"Hemp Hearts", what's the (heh)...Straight Dope on them?

Factual Questions
1

“Hemp Hearts”, what’s the (heh)…Straight Dope on them?

We have an herbal/natural products pharmacy that opened up right next door to us, they carry a whole line of hippie-friendly granola crap type stuff, as well as herbal vitamins and supplements, natural, raw unprocessed honey, and other such stuff

I’m a big fan of the local raw unprocessed honey and the chewy fruit-and-granola energy bars, all the other stuff, meh, too hippie-granola-loving for this cynical technician

one of the salesladies, a nice, grandmotherly type who claims to be a herbalist, has been trying to get me to try some “hemp hearts” as a sort of cure-all, she gave me some literature to read, and as I was reading the promotional material, my “Snake-Oil-Detector” was in overdrive, you name it, they claim HH cures it, be it obesity, energy levels, male-pattern-baldness, cholesterol level, it makes you irresistible to the opposite sex, suppresses appetite, and reverses the aging process, changes the oil in your car, filters SPAM from your e-mail, and improves your credit rating… (I’m obviously taking some creative license here, but the paperwork does seem to make rather…grandiose claims about the efficacy of HH)

first off, isn’t Hemp a controlled substance, being that marijuana is a form of hemp, secondly, do HH contain the active ingredients of marijuana?

is this stuff legal to sell, and more to the point, does it actually do any of the things they claim it does?

I don’t want to ingest any controlled substances, as I hate drugs and the drug culture, and the beneficial claims this product is making seem far, far too good to be true…

So, what’s the Straight Dope here, are HH legal, do they work, or is it another over-hyped “miracle cure” that actually does nothing

the cynic in me says “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS”

2

Hemp Hearts are shelled hemp seeds, according to my Google-fu. Hemp seeds are good for you, have lots of complete protein, contain Omega-3 fatty acids and other good stuff.

Since hemp seeds, as well as hemp fibers, contain no psychoactive ingredients it is legal to possess, sell, eat and wear products made from hemp. Growing hemp for fiber or seed production is another matter in the US and not within the scope of this question.

Hemp seed is not a miracle cure all, but it is a remarkably healthy food and well worth incorporating into your diet. The downcheck, in my opinion, is that hemp seed tastes like moldy ass on its own and needs careful handling to mask the taste.

3

For any plant seed the term heart means the outside is removed. The word heart is also used for the fleshy edible parts of plants like green leafy artichoke, not the rhizomes of jerusalem artichoke.

4

I frequently buy hemp seed oil from Whole Foods (it is an excellent source of Omega 3’s, as previously noted), and find it to have a tasty, nutty flavor. I like to add it to protein shakes.

5

WHEE!

Medicine of unproven worth and a chance to flunk a drug test.
Can’t beat that!

6

Being that hemp doesn’t contain THC, it won’t cause you to flunk a drug test (I am randomly tested as a condition of my profession, so I wouldn’t be using hemp if it posed a risk of a false positive)

7

It might just be my taste buds, but I can’t dig the taste of the seeds. Perhaps the oil is milder and might be okay but so far everything I’ve tried that incorporates hemp seed has a distinctly musty taste that bugs me. I eat it anyway because it’s good for me, but it’s not the taste sensation of my dreams. I did get some free samples of a hemp seed energy bar thingy that came attached to my Dr. Bronner’s soap and those were pretty good, but I didn’t note the brand so I have no idea how to get them again. If anyone knows I’d appreciate a link!

8

Okay, so the general consensus so far is that hemp hearts won’t suddenly turn me into Cheech Marin or Tommy Chong, there’s no psychoactive compounds (THC) and they do contain beneficial nutrients, but their effectiveness may be limited

just what I figured

I did get a small sample of HH, and while they don’t taste particularly bad, they really don’t have much of a taste at all, they’re actually rather bland

I do like what i’ve read about their ability to trigger the “I’m Full” response, as I could stand to lose some weight, so if i increase my physical activity level and use HH to prevent “snacking” it should help, certainly couldn’t hurt…

oh, and Dave’s not here, man :wink:

9

Flax seeds have many of the same beneficial properties as claimed for hemp seeds. Does anyone know if there are significant differences between the two? Flax seeds are readily available, and I already have developed a few culinary uses for them, so if the benefits for hemp are not greater than for flax I won’t even bother trying them out.

