Customer Reviews

Nutiva Organic Hemp Protein Hi Fiber, 3 Pound Bag

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Have never been a big meat-eater, but cut back even more a few months ago. I began supplementing my diet with more beans/legumes, but was not feeling nutritionally satisfied, and realized I was not getting enough protein. Did a little research, and discovered that hemp was ideal for meeting protein requirements, and according several articles I read, it has many other nutritional and health benefits as well. I purchased the Nutiva hemp protein powder in conjunction with the Better Than Milk "Rice" (to avoid over use of soy). According to directions for both products, I mix 4 tablespoons hemp protein and 2 tablespoons of BTM, in water. It mixes easily in a regular plastic shaker, and I don't even have to use the "de-clumping" attachment that fits inside the shaker. It's just Shake-N-Go! This combination has been the perfect way to start my day. I was concerned about the taste, as some reviews I have read rated the taste of hemp very low. I can't speak for other brands, but the finely ground Nutiva hemp powder has a mild nutty flavor, and I LOVE IT. From what I've read, hemp does not contain oligosaccharides (which commonly causes "gastric distress" with soy proteins), and I have not experienced any bloating with the hemp and rice milk combo. I am happy to start my day with something both nutritious and delicious, and thank goodness I don't have to use the electric blender (one less thing to wash). Also, the Amazon price on the Nutiva Hemp Protein and the Better Than Milk Rice can't be beat, and both qualify for free shipping. FANTASTIC!!!

SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO GET HEMP POWDER AND HEMP SEEDS MIXED UP. THEY ARE BOTH GREAT PRODUCTS, PUT THE POWDER IS WHAT YOU WANT FOR SMOOTHIES AND SUCH. THE HEMP SEEDS ARE FOR SPRINKLING ON SALADS AND SUCH!!!! This is a great product, have used every day for last 3 years. Since it is raw and in it's natural state, you body has to do "no work" to process and digest it, thus that energy is used to do other things (like staw awake at work). Yes the amount of protein is 11 grams per serving, but since it is raw and in its natural state, the body will assimilate more of it that many protein sources with 2 or 3 times as much protein. The more nutrition in any food, the less your body needs to be happy. I do about 20 grams per serving since I'm near 200 pounds. But forget about the concept of grams of protein per serving, think more in terms of how much of a protein your body can process and assimilate from the protein source. I have proved this theory by eating a chicken breast one day, and drinking a hump smoothie at the same time another day and noticing that after the chicken I get hungrier faster, which implies the chicken has less nutrients in it. 50 grams of beef or chicken will not give your body as much protein as hemp. One point to remember is hemp is not something you can mix with water or milk by itself and expect a good taste. It has a muddy and mirky look and taste and an un-appealing green color it. However my smoothies are great because I add frozen banana, gives it an "Ice creamy taste", frozen blueberries (turns my smoothies an appealing grape-purple color) and strawberries, cacao nibs, and also instead of water, I always keep some cold herbal fruit flavored tea in the fridge and use that, gives it a fruity taste that permeates the smoothie. Very often they are so good, I smack my lips wanna go make another. Jamba Juice ain't got nothin' on me! Don't mean to get long-winded, but this is one of the healthiest foods in the world, and when you eat healthy, get great physicals, and never feel tired, you wanna spread the word with so much mis-information out here. By the by, been using for 3 years everyday and have passed to 2 drug tests for 2 jobs.

Oh and I have to respond to another reviewer named "Not Me" on his comments in relation to mine pertaining to "Chicken vs. Hemp". We both gave the product 5 stars but had some disagreement on the best protein. He threw out a lot info on the components of protein, but I am very in tune with my body, and I can say for sure that a hemp base smoothie gives my body type more nutrition than a chicken breast and I get positive energy effects after my smoothie and not the dropp-off like after I eat meat. I'm not saying hemp has the best amino acid profile, so I supplement my protein intake daily from other sources, especially organic free range eggs. He mentions soy as a great protein, but he is not aware that excessive soy is bad for women, and the benefits of soy is mainly in fermented soy products. So, I guess we can go back and forth, but my review was for the person who is trying to get started in finding better products, that person is probably not at the point of analyzing the amino acid profile of a smoothie. I'll say again that I know for fact through experience and experimentation that a hemp based smoothie gives me more nutrition that chicken of beef. Not sure how a stranger on the web can tell me it doesn't. But we are all trying to learn, and I am experimenting with supplementing my Hemp protein with Brazil Nut protein and some others, BUT DEFINITELY NOT WHEY OR SOY. There are many opinions in health just as in politics and sports, the key get is to just get started, enjoy researching products, enjoy positive effects of good products, get in tune with yourself, and your body will tell you what is right or wrong.

