IT'S NOT POT!

Hemp products can't be rolled into joints, but they just might help
your joints, as well as providing other health benefits

Eighty-year-old Ed Chenier's eyes sparkle when he reveals one of his
most treasured health secrets: cannabis.

"I really like it. Hey, I'm 80 years old. I'm doing something right,"
says the elderly but vibrant Winnipegger, tongue firmly lodged in cheek.

Chenier has never smoked a joint. However, he is a fan of hemp food
products -- the latest craze in health-food fare.

Chenier's penchant for hemp is a sign that public perception is
changing. It wasn't too long ago that people commonly equated the
benign crop with pot.

The reality?

Like marijuana, hemp is derived from the cannabis plant species. But
marijuana contains up to 25 per cent THC, the psychoactive ingredient
that gets people stoned. Hemp contains less than one per cent THC.
Smoking hemp might give you a headache, but it won't give you a buzz.
Ingesting the stuff won't get you high, either. Now that the North
American hemp industry has finally reached the public with that
message, it is seizing the opportunity to promote the health benefits
of their goods. Products are made from the meat of the shelled hemp
seed, which is a great source of good fats and quality protein, say
hemp pushers. Plus its nutty, rich flavour is easy on the palate, even
if the green-hued hemp oil is an eyeful.

Chenier can attest to all of that. He's addicted to the taste of hemp
products. And he loves how they make him feel. His whole family is
hooked on hemp.

"My wife, daughter, son and son-in-law also use hemp products," says
the retired real estate broker and air force veteran. Today, he has
stopped by the Notre Dame Avenue offices and manufacturing plant of
Manitoba Harvest He mp Foods and Oils, a local company. Chenier needs
to refill his supply of product.

He uses hemp oil, hemp-seed nuts, hemp oil capsules and hemp-protein
powder, and he's been using the products since the company's inception
in 1998.

"I tell people it's the best oil in the world," says Chenier, noting
that he feels great and is in good health.

"I don't have any pains. I feel good. (I have) energy. I encourage
everybody to take hemp." Though Chenier's experience is purely
anecdotal, Alex Chwaiewsky, a co-founder of Manitoba Harvest, is on a
mission to prove hemp's health benefits.

He and other North American hemp companies have commissioned a $50,000
(US) University of Manitoba study to prove the nutritional benefits of
hemp-protein powder, one of the newest products in the Manitoba
Harvest line.

"We're the modern-day hemp messengers. We're just telling the story.
Now we want to tell it to more people," says Chwaiewsky, who believes
his stockpile of hemp is akin to a goldmine. Its health and
money-making potentials are unlimited, says the West Kildonan
resident, whose company was the first in Manitoba to grow hemp. That
was back in 1995 after he and his partners, Martin Moravcik and Mike
Fata, approached the province.

Today, Manitoba produces the most hemp in Canada. There are about 20
hemp farmers here, says a spokesman for the province's department of
agriculture. This year, Manitoba's approximately 20 producers yielded
more than 2,200 acres of hemp.

Much of Manitoba Harvest's goods go to the United States, where hemp
foods are in demand, partly because hemp is not currently grown south
of the border.

In year one, the company sold approximately $50,000 worth of product.
"Today, we are at $1 million-plus," says Chwaiewsky. Just last week,
he filled his biggest order yet: a $50,000 sale of product to a
"well-established" U.S. vitamin manufacturer.

"Hemp being an excellent source of essential fats, an excellent source
of vegetarian protein, we just knew that getting that information in
front of people would probably be enough to get some sales happening."

Whole hemp seeds fit in with the current diet trend shunning
high-glycemic carbohydrates in favour of good fats and protein. They
contain approximately 25 per cent protein, 31 per cent fat and 34 per
cent carbohydrates -- most of which is fibre.

Dr. Roman Przybylski, a University of Lethbridge food chemistry
professor who specializes in lipid research, agrees that hemp oil
offers up some exceptional health perks, especially when compared to
mainstream vegetable oils. What makes hemp unique is its three-to-one
ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, two essential fatty acids (EFAs) that the
body cannot make on its own and so must get from external sources.

Like canola oil, hemp contains what experts consider the perfect
balance of the two.

Experts agree that adding EFAs to the diet can lower heart attack
risk; they reduce the blood's clotting mechanism and improve
cholesterol profiles. They also have a natural anti-inflammatory
effect that may help people with arthritis and auto-immune disorders
and may help against disorders of the central nervous system.

EFAs are found in cold-water, oily fish such as salmon. They are also
found in flax. But unlike flax, hemp has a pleasant, nutty flavour
that doesn't need to be disguised with other ingredients.

It also contains Vitamin E, an anti-oxidant, and trace
minerals.

Futhermore, hemp produced in Manitoba is relatively free of toxins --
unlike a lot of European hemp products, says the food chemist. Even
the stuff that isn't certified organic is grown with few chemicals.

One caution, warns Przybylski: do not fry foods in hemp oil. Heating any
oils with polyunsaturated fats above 150 C convert them into harmful trans
fats.

Chef Craig Guenther, owner of The Market 520, an Academy Road gourmet
foods shop and deli, gets a real kick out of experimenting with hemp
products. He has been cooking with the stuff for at least seven years.

Once a chef at The Delta hotel downtown, Guenther has learned to
create culinary hemp masterpieces. "Hemp takes a while to figure out,
but I love the flavour it imparts. It's so easily incorporated into
food," he says. He notes that the oil is expensive, however -- a
12-ounce bottle of hemp-seed oil retails for about $12.

The hemp industry has had a number of hurdles to overcome.

First there was that public perception that hemp is something you roll
up and smoke. Then, just as Manitoba Harvest was planning a hard
product launch south of the border, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
(DEA) imposed a border ban on hemp products.

The DEA ban lasted from October 2001 to February 2004. But it wasn't
clear-cut, and the DEA kept extending retailers' grace period to get
hemp products off their shelves.

"Hemp foods aren't illegal. It's THC that's illegal. Our foods don't
have any THC, so, in theory, they are not illegal," says Chwaiewsky.

"Just trying to explain that was an utter nightmare."

Now that the so-called ban has finally been lifted and the controversy
is over, hemp producers like Chwaiewsky are being flooded with
American orders.

Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk is optimistic about what
that could mean for the province.

"That's very good for our producers. "Our small number of producers
have worked hard over the past decade to build the industry ... any
opportunity to grow new products is a good one."

Meanwhile, Chwaiewsky still delights in converting skeptics into hemp
lovers. He talks about how hemp has changed his life, how he has a
hemp-protein smoothie daily and adds hemp-seed nuts and oil to most of
his meals.

"It's amazing how many people will go 'Ooh. I don't know if I'd like
that. It's green.' They try it. It tastes good. They find out it's
good for them. They buy it."