Hemp Information, Pt II

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Hemp Information Part II

Hempseed is the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids.

Essential fatty acids govern growth, vitality and state of mind. LA and LNA are involved in transferring oxygen from the air in the lungs to every cell in the body. They play a part in holding oxygen in the cell membrane where it acts as a barrier to invading viruses and bacteria, neither of which can thrive in the presence of oxygen.

The bent shape of the essential fatty acids keeps them from dissolving into each other. They are slippery and will not clog arteries like the sticky straight-shaped saturated fats and the trans fatty acids in cooking oils and shortenings that are made by subjecting polyunsaturated oils like LA and LNA to high temperatures during the refining process.

LA and LNA possess a slightly negative charge and have a tendency to form very thin surface layers. This property is called surface activity, and it provides the power to carry substances like toxins to the surface of the skin, intestinal tract, kidneys, and lungs where they can be removed.

Hempseed can be ground into a paste similar to peanut butter but more delicate in flavor. Udo Erasmus, Ph.D., nutritionist, says: "Hemp butter puts peanut butter to shame in nutritional value."

Pioneers in the fields of biochemistry and human nutrition now believe cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and most cancers are really diseases of fatty degeneration caused by the continued over-consumption of saturated fats and refined vegetable oils that turn essential fatty acids into carcinogenic killers. One out of two Americans will die from the effects of CVD. One out of four Americans will die from cancer. Researchers believe cancers erupt when immune system response is weakened. And more Americans are succumbing to immune deficiency diseases than ever before. Promising studies are now under way using the essential oils to support the immune systems of HIV virus patients.

The complete protein in hempseed gives the body all the essential amino acids required to maintain health, and provides the necessary kinds and amounts of amino acids the body needs to make human serum albumin and serum globulins like the immune enhancing gamma globulin antibodies.

The body's ability to resist and recover form illness depends upon how rapidly it can produce massive amounts of antibodies to fend off the initial attack. If the globulin protein starting material is in short supply, the army of antibodies may be too small to prevent the symptoms of sickness from setting in.

The best way to insure the body has enough amino acid material to make the globulins is to eat foods high in globulin proteins. Hempseed protein is 65% globulin edestin plus quantities of albumin (present in all seeds) so its easily digestible protein is readily available in a form quite similar to that found in blood plasma.

Hempseed was used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away.

The energy of life is in the whole seed. Hempseed foods taste great!

Hempseed foods will insure we get enough essential fatty acids, to build strong bodies and immune systems, and to maintain health and vitality.

Of the 3 million plus edible plants that grow on Earth, no other single plant sources can compare with the nutritional value of hempseeds. Both the complete protein and the essential oils contained in hempseeds are in ideal ratios for human nutrition. Only soybeans contain a higher percentage of protein. However, the composition of the protein in hempseed ins unique in the vegetable kingdom. Sixty-five percent of the protein content in hempseed is in the form of globulin edestin, so that it can actually be used by the body in its raw state (unlike soybeans, which have to be cooked or sprouted). (The word edestin comes from the Greek "edestos," meaning edible.)

The exceptionally high edestin content of hempseed combined with albumin, another globular protein contained in all seeds, means the readily available protein in hempseed contains all the essential amino acids in ideal proportions to assure your body has the necessary building blocks to create proteins like disease-fighting immunoglobulins--antibodies whose job is to ward off infections before the symptoms of sickness set in.

Cannabis seed protein even allows a body with nutrition-blocking tuberculosis, or almost any other nutrition-blocking ailment, to get maximum nourishment.

Even more important for building a strong immune system, hempseeds are the highest source in the plant kingdom of essential fatty acids. These essential oils, linoleic and linolenic acids, are responsible for the luster in your skin, hair, eyes, and even your thought processes. They lubricate (clear) the arteries and are vital to the immune system.

These essential fatty acids were used by Dr. Joanna Budwig (nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 1979) to successfully treat "terminal" cancer patients, as well as those suffering from cardiovascular disease, glandular atrophy, gall stones, kidney degeneration, acne, dry skin, menstrual problems and immune deficiency.

This, as well as other research, prompted William Eidleman, MD, UCLA, and R. Lee Hamilton, Ed. D., Ph.D. Medical Researcher-Biochemist UCLA Emeritus, to speak out on behalf of "the life-giving values" of cannabis hemp. They state:

"These essential oils support the immune system and guard against viral and other insults to the immune system. Studies are in progress using the essential oils to support the immune systems of persons with the HIV virus. So far they have been extremely promising.

"What is the richest source of these essential oils? Yes, you guessed it, the seeds of the cannabis hemp plant...The insane prohibitions against the most valuable plant on Earth, cannabis hemp, must falter in the face of public demand...The promise of super health and the possibility of feeding the world is at our fingertips, all with just this one amazing plant: cannabis hemp."

Sprouted hempseeds make milk, just as soybeans do. Alan "Birdseed" Brady of Santa Cruz, California and Abba Das of Colorado use this milk to make a delicious and nutritious ice cream in many flavors that actually lowers cholesterol levels.

A little history:

Benjamin Franklin started one of America's first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify the need for paper and books from England.

Botanically, hemp is a member of the most advanced plant family on Earth. It is a dioecious (having male and female and sometimes hermaphroditic--male and female on the same plant), woody, herbaceous annual that uses the sun more efficiently than virtually any other plant on our planet, reaching a robust 12 to 20 feet or more in one short growing season. It can be grown in virtually any climate or soil condition on Earth, even marginal ones.