I have been using Nutiva Hemp Protein for about a year now in my hot cereal and smoothies. (I use stevia and Agave Syrup to sweeten, also avail on Amazon.) I like it, esp for the awesome nutritional profile! The flavor and texture may take some getting used to for some people, but well wrth it for the health benefit! And the best price I have found so far is right here on Amazon.

Another reviewer comments on 50g of chicken/beef vs. hemp being a better protein serving.

For poop and chuckles, 50 grams of chicken breast contains 14.5 grams of the chicken's protein. Then, he is right; he is ingesting more protein if he eats hemp with 20 grams. But due to the high quality of the chicken (roasted) breast at 136, I'd much rather get that 14.5 grams of chicken protein if my health depended upon it, instead of the 20 grams of hemp protein.

!!! hemp protein is very weak in lysine and somewhat in tryptophan (according to the amino acid data Nutiva, this manufacturer, provides on their website after it is studied more than their presentation allows at face value -since it lists numbers but not human optimal requirements), only 55% of the ideal ratio of lysine to overall protein if I did this back of the envelope calc correctly, and both of these two essential amino acids are lacking. That would give it around a protein quality of 55 when we are looking for over 100 in that measure. Normally protein quality is nothing to worry about since randomly several sources are combined and usually work out well. But some people seem to really push their protein intake very high for bulking up, etc., and others, usually not healthy are trying to supplement their needs to meet their numbers. In both of those cases protein quality will make or break their strategy. That is not to say they need to have complete proteins each time they eat: Only; they need to approximate optimal human essential amino acid proportions basically over a day or so.

Chicken, on the other hand, has a protein quality score of 136, almost reaching egg whites (145), and exceeding, soy and most other proteins, making it a much better quality protein - and he is correct in not getting caught up in the "grams". Then, there was a PhD student commenting on bioavailability of hemp protein and plant protein in general. He also is right and hemp's nutritional value can be overestimated by not looking at this. A good assumption for veggies is about 80% BV for veggie products compared to chicken, so that makes hemp worse than the 55 ...

All the above said, hemp is great, you just need to quantify what you are getting and tailor it to your needs. The feeling of being "full" has nothing to do with the quantity of protein as the other reviewer claimed he felt. As a matter of fact, fresh veggies are low in protein and people eat them to feel full - old dieting trick.

SUGGESTION: The bottom line is if you are in need of protein supplementation, be careful with counting on large amounts of hemp if you haven't complemented the relatively "low protein quality" with other "low quality" proteins to get the correct mix for optimal diet needs... it would be critical to add 100g of frozen spinach and a cob of corn or its equivalent in kernels to get the additional lysine and tryptophan per serving of hemp - it would be a reasonable vegetable source if you go the vegetarian route.

But, hemp protein still has other amino acids below 100, so you are improving the two weakest points with a nutrient dense food like spinach to balance it out. I haven't checked the rest - and now it is time to say "eat a well balanced diet". Yogurt or whey protein will take care of that - combining it with hemp protein content 1:1; soy somewhat if you are vegan - but be careful of not overdoing it for your thyroid hormone with soy ... find some extracted with alcohol if this is the case since the pseudo hormones are diminished in the alcohol extraction. Don't ask me where to buy it but it is out there.

Soy is great in moderation and offers better quality than hemp. As for eating too much protein in general, this can be a problem, too if you get supplemented out, especially if the amino acid profile is not a good match for optimal nutrition conveniently found in meat, dairy and soy proteins. The excess amino acids are disposed of by stressing the liver in extreme cases (somewhere over 1.2 grams protein per pound of body weight depending on the strength of your liver). So, if you eat an average protein quality of 55 and get your daily grams, you will actually only get let's estimate something of the order of 55% of that protein incorporated into you (ok, there is a bit more to it depending on the non-essentials, but this is the general idea) and the rest will be dumped into your liver, excreted and converted into energy. The excretion part will be in the form of urea. Too much urea in the urine puts you at risk for gout a disease you don't want to know about.

