Post: Is Cannabis Nutritional?

Key points

The border between drug and nutrient is blurring.

The contents of cannabis plants are both psychoactive and nutritious.

Today, extracts from the cannabis plant are ingredients in a diverse array of food products.

The border between drug and nutrient is blurring. How many people can get through the day without the assistance of the psychoactive food/drugs coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol , and cocoa? A nutrient, for most organisms, is a chemical containing carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. According to that definition, the contents of the cannabis plant are clearly nutrients. Some of them are also psychoactive.

When we think about cannabis and food, most people are aware of the ability of cannabis to increase food consumption. This feature has been known for centuries. Cannabis amplifies our already existing preferences for calorically dense, palatable foods; this phenomenon is called hedonic amplification of feeding. Chemicals within the cannabis plant produce this effect by mimicking the endogenous chemicals in our brain called endocannabinoids that, among many other functions, control our feeding behaviors. Despite the hyperphagia induced by cannabis, people who use cannabis regularly do not gain weight. There are multiple explanations for this, however, it is mostly due to the actions of cannabinoids on the numerous mitochondria within every cell of our body.

I have previously discussed the well-established medicinal pros and cons of regular cannabis consumption. Recently, this versatile plant has also received significant interest for its nutritional values beyond possessing carbon bonds. For example, hemp ( Cannabis sativa ssp. sativa ) seeds are a rich source of nutrients, containing high levels of protein, lipids, many essential amino acids, minerals, and total dietary fiber. The proteins found in hemp seeds, such as edestin and albumin, are readily digestible seed storage proteins and serve as a valuable source of the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. One cannabinoid, THC, can reduce high-fat diet -induced obesity and obesity-induced hepatic steatosis in mice; this action would be highly beneficial to people following a ketogenic diet who are prone to fatty liver diseases. Furthermore, cannabis extracts can restore glucose and lipid homeostasis by acting on fat […]

Is Cannabis Nutritional?