Hemp Seed Oil: The Perfectly Balanced Fat for Weight Loss

July 17, 2018
Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS

Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS

Award-winning nutritionist and New York Times bestselling author.

Eating enough of the right kinds of fat, like hemp seed oil, is vitally important to shift your metabolism into fat-burning mode, nourish your cell membranes, and supercharge your energy.

When it comes to how dietary fat influences body fat, there are volumes of half-truths and misunderstandings that have been damaging the health and waistlines of innocent people for decades! It’s shocking to me how many people still espouse the myth that eating fat makes you fat – despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

The latest research makes it crystal clear that it’s not fat that makes us fat; refined sugars and toxicity are the culprits. Low fat, high carbohydrate diets have led millions to an early grave with diabetes, heart disease, and so much more, yet many health experts still cling to these misinformed health-damaging recommendations.

The truth is, there isn’t a single cell in your body that can be made without fat. Fats are what make up the cell membrane that encases each and every one of your cells. Your body needs fat for hormone production, cell messaging, and keeping inflammation at bay.

Fats are crucial to the functioning of your heart, brain, and nervous system. Getting in the right fats in the right ratio ignites your fat-burning metabolism to shed unwanted pounds, and there is no better-balanced source for these fats than hemp seed oil, featured in my new Radical Metabolism plan.

Your Body Was Built to Run on Healthy Fat – Not Sugar!

Your body is amazing in its ability to run on different types of fuel. It can take virtually anything you eat and, given the right conditions, turn it into fuel for your body and give you energy. But some fuels make your metabolism more sluggish, namely sugar. Today’s high carb, high sugar diets have so many people stuck in glucose-burning mode because of its constant supply. Like an unused muscle, our more efficient fat-burning engines have weakened, stalled, and in some cases, completely shut down.

A sugar-fueled metabolism creates a number of problems. It causes your blood sugar (glucose) and insulin levels to spike and leads to more sugar and carb cravings, overeating, and increased storage of body fat – especially belly fat. When that belly fat congregates around organs it produces more inflammation and insulin resistance than the fat under your skin does.

Burning glucose instead of fat generates more free radicals in your body, which leads to increased oxidative damage and inflammation. All that excess sugar circulating is also food for unwanted guests, and leads to Candida overgrowth, parasites, and a messy microbiome, which means more weight gain and less energy.

The best thing you can do to turn your sluggish metabolism into a radical one is to shift your body from sugar-burning into fat-burning mode. You can’t do this if you’re skimping on dietary fats – you need good quality fats to ignite your fat-burning metabolism.

You can add nourishing hemp seeds to your salads and vegetables, and create a healthy balance of fats in your diet. While supplying your body with these nourishing “skinny” fats, you must also reduce your sugar consumption, and carbohydrates that convert to sugar in your body.

A fat-burning metabolism is more efficient. It stabilizes your blood sugar and insulin levels, cuts cravings, melts off body fat, starves unwanted guests and even cancer cells, and quells inflammation. But, it’s important to choose the right fats, like hempseed oil, to prevent inflammation from triggering weight loss resistance.

Chronic Inflammation Blocks a Skinny Metabolism

As we search for underlying root causes to what ails us, many of us are told inflammation is the source of many ills. And while it’s true that chronic inflammation leads to weight gain as well as numerous illnesses, in and of itself it’s not the root cause. You have to dig deeper into what’s causing the inflammation, and one of the underlying causes of inflammation is a deficiency or imbalance in your essential fatty acids. Hemp seed oil and hemp hearts have the perfect balance of fats and help quell inflammation.

It’s important to realize inflammation itself isn’t a bad thing – it only causes damage when it becomes chronic or rages out of control. Inflammation is actually your body’s way of protecting itself; without it, you wouldn’t heal from a cut, fight off a cold, or mend a broken leg, for example. It’s when your body stays inflamed for a longer period of time that you can become quite ill.

Chronic inflammation means your immune system is staying activated, and this creates a cascade of unwanted effects in your body, including elevated insulin. Inflammation wreaks havoc on your chemical signaling and puts your body under stress, so it starts accumulating fat reserves. This leads to the vicious cycle where higher inflammation leads to more fat cells, and more fat cells lead to higher inflammation. Hello muffin top and goodbye energy!

You can break the cycle by balancing your essential fat intake in the right ratio. Mother Nature has saved us the headache of figuring this out on our own by providing us with hemp (and its derivatives like hemp seed oil), which has the optimal balance of essential fats.

The Ideal Omega Fat Ratio for a Healthy Metabolism

An overabundance of refined vegetable oils like soybean, canola, corn, margarine, and shortening (yuck, yuck, yuck!), along with processed foods, grains, and grain-fed meats, the Standard American Diet (SAD) has thrown our essential fat balance way out of whack. Historically, traditional diets have provided Omega-6 to Omega-3 fat ratios in the range of 1:1 to 5:1, but the SAD has us coming in around 20:1.

If you have twenty times the Omega-6 fats, then you are getting in far too many junk oils (think restaurant oils and vegetable oils) – meaning they’re damaged, feeding inflammation, and void of nutritional benefit. On top of that, all those junk oils shut down the healthy Omega-3 fats through a mechanism called competitive inhibition.

