FREE: 10 of my HOLIDAY HEMP RECIPES

The listing, 10 of my HOLIDAY HEMP RECIPES has ended.

Nutrition's top seed

This time next year a jar of hemp seed could be a respectable kitchen staple, nudging the rolled oats in your pantry cupboard - and giving chia and flax seeds some stiff competition in the health food stakes.

“As good foods go hemp seed is a rock star. A major benefit of hemp is that it’s a way of getting extra omega-3 fatty acids back into diets dominated by omega-6 fats, says Demmitt, a member of the DAA.

“One of the problems with a typical western diet is that it includes an over abundance of processed foods which tend to be high in omega 6 fats - but not enough omega-3 fats from foods like oily fish, walnuts and flax seed. But hemp seed provides another good source of omega-3 fats that’s very easy to add to the diet – and it’s also a sustainable plant source at a time when there are concerns about over-fishing,”
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In case you need reminding about the skewed ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in our diet it goes something like this. It’s not that omega-6 fats are bad for us - just that our modern food supply is so over supplied with them that it’s easy to eat too many of them. This can result in a ratio of 20 to one in favour of omega-6 fats, instead of the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio of four to one – an imbalance that’s been linked to a range of health problems including asthma and depression.

But what else makes hemp seed a standout, is that it’s also a rare food source of a fatty acid most of us have never heard of – GLA (short for gamma linolenic acid) that works as an anti-inflammatory, according to Demmitt. Emerging research suggests it may be useful for problems like eczema, allergies and rheumatoid arthritis.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/blogs/chew-on-this/nutritions-top-seed-20110704-1gyhr.html#ixzz2DVv5sthf