Hemp oil is obtained by pressing hemp seeds and does not contain any significant amounts of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It has a wide variety of uses in cooking and contains all the essential fatty acids that are important for good health.
General information:
From Wikipedia: “Hemp oil or hempseed oil is obtained by pressing hemp seeds. Cold pressed, unrefined hemp oil is dark to clear light green in color, with a nutty flavor. The darker the color, the grassier the flavor. It should not be confused with hash oil, a tetrahydrocannabinol-containing oil made from the Cannabis flower, hailed by some for its medicinal qualities.”
Description
“Refined hempseed oil is clear and colorless, with little flavor and lacks natural vitamins and antioxidants. Refined hempseed oil is primarily used in body care products. Industrial hempseed oil is used in lubricants, paints, inks, fuel, and plastics. Hempseed oil has found some limited use in the production of soaps, shampoos and detergents. The oil is of high nutritional value because of its 3:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids, which matches the balance required by the human body. It has also received attention in recent years as a possible feedstock for the large-scale production of biodiesel. There are a number of organizations that promote the production and use of hempseed oil.”
Uses:
- Cooking: “Thanks to its nutty flavor, hemp oil is used primarily as a cooking oil in the preparation of salads, dressings, sauces, marinades, and sandwich spreads. Since it has a relatively low smoke point of about 165 °C, it shouldn’t be used to fry or deep-fry foods. At such high temperatures, the fatty acids would degrade and as such change the taste of the oil. However, it is fine to use hemp oil to steam foods.*”
- Cosmetics and medicine: “Hemp oil is used in the cosmetics industry to manufacture a wide range of products such as massage oils, ointments, creams, soaps, and shampoos. In the area of medicine, it is used to treat ear, nose, and throat infections as well as inflammatory skin conditions in dermatology.*” Hemp oil is also used as a technical oil in the industrial sector, but it is not yet used as a biofuel (as of August 2016).
Nutrition and comparison to other oils:
“About 30–35% of the weight of hempseed is an edible oil that contains about 80% as essential fatty acids (EFAs); i.e., linoleic acid, omega-6 (LA, 55%), alpha-linolenic acid, omega-3 (ALA, 22%), in addition to gamma-linolenic acid, omega-6 (GLA, 1–4%) and stearidonic acid, omega-3 (SDA, 0–2%).
The proportions of linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) in one tablespoon per day (15 ml) of hempseed oil easily provides human daily requirements for EFAs. Advocates of hempseed oil hold that unlike flaxseed oil, hempseed oil can be used continuously without developing a deficiency or other imbalance of EFAs. This has supposedly been demonstrated in a small clinical study of 14 people, where the daily ingestion of flaxseed oil "resulted in a higher proportion of ALA" in serum cholesteryl esters and triglycerides as compared with the ingestion of hempseed oil. However, the hempseed oil "resulted in higher proportions of both LA and gamma-linolenic acid" as compared with the flaxseed oil ingestion, and the conclusion talks of "only minor effects on concentrations of fasting serum total or lipoprotein lipid".
In common with other oils, hempseed oil provides 9 kcal/g. Compared with other culinary oils it is low in saturated fatty acids. ...”
Storage:
“If hemp oil is stored in an air-tight container, it will keep for at least 60 weeks.*”
Other Uses: wood finish
“Hemp oil is a "drying oil", as it can polymerize into a solid form. Due to its polymer-forming properties, hemp oil is used on its own or blended with other oils, resins, and solvents as an impregnator and varnish in wood finishing, as a pigment binder in oil paints, and as a plasticizer and hardener in putty. It has uses similar to linseed oil and characteristics similar to tung oil.”
Note (italics): * = Translation from a German Wikipedia entry.
Nutrient tables
The complete nutritional information, coverage of the daily requirement and comparison values with other ingredients can be found in the following nutrient tables.
