Hemp Hearts: Macros and Micros

Your favorite blogs are going on and on about macros and micros and you have no idea what it means. So what are hemp heart macros and micros?

Hemp hearts macros and micros are a combination of essential nutrients. We all require a healthy balance of macronutrients which are carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Macros work with micros, which are vitamins and minerals, to give you strong bones and a healthy heart. 

In fact, macros and micros work to keep every part of your body functioning properly. Here we’ll take a look at all the macros and some of the micros in hemp hearts. We’ll find out how the macronutrients in hemp help the body and how micronutrients help support them. 

You may not go out and start counting all your macros and micros today. However, if you do, know that the macros and micros in hemp hearts have your essential needs covered.

Hemp Heart Macronutrients (Macros) and Micronutrients (Micros)

All foods contain macronutrients and micronutrients, including hemp hearts. Macros are the nutrients that the body needs in large amounts. The list of macros include carbs, proteins, and fats. Micronutrients are what the body needs in small amounts. Micros are vitamins, minerals and water. 

As you can see, macros make up your caloric intake, while micros don’t. When you heard about macros and micros from friends, they may have mentioned popular diets that track nutrients. These types of diets are followed to keep all your nutrients balanced. 

Hemp hearts are considered a superfood because of the balance of macros and micros. Not many foods contain such a good percentage of all the required macros and micros. 

What are the Macros in Hemp Hearts?

The macros in hemp hearts are carbohydrates (carbs), fats, and protein. All foods contain a different amount of macros. Hemp hearts are special because they have a high fat and protein content, but they still contain the important carb fiber. 

Foods are classified as one or the other because of what they contain. For example, avocado is a fat and an apple is a carb (both of which taste great with hemp hearts). Alcohol is also a macronutrient, but it’s not essential for survival (nope not even wine).

When balancing your diet for the right amount of macros you should aim for:

  • 10-35 percent protein
  • 20-35 percent fat 
  • 45-65 percent carbs

Hemp hearts have a natural balance. In a 3 tablespoon serving of hemp hearts you’ll get:

  • 20% Percent protein 
  • 19% Percent fat 
  • 1% Percent carbohydrates (1% fiber) 

Of course, the amount of hemp hearts you should eat depends on your daily caloric needs. 

The type of protein, fat, and carbs in hemp hearts are high quality. The protein and fat have the essential amino acids and fatty acids that can only be found in food. Hemp hearts also contain the micronutrients you need, including 100% of your daily manganese. 

 

 

Healthy Fats

The healthy fats found in hemp hearts are polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats. Though all fats contain nine calories per gram there are some differences. Unlike saturated fat and trans fat polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats benefit your health. 

Polyunsaturated fats are omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Monounsaturated fats are fats that have only one unsaturated carbon bond. You’ll be able to easily identify monounsaturated fats because they are usually liquid at room temperature and solid when cool. 

Healthy fats are essential. Essential means our bodies need a particular nutrient to survive. All of these essential fats can only be found in food. As much as we need omega-3 fatty acid and omega-6 fatty acid, our bodies can’t make them. 

The other important factor is that each of these fats found in hemp hearts have amazing health benefits including:

  • Lower cholesterol
  • Reduce fat in your blood (triglycerides)
  • Reduce risk for diabetes
  • Control blood sugar
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Stop buildup of artery clogging plaque
  • Reduce risk of heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat)
  • Decrease inflammation
  • Reduce risk of heart disease

Nuts and seeds are the best food to get healthy fats. While you can find healthy fats elsewhere, hemp hearts are one of the few that contain such a healthy balance of all macros and micros. 

Carbohydrates

Dieters and dieticians everywhere have deemed carbohydrates the enemy. Carbohydrates, also known as carbs, are sugar, starch, and fiber. They may not be a technical “essential” nutrient like amino acids or polyunsaturated fats. However, they are important to our overall health. 

You may be wondering if there are no “essential” carbs why are carbs such an important macronutrient? Macronutrients are needed in large quantities and everyone is always cutting carbs. 

The short answer is that our bodies transform carbs into stored energy. In fact, carbs are the body’s main source of energy. 

Hemp hearts contain 1% of your required daily carbohydrates and 4% of your daily fiber. While other carbs break down, fiber passes through the body undigested and regulates your blood sugar and cholesterol. This makes fiber extremely important for insulin levels particularly for diabetics. 

So carbs are not as bad as they are made out to be. Fiber is an important carb that aids in digestion and weight loss. When you eat fiber it helps you feel full longer while giving you energy. You can see how fiber can help with snacking sessions and workout sessions.

Protein

Hemp hearts are often classified as a protein because they have around 10g of protein per serving. Hemp hearts and hemp protein powder contain all nine essential amino acids.

Protein lovers attempt to consume more meat products, but plant based protein offers more balanced macros and micros. So if you are tracking your intake, consider a plant-based protein. Hemp allows you to stay within your 10-35% protein window without unhealthy saturated and trans fats. 

Protein is essential because it helps you build muscle mass, which is why it’s so popular. Everyone wants a great muscular body. However, protein is a complex macronutrient made up of 20 amino acids. 

Protein does a lot for the body, just look at the humming hemp protein powder. 

