5 Ways to Hemp Your Life (and Why)

Hemp is inarguably one of the most versatile and useful plants on the planet. In fact, it was so important to our economy that farmers in the colonial days were once required to grow hemp for use of the fibers to produce commodities like paper, ropes, and fuel. The declaration of independence was drafted on hemp paper, George Washington and John Adams farmed hemp, and President Abraham Lincoln used hemp oil to fuel his lamps.

That’s right. I’m not kidding. America’s founding fathers were at the forefront of the hemp movement! As useful as hemp was in early America, the right of the people to grow and cultivate hemp was hindered in 1937 after the Marijuana Tax Act was signed into law, banning the cultivation of hemp and cannabis, and stigmatizing it.

Luckily, for the sake of the planet, Congress got their act together and passed the 2018 Farm Bill, giving farmers back the right to grow industrial hemp. This bill was a huge win for the hemp movement and provides a path towards much needed sustainable plant alternatives.

A plant that can clothe you, feed you, house you, and heal you; hemp is worth trying out in one form or another. The seeds and stalks of hemp are used to produce lots of things—clothes, food, nutritional supplements, cosmetics, paper, concrete, plastics, fuels, and even pet products—making it an integral renewable commodity.

Your Threads

If you are looking to hemp your life, you can start by adding hemp into your wardrobe. One of the major benefits that hemp clothing provides is protection from the sun’s UV rays. Hemp is a natural UV blocker that protects your body against the damaging effects of free radicals that cause your skin to burn, lose water, wrinkle, and become discolored.

If you are sensitive to the sun or have a history of skin cancer, then you might want to get some hemp clothes sooner than later.

In addition to the awesome sun protection perks, hemp clothing is more durable than other plant-based fabrics like cotton and takes longer to wear down. That literally means more bang for your hard-earned bucks. You can thank the high levels of cellulose in the plant’s fibers that give hemp threads the extended wearability and boost to your bank account.

Unlike clothes made from synthetic fibers like polyester, hemp is bio-degradable and non-toxic to the planet. Over time your clothes eventually start to wear, tear, and breakdown. The microfibers that form during the breakdown of synthetic fabrics like polyester are not environmentally friendly.

Clothes made from hemp are eco-friendly and nature can easily break down these fibers. Less plastic trash on our land and in our water is always a good thing.

Your Belly

Hemp is a superfood celebrated by nutritionists across the globe. Why? The seeds contain a mixture of fat, protein, carbohydrates, and minerals. These are essential combinations of amino and omega fatty acids that your body needs to make protein and fat.

Linoleic acid (omega-6) and linolenic acid (omega-3) are essential fats your body needs and serve as the building blocks that support your skin, brain, heart, and immune health. Eating an excessive amount of omega-6 fats kicks your immune system into overdrive and can trigger inflammation and disease.

Most Western diets are too high in omega-6 fats and lacking precious omega-3. Adding some hemp oil and hemp hearts to your smoothie or salad is a good way to boost your internal omega-3 levels. Omega-3 fats calm your immune system by activating your endocannabinoid system and quells your body’s excessive inflammatory response. Hemp seeds and oil have the nutritionally coveted 1-to-3 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.

Your Skin

Hemp seed oil is used to make several skincare products like moisturizers, soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. The plentiful amount of natural fats and vitamins in hemp oil are beneficial for your skin and intensely nourish and protect your skin from dryness. The hearty dose of omega fatty acids in hemp helps your cells produce more natural lubricating oils by activating your endocannabinoid system.

Unrefined hemp seed oil is loaded with plant pigments like beta-carotene and chlorophyll. These compounds brighten dull skin and improve your skin’s tone by enhancing pigmentation and preventing free-radical damage by UV rays that cause your skin to burn, lose moisture, and wrinkle.

Just like hemp clothing provides protection from the sun, hemp beauty products do the same. Hemp clothes on your body and hemp oil on your skin is a good way to double down on your sun protection—naturally too.

Your Bags

Hallelujah hemp plastics are a thing. Thank goodness. From bags, boxes, and cars, we can thank nature for giving the plant a concentrated cellulose core that is used to make hemp plastics.

The benefit to using hemp plastics over synthetic plastics is that hemp is biodegradable, and nature has no problem breaking this stuff down, unlike man-made plastics that take decades or centuries to breakdown, leading to the accumulation of microplastics that are toxic to you and the environment.

Your Furry Friends

Hemp is good for your animals too since all mammals have an endocannabinoid system. Whether you feed your dog or cat some hemp oil or give your cows and horses some hemp stalk to gnaw on, their bodies will reap the benefits of complete a nutritious diet.

There is also an added bonus for of less pain in more senior animals due to old age, arthritis, and reduced anxiety that comes with eating cannabinoids like cannabidiol or CBD—another compound in hemp that turns on the endocannabinoid system.

Ready to Hemp Your Life?

As you can see, hemp has a place in everyone’s life, no matter what kind of lifestyle. There is no denying that the health of our planet is dwindling and the decline is largely fueled by the lack of sustainable and eco-friendly options. Thankfully, hemp is back in our lives.

This plant undoubtedly meets the growing consumer demand for organic and sustainable goods. Go ahead, support the movement.

Really, what do you have to lose?