More? Get your copy of Jack Herer's book The Emperor Wears No Clothes today.

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where is our hard-earned dollar going?? in this day of complex chains of cause and effect, it's good to know there's a simple way to still salvage what's left of our environment: we can spend our dollar on organically-grown foods and hemp, flax, and organic cotton clothing, footwear, and home products. in so doing, we effectively and efficiently stop the plundering of our environment. it's our way of telling chemical companies and big-name conventional and synthetic clothing manufacturers and farmers that unsustainable practices have got to stop and stop now. in so doing, we're also protecting our health as well as that of our children, of farm workers and of the environment. every dollar counts. every dollar spent on chemically-treated and pesticide- and fertilizer-grown products enriches the coffers of multinational corporations and keeps them going. every organic underwear counts. every organic banana counts. every dollar counts. it counts towards a future that will not be there if we as humanity keep going as we have.

The following two articles are excerpted from Hemp Horizons by John W. Roulac. This inspiring and informative book is available in the Rawganique Bookstore. The first excerpt involves a very satisfying dream of what the future with hemp can be; the second excerpt zeroes in on the oft-asked question: what is the difference between hemp and marijuana?

The hemp house of the very near future...

While the following scenario may read like a futuristic fantasy, today's projections often foretell tomorrow's reality. After all, a hundred years ago, it would have seemed fanciful to think that so many household products one day would be made from wood composites and synthetic petroleum, as they now are.

So imagine that one day within the next ten years, you wake up in a house whose walls, roof, flooring, insulation, and paint are derived from hemp. You feel great after sleeping on your hemp-stuffed mattress, covered with soft linens spun from hemp fiber. Your feet sink into the hemp carpeting as you get out of bed and open the hemp drapes. It's a beautiful morning.

You jump into the shower, where you use soap, shampoo, and hair conditioner made from hemp. You step out onto the hemp bath mat, drying yourself with a super-absorbent hemp towel. You clean your ears with H-Tips (better than the old cotton swaps), and apply hemp oil location, moisturizer, and lip balm. You make a mental note to buy some more hemp toilet paper, recalling how it wasn't too long ago that we were still cutting down centuries-old trees just to flush them away.

Opening your closet, you dress in hemp jeans, shirt, and jacket; put on hemp socks and shoes; tie the hemp laces; and grab your hemp wallet, which holds checks and currency printed on hemp paper.

You're hungry, so you walk into the kitchen with its hemp-based linoleum floor. You make some what-and-hemp-flour toast (or Raw Hemp-Banana Ice Cream), and pour glass of fresh, organic hemp milk. After eating, you make a salad with hemp-oil dressing to take to work. Then you wash your dishes, suing hemp-oil dish soap and a hemp pot-scrubber, and put the dishes away in a cabinet built of hemp fiberboard. Sitting down on the hemp-framed and upholstered couch, you glance at a newspaper printed with hemp ink on hemp recycled paper, and learn that the hemp industry is now the largest agribusiness and the major job provider in your state.

You turn on the stereo, which sits on a hemp fiberboard cabinet, and listen as music vibrates from speakers also made from hemp fiberboard. They contain specialty hemp paper for the speaker cones and are covered with black hempen cloth.

Leaving the house for work, you open the door of your car, built from strong, lightweight composites that include hemp. Relaxing into the driver's seat, luxuriously upholstered with hemp textiles, you rest your feet on floor mats that look like rubber but are made from hemp. As you drive to your job at the new hemp-fiber processing facility, you pass farmers harvesting some of the locally grown hemp that is revitalizing your community's rural economy.

The difference between hemp and marijuana

I have had the chance to develop many good friendships with advocates of industrial hemp around the world, and it seems that members of the media always call three or four of us when doing a piece. At these opportunities, it seems we hemp advocates always share our own particular favorite story or explanation.

Joseph W. Hickey, Sr. executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, likes to say: "Calling hemp and marijuana the same thing is like calling a rottweiler a poodle. They may both be dogs, but they just aren't the same."

Dr. William M. Pierce Jr., of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky, explains:

It is absurd, in practical terms, to consider industrial hemp useful as a drug....While a person could choose to use hemp in this way, it is unlikely that he or she would repeat the behavior, due to the unpleasant side effects....It is possible to get drunk on "non-alcohol" beer, but no one does it. The amount necessary is far too great. Nutmeg contains a psychoactive substance that could be abused, but no one does it (too many side effects). In the areas that ban the sale of alcoholic beverages, it is easy to find mouthwashes that are 40 to 45 proof, and yet no one abuses them. In summary, the use of industrial hemp as a psychoactive substance is extremely unlikely, due to the large doses required and the side effects that would be encountered.

For those seeking a definitive comparison of hemp and marijuana, consider the following excerpt from the Canadian government's "Fact Sheet on Regulations for the Commercial Cultivation of Industrial Hemp""

Hemp usually refers to varieties of the Cannabis sativa L. plant that have a low content of delta-9 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and that are generally cultivated for fiber. Industrial hemp should not be confused with varieties of Cannabis with a high content of THC, which are referred to as marijuana.

While the leaves of hemp and marijuana look the same, one can easily tell from a distance that hemp is different from marijuana. Stands of fiber hemp are planted densely, at a rate of three to five hundred plants per square meter, with the majority of each plant comprised of thin stalks with no branches and relatively few leaves. In contrast, marijuana is planted one to two plants per square meter and is quite bushy, with lots of wide branching to promote flowers and buds. The distinction in the public mind between industrial hemp and psychoactive marijuana is key to the revival of a both proven and promising natural resource.

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