Issue IV — May 2004

Greetings!

As the summer approaches, we can once again enjoy the bounty of fresh organic fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, and more. This month's Health Tip "The Rainbow Diet" explores the benefits of consuming nutrient-rich multicolored foods, crafted as heirloom varieties throughout the ages. How about stretching your diet beyond apples and carrots to explore the abundance of nature's offerings?

The United States Justice Department, not content to accept the recent (February 6th, 2004) 9th Circuit Court ruling keeping hemp foods legal, obtained a 30-day extension from the Supreme Court to file papers for a possible appeal. Legal experts think it highly unlikely the highest court in the land will even hear this rather silly appeal.

Stay tuned as this unfolds--or perhaps tune out the background noise and just enjoy our divine right to consume healthful organic hemp foods. The art of seeing reality with open eyes, yet allowing the positive and beautiful to stream into one's life, is helpful in these days of chaos and transformation.

In health,

John W. Roulac
Founder and President
Nutiva

Canadian Hemp Field

Enjoy Nutiva's Raw, Unrefined Organic Hempseed Oil

Our hempseed oil is ideal for salad dressings, sauces, and drizzling over veggies or grains. Discover our delicious Italian Hemp Oil Dressing. Hempseed is a rich source of the healthful beneficial fat Omega-3. And unlike flax, hemp contains the rare fats GLA (Super Omega-6) and SDA (Super Omega-3), which are more advanced fat metabolites than the simpler Omega-3 and -6 found in vegetable oils. Not everyone can convert simple Omega-3 fats to SDA and then to the top-tier EPA (found in fish), due to stress, aging, and environmental pollutants. This is why experts rank hemp as the closest of any vegetable oil to fish oil, and thus an ideal vegan essential fatty acid supplement.

Hempseed oil also contains chlorophyll, and three times more Vitamin E than flax.

To insure optimal freshness, please refrigerate hempseed oil, and use within two to three months of opening.

Learn more about Nutiva's products here

1% Donation Spotlight: The Organic Consumers Association

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is a membership-based watchdog group helping to protect the integrity of the organic food industry. OCA keeps an eye on the USDA's attempts to water down the National Organic Standards, and mobilizes Americans to act when they need to. The OCA is also quite active in numerous GMO campaigns.

Recently Mendocino County, in California, voted to prevent the planting or creation of genetically modified plants, animals, and organisms in the county. Monsanto and other GMO giants spent millions of dollars, yet lost the vote. Now with up to half a dozen other counties in California in various stages of their own ballet measures, the GMO industry is gearing up to pass a bill in the California State Legislature to take away a community's local rights to determine if GMOs and their resulting "gene fragments" can just migrate into our environment and bellies. Today we have going on a grand mad science experiment by clueless white men in lab coats who think they are in control by digitizing the sacred and snipping and rearranging DNA. The Gene Giants vs the good citizens of California will make quite the backdrop as this forthcoming bill winds its way to the desk of California 's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Since its inception, Nutiva has donated more than $17,000 to various exemplary organizations, including:

Bioneers
Ecological Farming Association
Hemp Industries Association
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Oregon Concerned Citizens for Safe Food
The Land Institute
Watts Garden Club

Book Review

Stop Your Cravings

By Jennifer Workman, M.S., R.D - 344 pages - Copyright 2002 - ISNB 9-78074321706-3

Jennifer Workman does a splendid job in combining sports nutrition, complementary medicine, and Ayurveda. Great recipes and useful tips on cleansing, weight loss, and better digestion are included. Jennifer is pioneering this important work in cooperation with registered dieticians, helping to introduce healing practices into mainstream America.

Recipe of the Month

Italian Hemp Dressing

2 parts NUTIVA hemp oil
2 parts olive oil
2 parts vinegar

Shake with herbs and NUTIVA hempseeds for zesty flavor.

Health Tip

The Rainbow Diet

A simple but powerful way of eating is to enjoy a rainbow-colored cornucopia of blue, green, yellow, purple, red, orange, earthtone, golden, white, and black shades of color among fruits, vegetables, herbs, seeds, nuts, mushrooms, shoots, and grains. Given the long-term decline in soil nutrition and narrowing of genetic diversity due to industrial agriculture, many foods today have lower mineral and phytonutrient levels.

Yet, by turning back to Mother Nature's bountiful harvest, we can ingest much higher levels of life-giving nutrition. Science provides ample research showing, for example, that blueberries or pomegranates are loaded with life-giving nutritive wonders. And when was the last time you ate Russian red kale, elephant kale, parsnips, or kohlrabi?

Try going to your local farmers market or organic food store and buy ten different veggies and herbs you've never tried. Then make a big raw salad, or perhaps lightly steam them and then pour over some Nutiva Coconut Oil, Celtic sea salt, dried herbs, and tamari.

Let me know how your experiment went!

News Bytes

• Hemp is the not-so-secret ingredient in farmer's cow feed
• Grain harvest predicted to fall short of world demand
• The low-carb Coconut weight-loss phenomenon