Sourcing and Selection

The dietary protocol this book describes requires two ingredients. That is the first thing to understand about sourcing: this is not a supplement regimen. It is not a pharmacy. It is two foods, available in most locales, that can be purchased online and incorporated into a normal diet with minimal disruption and, if you shop carefully, minimal expense.

Hemp Hearts (Hulled Hemp Seeds)

Hemp hearts are hulled hemp seeds — the shell and the interior of the hemp seed separated, ready to eat without any preparation. They have a mild, nutty flavor, a soft texture – some people describe as a mild butter flavor and certainly when heated do caramelize to produce a mild buttery note. They can be added to virtually any food without significantly altering its taste. They do not need to be cooked, can be eaten raw. They can be added to smoothies, stirred into yogurt, sprinkled over salads, mixed into oatmeal, or eaten directly by the spoonful.

When shopping for hemp seeds give preference to product with seed shells left in – it adds fiber. Store in a refrigerated or sealed airtight container. Keep them frozen for long-term if you order a lot to store. Hemp's fatty acid profile — its most valuable nutritional attribute — is vulnerable to oxidation. Heat and light degrade it. Look for hemp hearts that are light green to tan in color; dark or gray seeds have likely oxidized a bit, still perfectly acceptable. The label should list no ingredients other than hemp seeds.

One note on cost: hemp hearts marketed for human consumption can be expensive. Shop around because you really can feed yourself for under \$1 per day in the United States. An equivalent product — hulled hemp seed with the hull still in the mix — is often available as equine feed at a fraction of the cost. It is the same food and as mentioned above, when the hull is left in it adds fiber that is nutritionally beneficial. If there is a perception that horse owners treat their horses better than humans, this makes it true whether intended or not.

If only hemp seed oil is available, cold-pressed and unrefined is the version to find. Drizzle it over food after cooking the way you would a finishing olive oil. Do not cook with it at high heat — the fatty acids degrade. The oil is a usable second choice; the whole seed is the better option.

Raw Cannabis Leaf and Flower

The raw leaf and flower of the Cannabis plant — including what is commonly called bud or flower — contains the acidic cannabinoid vitamers that hemp seed does not. The acidic cannabinoids THCA, CBDA, and CBGA are present in meaningful quantities only in the above-ground plant material, not in the seed.

In states where Cannabis is legal for recreational or medical use, raw flower is available at dispensaries. For the nutritional application described in this book, strain selection is less critical than freshness and processing temperature. What matters is that the plant material has not been heated — cured flower that has been stored at room temperature is acceptable; anything that has been decarboxylated (deliberately heated to activate THC) is not nutritionally equivalent.

Dispensaries typically remove the leaves from the flower during processing, leaving clean buds without the surrounding plant material. This may seem aesthetically pleasing but is unfortunate from a nutritional standpoint because the leaves carry significant CBDA and CBGA content — the same material used to make concentrates. If asked, some dispensaries can provide untrimmed material or trim directly. It is worth asking so you can be aware of the options in your area.

In states where Cannabis remains legally restricted, hemp flower — the flower of federally legal hemp plants — contains CBDA and CBGA in meaningful amounts, though THCA is absent or minimal. Hemp flower is legally available nationwide and provides a significant portion of the acidic vitamer profile. It is the accessible entry point for anyone not in a legal state.

Check on the areas you are living or visiting to plan in advance, especially if this diet is critical for your optimal health.

What to Avoid

CBD isolates, broad-spectrum extracts, and full-spectrum oils are not equivalent substitutes for raw plant material. Minimally processed or “cold processed” is what you want – just as nature designed it. Processing typically involves heat, which destroys the acidic vitamers. What remains is decarboxylated CBD — useful in specific therapeutic contexts, but not nutritionally equivalent to the whole-plant acidic profile described in this book. The nutritional protocol requires the acidic forms, and heat eliminates them over the spectrum of “cooking”.

Heated cannabis in any form — smoked, vaporized, cooked above this book's 120°F (49°C) handling limit, or left in a hot car on a summer day in Arizona— shifts the nutritional profile from dietary nutrients to what an under fueled ECS will experience as psychoactive effects. For daily nutritional use, the goal is unheated plant material. The heat rules for kitchen preparation are covered in the next chapter.

What It Costs

A realistic monthly cost for this dietary protocol in the United States, at this time, buying hemp seed as equine feed from a local stock shop and sourcing Cannabis flower at a dispensary, in quantity for a 1-month supply:

• Hemp seed runs approximately \$35 per month.

• Cannabis flower, purchased in larger quantities to reduce the per-gram cost, runs approximately \$6 to \$7 per day at the low end of the dispensary market — more in premium markets or resort areas, less if grown personally. It is food, no need to be a connoisseur for this purchase.

• Growing your own, where legal, reduces the flower cost to seed and soil and time. A plant started today could be producing food in a few (3-5) months.

The wide range — \$1.67 to \$16 or more per day depending on source and location — reflects genuine market variation, not uncertainty about the protocol. Every person’s situation will vary as well depending on financial capability, ability to receive shipments, location, legality in the area, and whatever is unique to one’s health and sustainability.

The rest of the diet requires no special foods — the hemp hearts and raw Cannabis are supplements to whatever you wish to eat. B12 is the only thing missing, so choosing something you like that adds B12 in a few meals per week is a workable solution. Perhaps enjoy a Mexican dinner on Friday evenings to unwind the week in style, along with a can of chicken or tuna in a meal elsewhere during the week. You can certainly reduce your costs while increasing wellness and regenerative capabilities based on my personal experience.

I personally have lived on approximately \$100 per month in total food spending while maintaining this protocol — supplementing a basic pantry of staples with hemp hearts and raw Cannabis grown for myself. The point is not that the diet is austere. The point is that it does not require a wellness budget. It requires two foods.

Growing Your Own

Hemp is legal to grow in most U.S. states under federal agricultural guidelines, and Cannabis is legal to grow for personal use in a growing number of states. Check local regulations before planting — the legal landscape continues to shift, and this book makes no attempt to stay current with it.

What is stable is the botany. Cannabis sativa is a fast-growing, reasonably forgiving plant that has been cultivated by humans for thousands of years across a wide range of climates. It does not require specialized infrastructure. It requires soil, water, and light. The seed-to-harvest window is roughly three to five months depending on variety and conditions. A modest personal grow produces months of supply.

There is something worth naming about growing your own food. The plant that was removed from the human diet in 1937 through political process is one that humans had cultivated continuously for millennia before that. Reintroducing it to a kitchen garden is not a radical act. It is a return.