So, best to eat a serving of spinach and cob of corn with a 30 gram serving of this hemp, beans and Swiss chard would be helpful, but really a well balanced diet including dairy is the healthy low risk situation keeping a general eye on fats but no dwelling on it to the point of worrying about gaining an ounce of weight every now and then ... that's why we need to exercise. People who are immobile have other issues and the bioavailability, supplementation and protein quality are very important. Like for preventing skin breakdown and bed sores to start with. Depends on your situation.

As a final note ... this hemp protein extract 50% powder (be sure to understand when you order which you are getting) goes better with smoothies unless you like eating a woody taste, but still has lots of fiber so just hope you acquire the taste. Hope this helps...

*This makes sense if that reviewer is comparing it to his 20 grams content of protein (40g hemp powder) of whatever he serves himself. If so (and it seems that way from the ambiguous talk of grams, serving size and exactly what is being measured), he is comparing 20 grams of hemp protein to the protein content in a 50 gram portion of chicken breast (who knows - maybe he means 50 grams chicken protein which would be a lot more chicken breast to eat and lots more protein).

There are a lot of technical reviews out there, but in very simple words, there are two things that you get from the hemp powder. First is the protein, it is very potent and actually keeps you active, there are lots of studies on the net that you can look up, but for myself, I have been using it for 1 year now, and I can run for 4 miles and pump weight for another 1 hour and still go out party in the night, I never had so much energy with any other product. The second part is the fiber, it will make your mornings lot easier, without another fiber supplement. For taste, it is very personal but, hemp is easy to mix in a wide variety of liquids so you have choices, the best idea is to try it for a month or so and see how it works on your body, make sure you exercise to maximize the result.

I love hemp, I would give this 5 stars but I think I like the seeds more than the powder, but I'll use it either way. I don't eat meat and with everyone putting so much pressure on getting protein I decided to up dose especially now that I am running and working out more my muscles will really need more to build on. The great thing about Hemp protein is it bonds well with amminos which are the building block for muscle and to top it off Hemp provides Omega 3 & 6. Even if you aren't vegan, raw or whatever I would recommend adding it to your regular diet!

When I first opened the bag, I was thrown off by the strong aroma, somewhat reminiscent of sage. However, this aroma died down within a couple of days.

As I mixed it for the first time, I noticed it didn't dissolve very well in water, and the taste was a bit strong for my liking. However, as with the smell, the taste became milder as I got used to it. I now enjoy it very much.

As for its inability to dissolve in water, I find that the best solution is to add water and make a paste. Then, I drink the water off the top and eat the paste with a spoon.

Regarding its effectiveness, this product keeps my digestive track regular and gives my muscles the protein I need for work. (I work in construction, with a little heavy lifting and a lot of movement.)

I am very pleased with this product, and I will be purchasing it again!

When I was told about this product, I had no idea how good it is in so many ways. Protein, fiber, amino acids, vegetarian and more. I have it 3 times a day. No doubt you will enjoy it. And like they recommend with all fiber, start out slow and increase slowly.

After reading the reviews here I was a bit leary of this stuff, but the price on it was just too good to pass up, I figured it couldn't taste that much worse than whey. Since going vegan I've been looking for a replacement to whey, and I don't really want to use soy powder because my diet already has a lot of soy in it.

The taste is fine, after seeing the reviews here I expected it to be god-awful, but it doesn't have much of a taste and isn't really noticeable. I mix it in a blender with ice, a banana, and some rice milk or soy milk or water and I barely even notice the taste at all. The only complaint I have is that the powder tends to sink to the bottom of the glass, so I have to stir it with a spoon a few times to make sure it stays mixed with the liquid.

And the price is really great, definitely buy it from amazon.com if you can.

This new less gritty hemp protein is pretty good. It blends easier than before.

I think it tastes a little better too.

Try it in a green smoothie today!