I have a couple friends that are doing detox or cleansing treatments after the holidays, to set their bodies on a healthy course for the next year, and perhaps lose some weight gained through all the holiday feasting. I hadn’t given much thought to doing one myself, since I feel I generally keep a healthy diet. What I did do to start the year off right was a thorough house cleaning, and this is what led me to my own dietary change. While sorting out a drawer full of papers, I came across a handout I had picked up last fall at the Strathcona Harvest Festival. It came from the Rocky Mountain Grain Products tent, along with a free sample pack of hemp hearts. I almost just put the handout in the junk pile and kept on sorting, but the color photo of a big beautiful salad caught my eye, and I gave it some attention.

The pamphlet promotes a starch free diet, filled instead with fibrous raw vegetables, and using hemp seeds as an important source of protein and nutrients. It explains how starches, cooked and processed foods turn to paste in the digestive system, clogging it up and coating the walls of the intestine, which actually block the absorption of nutrients. Fibre from raw foods, on the other hand, are moved along easily by the intestines natural contractions, clearing out any trapped matter and leaving a clean and healthy system.

To promote this diet the paper recommends the Hemp Hearts Salad as the perfect breakfast, great for keeping healthy, satisfying hunger, losing weight, having more energy, and maintaining digestive health. And on top of that it sounded delicious, too good to pass up. I’ve been a cereal for breakfast person for as long as I can remember, so the thought took some getting used to, but I decided to give this a try. I switched over to the salad for breakfast, and cut out all starches and processed foods from the rest of my diet.

So here is the Hemp Heart Salad as given in my handout:

Required items: tomato, spinach, cucumber, radish, celery, carrot, garlic, lime, cayenne pepper, and 5 to 8 heaping tablespoons of hemp seeds.

Some occasional additions: dates, figs, berries, grapes, avocado, sprouts, yogurt or cottage cheese.

Those looking to lose weight should drink only calorie free liquids through the day, and have another meal of raw vegetables in the early evening, but go to bed hungry. Others can eat meat, fish, fruit, and dairy, but should avoid starches completely.

I was definitely noticing a bit more energy at work after making the switch. And staying full well into the day also. A piece of fruit at lunch would be enough to last me through the work day. Or if I made more than I could eat in the morning, I’d just take the leftover salad for lunch. And the best thing about the salad is it tastes so great. Definitely one of my very favourite salads.

I kept completely starch free for just about a week but have switched back to cereal most mornings now. This just had to do with time more than anything. The salad is pretty quick and easy to prepare, but doesn’t beat pouring milk over cereal, and my mornings are always such a rush through the week. But I’m sticking to the salad on the weekends, and cutting back starches as much as is convenient. During the week I’m enjoying at least putting hemp seeds on my morning cereal.

See www.hemphearts.com for more information on hemp heart nutrition, and an awesome vision for creating sulf sufficient, family hemp farms.