Some of the important functions protein is able to do for the body are:

  • Provide energy
  • Help with immune health
  • Move oxygen through your body
  • Balance pH
  • Signal insulin to create glucose or sugar
  • Stimulate growth of tissues
  • Repair muscles 
  • Release cortisol, which boosts metabolism

 

 

What are the Micros in Hemp Hearts?

The micros in hemp hearts are a long list of vitamins and minerals that the body needs in small small amounts. Vitamins in hemp hearts include Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, and Folate. Minerals in hemp hearts include Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

When tracking macronutrient intake it’s important to ensure you’re not missing out on the micronutrients you need. 

It’s customary when starting a diet to take a vitamin or supplement that will cover any voids. When eating hemp hearts you are lucky enough to maintain a high level of micronutrients without needing extra vitamins. 

Vitamins are important for energy and immune function. Minerals are important for strong bones and growth.

The tricky part about getting micronutrients is that your body can’t make about 30 of them. There are a lot more essential micros than macros. 

Without micronutrients you end up with deficiencies that cause long lasting effects on the body. Pirates, for example, really needed hemp seeds. Micronutrients are the reason we don’t see diseases like scurvy too often anymore.  

Here are some of the vitamins and minerals found in hemp hearts:

Vitamins

Many of the vitamins found in hemp hearts are supplemental to protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Vitamins play significant roles in helping macronutrients work their best to help with blood flow, heart, and brain function in the body. 

Here are some of the vitamins found in hemp hearts:

Thiamine

Thiamine is also known as vitamin B1. It’s one of eight essential B vitamins. Hemp hearts contain five of the eight essential B vitamins. B vitamins help your body use carbs as energy. Thiamine helps protein boost your metabolism. A fast acting metabolism is necessary for growth and development. 

Riboflavin

Riboflavin is another B vitamin known as B2. Vitamin B2 is also essential for metabolic energy production. Meaning riboflavin stores converted energy inside muscles.

Niacin

Niacin is known as vitamin B3. You’ll notice that niacin is most commonly used in energy products. It’s popular for energy products because it has two chemical forms that allow immediate or sustained release. 

You may have noticed so far that energy is a theme with B vitamins. While thiamine works with protein and glucose, riboflavin works with carbs. Besides giving you energy, niacin keeps your nervous system, digestive system, and skin healthy. 

Vitamin B6 

Vitamin B6 is also known as pyridoxine. B6 is essential because it’s helpful for all macronutrients because the B6 breaks down protein, carbs, and fats. 

Breaking down macronutrients helps your body keep normal levels of homocysteine. Homocysteine is an amino acid in meat that can cause heart disease. 

Hemp hearts help you get plant based essential amino acids and vitamin B6 helps you breakdown the protein properly. 

Folate

Folate is important for red blood cell formation. It’s especially important for pregnant women because it aids the body in cell growth. It helps your body produce enough cells to create a baby with functioning cells as well. Folate is one of the reasons hemp hearts are beneficial for pregnant women. 

Minerals

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical compound. Naturally occurring means they aren’t made by humans. The minerals formed on their own and are essential for our bodies to develop. Without the minerals in hemp hearts we cannot function. 

Here are some of the minerals in hemp hearts:

Iron

Iron is important to carry oxygen from your lungs through red blood cells. Without enough iron in the body you’ll have a deficiency known as anemia. Often those with anemia are put on iron supplements and told to eat iron rich foods. Iron deficiency causes fatigue and weakness. Luckily, there’s plenty of B vitamins in hemp hearts to help with energy as well.

Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral that makes protein. It’s needed to regulate muscle and nerve function. Magnesium also helps with blood pressure and sugar levels. Like many of the nutrients in hemp hearts, magnesium is important for overall heart health.

Manganese

Manganese (not to be confused with magnesium) is a trace mineral that helps with protein and amino acid digestion. It’s needed to help your brain and nervous system function. 

Manganese is the reason all natural foods are better than artificial supplements. This naturally occurring substance helps you digest protein in hemp hearts without separate branch chain amino acids (BCAA) supplements. 

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is found in your bones along with calcium (which is also found in hemp hearts). This mineral’s main function is to form strong bones and teeth. Phosphorus works with the macronutrients in the body to repair cells and tissue. 

Potassium

Potassium is a type of electrolyte. This mineral moves nutrients in and waste out of your cells. Dispelling of waste properly, helps keep your nerves and muscles moving.

Zinc

Zinc keeps your immune system functioning properly. A healthy immune system is popular these days. However, zinc is also important for your sense of taste and smell. Zinc helps you heal faster when you’re sick and keeps your taste buds loving the flavor of hemp hearts.

Summary: Hemp Hearts Micros and Macros

Now you know what hemp heart macros and micros are. You also know what nutrients do for your body. Believe it or not, there are even more micronutrients inside hemp hearts ready to do the job of keeping you healthy. 

If you need to calculate your macros and micros, be sure to get the highest quality and all natural nutrients. The nutrients in hemp hearts provide heart healthy macros that lower cholesterol, blood sugar, and risk of heart disease.  

Hemp hearts contain an abundance of micronutrients in just a few spoonfuls. These micros support the macros in keeping our bodies functioning at a high level. 

To get the right balance of micros and macros, try hemp hearts to make counting nutrients a little easier. This way you know that you are getting all the essentials you need in a simple spoonful.