The nourishing Omega-3 fats can’t compete with the junk Omega-6 fats, so the junk fats are used to make new cells, weakening you and generating a host of problems. It’s a classic case of garbage in – garbage out.

It can be hard to wrap your mind around, but even with a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 that’s 20:1, you can still have a deficiency of Omega-6 fats. That’s because the healthy, non-damaged, functional Omega-6 fats your body craves are still missing.

This is where hemp and hemp seed oil come in. Hemp is rich in Omega-6 fats for glowing skin, shiny hair, less joint pain, lasting weight loss, and cancer prevention. Hemp is key to revamping and rebalancing your fats for health, energy, and weight loss, and my Radical Metabolism plan is the only one to feature this perfect source of essential fats.

Hemp, Hemp, Hooray!

Your body needs healthy fats to function well, and it takes more than popping a capsule of fish oil to get there. Fish oil is high in Omega-3 fats, which are great, but is low in Omega-6 fats. If you take fish oil and nothing else, you can actually swing the ratio too far in the opposite direction, and create an Omega-6 deficiency.

If your body has a preference as to which fats it gets, it actually prefers Omega-6 fats like those found in hemp seed oil. The mitochondria are the power plants of your cells, and make all your energy. They use Omega-6 fats almost exclusively.

For years we thought our bodies would make Omega-6 fats from Omega-3 fats, and from a laboratory standpoint, it should be true. But in studies, it’s Omega-6 fats alone that corrected all the abnormalities, not the Omega-3 fats. For optimal metabolism, it’s important to consume Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats in the right balance – the golden ratio seems to be 4:1.

It’s hard to find a food better than hemp for its essential fat profile – it boasts a 3:1 ratio. Hemp seeds are one of nature’s greatest gifts, full of benefits for your entire body. You can reap its benefits by consuming hemp seed oil, seeds (typically sold as “hemp hearts” which have had their hulls removed), or by blending them into hemp milk.

Hemp seeds are about one fourth protein – equal to beef or lamb but more digestible and bioavailable in form. Hempfu, which can be used similar to tofu, is an excellent vegetarian source of protein. Hemp seeds are a complete protein, providing all of the essential amino acids. Hemp also has strong anti-inflammatory benefits, likely related to its abundance of GLA, the fat-burning form of Omega-6 fats.

Hemp hearts have a delicate nutty flavor and make a tasty topping on salads, veggies, and many other dishes. Consume hemp seeds or hemp seed oil raw to preserve the delicate fats, and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or freezer if longer preservation time is needed.

Until recently, hemp’s nutritional benefits were all but ignored due to it being a distant cousin to marijuana. The truth is hemp seeds are incapable of producing a “high” because their THC content is so minuscule.

Overall, the health fats in hemp boost a skinny metabolism and aid in weight loss, reduce cravings, sustain your energy, lower blood pressure, optimize blood sugar levels and lipid profiles, and lower inflammation.

If you are feeling fat and fatigued, with a sluggish metabolism, my book Radical Metabolism can help you get back on track.  Pre-order my book Radical Metabolism and get free gifts valued at over $107 PLUS over $50 in coupons! 

Related Articles and Podcasts

Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS, is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty books including The Fat Flush Plan series and her latest book, Radical Metabolism. She’s been rewriting the rules of nutrition for more than 40 years and is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of diet, detox and women’s health issues. 

For a FREE daily dose of tips and strategies for maintaining healthy weight, conquering insomnia, and much more…check out my Radical Health Tips.

I’d like to meet and greet you on my Facebook groups, so won’t you check us out at the Radical Metabolism RevolutionFat Flush Nation, or my Inner Circle!

9 Comments

  1. Tehilah E.

    I love CBD oil and now I will buy hemp seed oil. Which brand do you like?

    Reply
    • Kevin W.

      My favorite is Nutiva. It has a really grassy flavor. Some hemp oils are almost flavorless, and it leaves me wondering how healthy they are. Nutiva’s strong flavor makes me think it is especially healthy, although I guess I could be wrong. These are just my thoughts. It’s available at Vitacost, among other places.

      Reply
  2. Nora

    Am I the only one who thinks hemp oil has an unpleasant taste?

    Reply
    • Team ALG

      Nora, I think it is a matter of taste. Many enjoy it’s “earthy” fragrance and taste.

      Reply
  3. Jodi

    How much of the oil are you supposed to take and how many times a day?

    Reply
    • Team ALG

      Jodi, You can take 2 tablespoons per day, having them at different times during the day.

      Reply
      • Kevin W.

        Thank you for that. I was only taking 1 tbsp per day, and wasn’t getting very good results, and now with your statement I realize that 2 tbsp per day is likely what I need (to get a fuller effect from my oil).

        Reply
  4. Cheryl Bowman

    Hemp hearts are delicious to snack on. They give me lots of energy. I like getting my hemp oil that way.

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Hemp Seed Oil: The Perfectly Balanced Fat for Weight Loss – Health and Fitness Recipes - […] Credits: Original Content Source […]
  2. Hemp Seed Oil: The Perfectly Balanced Fat for Weight Loss - […] Source link […]
  3. The Vital Health Lessons This Nutrition Expert Learned From Her 106-Year-Old Mentor - […] of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to add hemp seed oil to your diet. I recommend at…

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This