to pull blocks of limestone, but also in quarries, where the dried fiber was pounded into cracks in the rock, then wetted. As the fiber swelled, the rock broke.

The Scythians carried hemp from Asia through Greece and Russia in to Europe, and later Arabs brought hemp from Africa into Spain and other ports of entry on the Mediterranean Sea. Thanks to their love of the nutritious seed, birds also did their unwitting part to spread hemp’s global cultivation. The Roman empire consumed great quantities of hemp fiber, much of which was imported from the Babylonian city of Sura. Cannabis was not a major crop in early Italy, but the seed was a common food. Carbonized hemp seeds were found in the ruins of Pompeii, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The Romans helped spread hemp through Europe, although the plant was well known there already. The Vikings relied on hemp as rope, sailcloth, caulking, fish line and nets on their daring voyages.