You may have noticed that almost all Balmonds products contain hemp seed oil - but do you know why?
Hemp is a wonderful plant! Cultivated through the ages for its fibres, its seeds and its leaves, hemp is possibly the most useful plant in the world. Hemp stalks produce the longest and strongest natural fibre known to mankind, invaluable in the manufacture of over 25,000 consumer products: clothing, shoes, nappies, rope, canvas, cellophane, paints, fuels, chain lubricants, biodegradable plastics, paper, fibreboard, cement blocks, food, cosmetics and soap.
But there is a particular reason why we at Balmonds are such huge fans of hemp and that’s all down to its wonderful seeds. Hemp seeds are one of the most nutritionally complete foods in the world: they contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life. No other single plant source has essential amino acids in such easily digestible form, nor has the essential fatty acids in as perfect a ratio to meet human nutritional needs. That’s pretty impressive for one little green plant.
Balmonds and Hemp
Brilliant as this is, what has it got to do with Balmonds products? Well, most of our customers come to us because they are looking for gentle but effective skincare products; we also have people coming to us who suffer from eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis etc., and who particularly want to use natural products that won't exacerbate the condition of their already sensitive skin. Balmonds Skin Salvation does this brilliantly, but also has the fantastic bonus of feeding your skin essential fatty acids (EFAs) from hemp seed oil at the same time. EFAs are the building blocks of healthy cell membranes and help with the regeneration of the skin’s natural oil barrier, critical in keeping the skin healthy and hydrated. Basically, if you're not getting enough EFAs in your diet, your skin may become dry and inflamed. A high proportion of what you put on your skin is absorbed into the body, so by using hemp seed oil in our ointment we're providing dry, cracked and flaky skin with the means to heal itself.
There’s good evidence to suggest that adding hemp seed oil to your food also has a really positive effect on eczema: here’s the science should you wish to give eczema a hemp seed double whammy, by applying it topically and adding it to your diet.
Hemp is our hero!
Look for cold pressed, unrefined hemp oil which is dark to clear light green in colour, with a nutty flavour. The darker the colour, the grassier the flavour and the better the quality. You can see the colour of the good quality hemp seed oil we use in the slight greeny tinge of our Skin Salvation and our Bath & Body Oil.
So if you have dry skin use Balmonds products topically to lock in that precious moisture, but you can also try sprinkling hemp seeds on salads and in cereals and supplementing daily with cold-pressed hemp seed oil.
For a special treat you could whip up these delicious hemp seed flapjacks: they’re an excellent way of getting all those good EFAs into your kids’ diet!
Hemp Seed Flapjacks
Ingredients
250g oats
250g soft light brown sugar
225g butter
6 tbsp of golden syrup
100g of mixed cranberries, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, goji berries.
Method
1. Melt the butter, add sugar and golden syrup.
2. Stir in the oats, cranberries, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and goji berries.
3. Place in a non stick baking tray lined with greaseproof paper 18cm x 20cm.
4. Bake at 175 degree Celsius for 30 mins, I found it best to then leave overnight and cut the next day.
If you're confused about the difference between hemp seed oil and CBD oil, check out our guide here!
