I’m looking at my diet as a whole, and one of the things I want to incorporate is more essential fatty acids. I think that’s the culprit behind my dry skin and hair. I was looking for a good replacement for those granola bars you get from the supermarket–they’re basically just candy. Well, I discovered that a wonderful, little-known source of essential fatty acids is hemp.

Surprised? No, I’m not going all 60s retro psychedelic hippie on you; hemp seed has a lot of nutritional benefits. Do you know hemp seed oil is actually better for you than flax seed oil? Yeah, that one caught me by surprise too.

In terms of skin care, essential fatty acids are present in the makeup of skin and are needed to make more skin. They play multiple roles. Studies have shown that the fatty acids can help to manage acne as well as conditions like psoriasis. Here are a few facts I discovered:

• hemp seed oil has more Omega-3 fatty acids than flax seed oil.

• hemp seed oil does not have a fishy taste or odor.

• hemp seed oil is rich in natural vitamin E and does not require additional supplementation of vitamin E as fish oil does (less capsules=$$)

• Fish oil has potential contamination with mercury, dioxins, and PCBs.

• Flax seed oil is controversial as a supplement in women that have estrogen dominant conditions such as breast cancer, fibroids, endometriosis, etc. because it contains chemicals that act as phytoestrogens whereas hemp contains no such phytoestrogens.

It’s pretty easy to add hemp to your diet. You can buy hemp protein powder and add it to smoothies. There’s also hemp nut butter, and of course you can add either to various recipes. Here’s a few recipes–no charge

Hemp Bars (makes 7 bars)

• 7 Tbsp Peanut Butter
• 50g Seasame Seeds
• 130g Spelt Flakes
• 210g hemp Protein (30g in each bar)
• 1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses
• Mix it all together and divide into 7, refrigerate.

Apple hemp Muffins(makes a dozen)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 rounded tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp frozen, thawed apple juice concentrate
• 2/3 cup buttermilk(or non-dairy milk)
• 2 tbsp oat bran
• 2 small Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1/3 cup Shelled hemp Seed

Preheat oven to 350C. Grease 12 standard size muffin-pan cups.Mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and salt. Mix together eggs, apple juice and milk. Stir flour mixture and oat bran into egg mixture until dry ingredients are just moistened. Do not overmix. Gently stir in chopped apples and Shelled hemp Seed. Spoon batter into prepared pan, filling cups 2/3 full. Garnish each muffin with an apple slice,sprinkle with shelled hemp seed. Bake muffins 25 minutes.

Enjoy!