What Are The Benefits Of Hemp Hulled Seeds?

Hemp seeds are valued both for their essential fatty acid content as well as their high protein count. Whole hemp seeds or hemp meal also contains large amounts of dietary fiber, but the hulling process removes all but 1 to 2 g per 30 g serving. The seed of the cannabis sativa L., or hemp plant, is used whole, hulled, milled for flour, pressed for oil or ground into fine powder for protein supplements.

Essential Fatty Acids

Hemp seeds are a rich source of omega-3, and -6 fatty acids. The total polyunsaturated fat in a 2 tbsp., 30 g serving of hulled hemp seeds is 8.2 g. Of that, 6.2 g are from omega-6 fatty acids and 2 g are from omega-3 fatty acids. Because the typical American diet already provides more omega-6 than omega-3, it's a good idea to balance hemp seeds with omega-3 intake from another source that has more omega-3 than omega-6.

Cholesterol

In addition to improving conditions from diabetes to rheumatoid arthritis, the essential fatty acids improve heart health. A 2006 study published in the "Pakistan Journal of Nutrition" that specifically studied the effect of hemp seeds on cholesterol found that rats who were given hulled hemp seeds over a 20-day test period showed significant increases in HDL, or "good" cholesterol as well as significant decreases in LDL, or "bad" cholesterol.

Protein

As a plant source of protein, hemp is second only to soy. Whole hemp seed contains about 25 percent protein by weight. According to an October 2010 study published in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry," hulling the hemp seeds improves the digestibility of their protein from 49 to 53 percent for whole hemp seed to 63 to 66 percent for hulled hemp seed. A 2 tbsp., 30 g serving of hulled hemp seeds contains 11 g of fiber.

Amino Acids

The protein in hemp seeds is a "complete" protein that contains 18 amino acids, including all nine of the essential amino acids. Per 100 g, hemp contains 3.09 g of aspartic acid, 1.54 g of serine, 1.13 g of proline, 1.30 g of alanin, 1.47 g of valine, 1.15 g of isoleucine, 0.94 g of tyrosine, 0.82 g of histadine, 3.58 g of arginine, 1.05 g of threonine, 5.61 g of glutamic acid, 1.37 g of glycine, 0.57 g of cysteine, 0.75 g of methionine, 2.04 g of leucine, 1.39 g of phenylalanine, 1.13 g of lysine and 0.25 g of tryptophan.