LOL!!!! Alright, alright seriously though what did you expect from me with @kevinwong being the guest judge this week?
I've shared a few threads of conversation with Kevin about cannabis, over the past six months. Plus, our own @englishtchrivy lives in Arnhem, which is in the Netherlands, a country where cannabis use is woven into the mainstream fabric of Dutch life.
Then there's me...I'm a cannabis coach and a Paleo and raw food enthusiast with a keen interest in holistic nutrition.
I work hard to remove as many carbohydrates as I can from the recipes that I create. This is so that the finished dishes will keep a person's blood sugar levels from raising too quickly and not create too much of a demand for insulin from the pancreas, once they are consumed. I talk in terms of grams of carbohydrates as being one of the most important components to control when designing a meal specifically for weight-loss but what you need to remember when you are reading a nutritional profile of a food, is that the grams of sugar need to be added to the grams of carbohydrates. This, once totaled, minus the grams of fibre is the true number of grams of carbohydrates/sugar.
People who are interested in consuming a low carbohydrate eating-lifestyle as a method to lose weight typically don't eat more than 30-50 grams of carbohydrates/sugar in an entire day. They strive to keep their bodies in a state of ketosis.
Ketosis is a normal metabolic process that is triggered when there isn't enough carbohydrates present in the digestive system to convert to glucose energy. Once ketosis is triggered, the body will burn fat instead, while still maintaining muscle mass.
A study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, by Elizabeth Penner MD, MPH, Hannah Beuttner BA, and Murray Mittleman MD DrPHD found that: regular cannabis users, have lower levels of fasting insulin levels and smaller waist circumferences.
(The paper was published on Mar. 02, 2013 and can be viewed here: http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00200-3/fulltext)
This means that people who ingest cannabis at least 3 times a week, have less visceral fat. (That's the bad kind of fat which congregates around your organs, chokes them out and gives your body the appearance of an apple.)
As a result of having less visceral fat, regular cannabis users are leaner and don't typically have large guts, even though we notoriously have the munchies.
Lowering insulin levels with cannabis is achieved through the consumption of the medicinal cannabinoid known as CBD. This bolsters the effects of a low carbohydrate, eating lifestyle that is ketogenic.
In addition, some strains of cannabis contain an additional cannabinoid, called THCV.
THCV is a medicinal component found in the cannabis plant that is an appetite suppressant. When it's present and ingested, it helps people to feel full and can counter-balance other cannabinoids that stimulate appetitie like THC.
THC, can make a person feel more energetic, but this sensation is dependent and ultimately determined by the specific terpene and flavinoid profile of the strain of cannabis, chosen. Not all strains of cannabis that contain THC will produce the sensation of having more energy.
Strain selection and frequency of use, matters if you are ingesting cannabis to loose weight.
What you see in my first photo is 4 different strains of cannabis. From left to right, they are:
- Grizzly (An outdoor, organically grown bud which is part of the reason it's HUGE.)
- Goddess
- C-Strain
- Grand Daddy Purps
To fully activate all the cannabinoids (or medicinal components of cannabis), the plant material needs to be decarboxylated, first. This is the first step in which the raw forms of the cannabinoids are change into their medicinally active forms. Heat is used in this process, and causes the loss of carbon dioxide, from the plant material. (If you skip this step, your finished product won't be as effective as it could be.)
To decarboxylate cannabis:
- Heat oven to 240 degrees F.
- Spread cannabis a single layer deep, in a covered casserole dish and bake for 40 minutes.
- Let cool.
Technically, this cannabis can now be consumed. Many people just grind it and add it into a fatty substance like avocado or they grind it and put it into capsules which allows them to swallow the herb, whole.
(The cannabinoids are fat soluble so if you prefer to ingest cannabis capsules, just make sure you eat some healthy fat just before you consume the capsules. This will ensure that your body will be able to absorb the cannabinoids efficiently.)
In conclusion, as long as you decarboxylate the cannabis you could technically eat cannabis as a salad ingredient and it would be medicinally active.
Weed salad: yields 4 servings. :D
(@englishtchrivy was missing the frog so I hope you all enjoyed his guest appearance, in my post.)
15 years ago, I was 45 lbs heavier than I am today.
8 years ago, I started eating cannabis everyday and 6 years ago, I added a full Paleo eating strategy to that lifestyle.
In addition to restoring optimal body weight, this lifestyle also drastically reduces the amount of inflammation present in the body. It is "highly" restorative.
I welcome your comments and I invite you to join me...there is always room for one more at my table. ;)
~ Rebecca Ryan
(I edited this post to correct information. The city that @englishtchrivy lives in is Arnhem, not Amsterdam as I mistakenly stated.)