10

Learn something new everyday. I don’t think I ever would have guessed that anything having to do with marijuana would trigger an “I’m full” feeling.

11

As Bill Door said- Pretty much Flax will give you everthing Hemp will (besides the Narcs having a file on you :stuck_out_tongue: ) at a much lower price.

And yes, flax is good for you, but no miracle food. Try some Orowheat bread with added flax- very tasty and you won’t know you’re even eating flax.

12

Hemp seeds are a common ingredient in pet food formulated for birds and rodents. They seem to like it.

13

As many of us in this part of the world have discovered, the whole “munchies” effect associated with cannabis has a lot more to do with badly cured ditch weed than with high end, scientifically grown, properly cured, well genetically engineered modern chronic. It’s been donkey’s years since I’ve had that overwhelming crampy hunger in reaction to recreational use. The good stuff hits the head, not the belly. :wink:

Bill Door, I did some checking around (didn’t save the links, though, sorry!) and it looks like hemp seed does have some amino acids not found in flax and some of the aminos appear in greater amounts in hemp than flax. Seems to me that both of them together would be a good move. Heck, the fiber alone justifies adding seed products; a busy colon is a healthy colon!

14

ORLY? :cool:

Where could one go to find out more information on the subject?

15

I can verify this effect, as I tried an experiment this morning…

Normally I do not eat breakfast, I’m in too much of a hurry to get to work, today however, I put the reccomended four tablespoons of HH in a small cup of Stonyfield (heh…I just realized that, Stonyfield, inadvertent pun…) Organic Yogurt (strawberry fruit on the bottom), it was the normal sized individual serving cup, I ate “breakfast” at around 9:30 AM

after I had eaten half of the “seeded” yogurt, I had to force myself to finish the rest, and I was not hungry until 4 PM, I could barely finish my cup of corn chowder I got for lunch…

normally, I eat lunch around noonish, I’m generally hungry by 11 AM, but I ignore the hunger pangs until I really can’t

I’m now completely full and don’t think I’ll eat dinner tonight, if I do eat anything, it’ll likely be something small

apparently the appetite-reducing aspect of HH does work…

16

not automatically true. Hemp is just sativa with a low THC content - not necessarily zero.

"Low THC Cannabis sativa hemp that contains less than .3% (w/w) THC became legal to grow in Canada in March, 1998. THC and the other cannabinoids are found in food and other products made from fiber hemp seed. According to Canada’s national health department, Health Canada, “In theory the ripened seeds of Cannabis contain no detectable quantity of THC. However, because of the nature of the material it is almost impossible to obtain the seeds free from extraneous THC in the form of residues arising from other parts of the plant which are in close proximity to the seeds. Although it is required for the seeds to be cleaned before any subsequent use, the resinous nature of some of the material makes complete cleaning extremely difficult.”

and

"Hemp use could compromise drug testing. In his book, “Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill,” Udo Erasmus warns that people whose jobs require mandatory drug screening should avoid the use of hemp products, since THC residues in hemp products can show up in urine tests. 7. THC-positive urine tests from hemp product use were also reported in the August 1997 Journal of Analytical Toxicology. 8. For drug-testing reasons, the U.S. Air Force, the Air Force National Guard, the New York Police Dept., and the U.S. Coast Guard have banned the use of hemp foods and health supplements by their personnel. "

from http://www.drugwatch.org/Cannabis%20Hemp%20THC.htm

17

I like the flax seed in my bread, and don’t buy it for the Omega 3. It’s an added bonus.

18

SRSLY! :stuck_out_tongue:

Y’wanna scare yourself and/or get all blinded with science? Google “weed lowryder” and take the first hit–prepare to be mindblown…

And that’s just a curiousity! There are some scary and wicked determined people improving the breed these days…