The Truth About How Cannabis Might Affect Your Diet
Myth:
Cannabis users are overweight because the “munchies” cause them to eat everything in sight.
Truth:
When used mindfully, cannabis can actually help to regulate your metabolism and help you maintain a healthy diet.
Throughout my personal medical journey, I was placed on a slew of different prescriptions that did all sorts of crazy things to my appetite and my weight. Weight gain was often one of the side effects that caused me to not want to use them anymore – as a young woman who was always the “heavy” sister/cousin/friend … the drastic weight fluctuations took their toll on my physical and mental health.
When I took myself off the pills and started using cannabis as medicine, for the first time in what felt like my entire life – I’ve been easily able to maintain my weight for the last 5 years and counting!
Here are a few tips to keep in mind while you manage your diet while using cannabis products:
Manage Sugar and Calorie intake with edibles & Tincutres
Many strict diets include monitoring your calorie and sugar intake – checking the labels of products carefully before you consume them.
Make sure you're staying hydrated
First things first. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate.
Your first line of defense against the munchies, water! When I say hydrate, I don’t mean with your favorite bubbly or sugary beverage. When that cottonmouth kicks in and you reach for your drink, by downing some water you’re helping your cells continue to provide you with energy and helps to reduce those hunger pains that spike when the munchies begin.
Keep busy to distract yourself from your munches
Idle hands… right? 😉 Keeping yourself (and your hands) busy and distracted, the less likely you are to devour your whole kitchen. Instead of ripping through the cupboards for all the snacks, try going on a walk, calling a friend, or something that requires your hands to be clean like painting, drawing or some other fun crafty project that lets your creative juices flow free!
Go ahead & munch!
Just make sure you’re eating healthy snacks!
It is okay (and sometimes encouraged) to succumb to the munchies sometimes. The best way to ensure you don’t over-indulge during those times, stock your kitchen with the good stuff! If you’re following a strict diet, make sure your snacks fit within that diet so that your munchies don’t convince you to “fall off the wagon”. If you’re just trying to generally make better choices when you’re medicated, by giving yourself a balance of healthy snacks, you’ll help balance out the not so healthy snacks that we really want to reach for.
Look for this appetite suppressing terpene
The terpene known as Humulene is actually an appetite suppressant. Humulene also offers anti-inflammatory benefits, as do many other terpenes found in the cannabis plant. But I think the fact it can help to counteract the munchies by suppressing your appetite makes it worth mentioning in this article. Strains that are high in humulene include: Gelato, Sherbert, and GSC.
* Pro-tip: Get yourself some see-through food storage containers to store your munchies so that you can easily grab and appropriately portions.
Some patients NEED a little help to stimulate their appetite & cannabis could be the perfect solution!
For some medical cannabis patients, especially those suffering from cancer – who tend to lose their appetite due to their chemotherapy and radiation treatments, as well as people who are battling eating disorders, crohn’s, and other digestive conditions that cause patients to not want to eat anything.
As we all know, food is what fuels our body – our bodies need a certain number of calories to perform the essential functions that keep us alive. Patients who experience a lack of appetite are often fighting for their lives in a body that doesn’t get enough fuel to survive. This often results in the placement of feeding tubes or other interventions which can leave the patient losing even more quality of life. Cannabis can stimulate the appetite of patients because of the cannabinoid THC which activates the CB1 receptor of a person’s endocannabinoid system in their body.
There are certain strains of cannabis that are more effective at stimulating appetites, most studies indicate that indica strains are more likely to stimulate appetite than sativas are – which I attribute to sativas causing more mental and physical stimulation which makes the consumer more active (busier) and therefore less likely to consume a bunch of food, but that is just my personal interpretation. Products with a higher THC content tend to also be more stimulating to appetite as opposed to a lower content or split-ratio product.
If you’d just like a little hands-on help finding what might work for you – you can speak with one of the ladies at Midwest CannaConcierge where our Cannabis Advisors are happy to answer any of your questions!
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