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........

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