Day 19: 

Juice: Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad:
2 Apples
2 Stalks of Celery
1 Tablespoon of Cold-Pressed Hemp-Seed Oil

In honor of full disclosure...I did not make this juice. Ah. I know, I know...I made our dear old friend Apple/Celery juice, but I did not add any of the hemp-seed oil. I didn't have enough time to research it and see if I would actually use an entire bottle of the stuff.

 So, here is the research and you all can decide if you want to invest in hemp-seed oil.

Hemp-seed oil, as you may have guessed, comes from the hemp seed. It is actually pressed (juiced) from the seed.

Here is a link to a, very long and kind of boring video, that shows the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXMGpZj4Vdo
After the first few minutes you can shut it off. It's just kind of nice to get a taste.

Hemp seed is becoming much more common in grocery store in North America. It looks like it has grown in popularity along the growing awareness of essential fatty acids, which makes sense since hemp seed (and thus, hemp seed oil) provide a wonderful amount of fatty acids.

So, what are these essential fatty acids everyone keeps talking about?
Mainly the Omega's, like Omega-3 or Omega-6. They are reffered to as 'necessary' and 'essential' because "the body can' t make them -- you have to get them through food." (Source) These fatty acids are commonly found in fish oils (such as salmon, tuna, and halibut, other seafood including algae and krill) some plants, and nut oils. Hemp seed oil considered a nut oil.  

In 1999 U.S. National Institute of Health held a workshop to study theses essential oils and it "demonstrated the impressive benefits of a balanced omega-6/omega-3 ratio in our diet: reduced risk of athero-sclerosis, sudden cardiac death and certain types of cancers, decrease in the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, mood improvement in bipolar disorders and optimized development in infants." (Source). It also goes on to compare different nut seed oils, it says "hemp's main nutritional advantage over other seeds lies in the composition of its oil, i.e. its fatty acid profile, and in its protein which contains all of the essential amino acids in nutritionally significant amounts and in a desirable ratio."

So, not only could these fatty acids help with internal issues like cancer, heart disease, but they have shown to help with cognitive disorders like depression, bipolar disorder...did I also mention it is great for your hair. The essential oils stimulate hair growth and heath. It is often used as a hair treatment. Article: Why Hemp Seed Oil Is A Miraculous Hair Care Elixir

Hemp seed oil, much like Spirulina Powder, is probably a good thing to keep around the house and stir into different juices at your will. After all, if you are along for the ride, you'll be making a lot of juice over the next year or so.