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Nutritional Information
|
per 100g |
2000 kcal The numbers show the percent of the recommended daily value for a person who consumes 2000 cal per day. This number is for one serving of the recipe. A person normally eats multiple times a day and consumes additional nutrients. You can get all of the nutrients you need over a longer period of time and in this way ensure a healthy balance. |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 898 kcal 3'758 kJ | 44.9% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 2000kcal |
| Fat/Lipids | 100 g | 142.6% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 70g |
| Saturated Fats | 11 g | 53.5% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 20g |
| Carbohydrates (inc.dietary fiber) | 0 g | 0.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 270g |
| Sugars | 0 g | 0.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 90g |
| Fiber | 0 g | 0.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 25g |
| Protein/Albumin | 0 g | 0.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 50g |
| Cooking Salt (Na:1.0 mg) | 2.5 mg | 0.1% Recommended daily allowance according to the GDA: 2.4g |
| Essential micronutrients with the highest proportions | per 100g | 2000 kcal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fat | Alpha-Linolenic acid; ALA; 18:3 omega-3 | 20 g | 980.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the CH-EDI-Verordnung: 2.0 g |
| Fat | Linoleic acid; LA; 18:2 omega-6 | 54 g | 543.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the CH-EDI-Verordnung: 10 g |
| Vit | Vitamin E, as a-TEs | 41 mg | 345.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 12 mg |
| Min | Iron, Fe | 1.0 mg | 7.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 14 mg |
| Min | Zinc, Zn | 0.10 mg | 1.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 10 mg |
| Elem | Calcium, Ca | 0.10 mg | < 0.1% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 800 mg |
| Sodium, Na | 1.0 mg | < 0.1% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 800 mg | |
Detailed micronutrients and daily requirement coverage per 100g
Explanations of nutrient tables in general
The majority of the nutritional information comes from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture). This means that the information for natural products is often incomplete or only given within broader categories, whereas in most cases products made from these have more complete information displayed.
If we take flaxseed, for example, the important essential amino acid ALA (omega-3) is only included in an overarching category whereas for flaxseed oil ALA is listed specifically. In time, we will be able to change this, but it will require a lot of work. An “i” appears behind ingredients that have been adjusted and an explanation appears when you hover over this symbol.
For Erb Muesli, the original calculations resulted in 48 % of the daily requirement of ALA — but with the correction, we see that the muesli actually covers >100 % of the necessary recommendation for the omega-3 fatty acid ALA. Our goal is to eventually be able to compare the nutritional value of our recipes with those that are used in conventional western lifestyles.
| Essential fatty acids | per 100g |
2000 kcal The numbers show the percent of the recommended daily value for a person who consumes 2000 cal per day. This number is for one serving of the recipe. A person normally eats multiple times a day and consumes additional nutrients. You can get all of the nutrients you need over a longer period of time and in this way ensure a healthy balance. |
|---|---|---|
| Alpha-Linolenic acid; ALA; 18:3 omega-3 | 20 g | 980.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the CH-EDI-Verordnung: 2.0 g |
| Linoleic acid; LA; 18:2 omega-6 | 54 g | 543.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the CH-EDI-Verordnung: 10 g |
| Vitamins | per 100g |
2000 kcal The numbers show the percent of the recommended daily value for a person who consumes 2000 cal per day. This number is for one serving of the recipe. A person normally eats multiple times a day and consumes additional nutrients. You can get all of the nutrients you need over a longer period of time and in this way ensure a healthy balance. |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamin E, as a-TEs | 41 mg | 345.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 12 mg |
| Essential macroelements (macronutrients) | per 100g |
2000 kcal The numbers show the percent of the recommended daily value for a person who consumes 2000 cal per day. This number is for one serving of the recipe. A person normally eats multiple times a day and consumes additional nutrients. You can get all of the nutrients you need over a longer period of time and in this way ensure a healthy balance. |
|---|---|---|
| Calcium, Ca | 0.10 mg | < 0.1% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 800 mg |
| Sodium, Na | 1.0 mg | < 0.1% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 800 mg |
| Essential trace elements (micronutrients) | per 100g |
2000 kcal The numbers show the percent of the recommended daily value for a person who consumes 2000 cal per day. This number is for one serving of the recipe. A person normally eats multiple times a day and consumes additional nutrients. You can get all of the nutrients you need over a longer period of time and in this way ensure a healthy balance. |
|---|---|---|
| Iron, Fe | 1.0 mg | 7.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 14 mg |
| Zinc, Zn | 0.10 mg | 1.0% Recommended daily allowance according to the EU: LMIV-2011: 10 mg |
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