Call this one the munchie diet.
In a study appearing in a scientific journal today, researchers have found that marijuana users may be able to smoke and eat all they want without gaining weight.
But fad fasters, beware: it's still illegal and not recommended by nutritionists.
Looking at the eating habits of 10,000 pot users and non-users, the study by Ellen Smit of the State University of New York at Buffalo supports the claims of pot smokers who say the drug induces ``the munchies'' - an insatiable craving for junk food.
``They were eating more. They consumed more calories but their body weight was somewhat lower,'' Smit said yesterday.
Smit said pot smokers are also greater consumers of alcohol and three times more likely to smoke regular cigarettes than the general population.
``They're consuming more alcohol, smoking more cigarettes, eating fewer fruits, eating more food with sodium and drinking more soda,'' she said of results showing users consuming 24 to 40 percent more calories than non-users.
The lack of weight gain remains perplexing, said Smit, who analyzed data by the Centers for Disease Control from 1988 to 1994. Subjects' weight and height were taken into account to figure a total body fat-body mass index, or BMI, which surprised researchers by coming out lower for the users.
``I tried to count for smoking and other factors. After I controlled for all those, it still showed low BMI,'' she said.
John Leonard, a Bay State medical marijuana advocate with Mass Cann, said marijuana has helped AIDS patients gain weight.
``It definitely encourages their appetite when they have none,'' he said.
Likewise, western Massachusetts resident David C.J. Bunn said he takes marijuana for an eating disorder, among other ills.
``When I try to eat, I choke. The smallest bite of steak can set me off. When I relax with some pot before I eat, I can pretty much eat normally,'' he said.
But, he added, the drug has little effect on his appetite.
``I've heard of this so-called munchie attack. I guess it's kind of a gateway drug to potato chips.''
One recreational user, ``Mel'' from Fitchburg, said the study mirrored her experience.
``It does make you hungry,'' she said, describing a craving for chocolate bars and honey buns that has yet to affect her waistline.
``When I do eat, it doesn't do anything,'' she said.
Smit said one reason users may reach for junk food is that it's frequently available.
``Usually they're doing it in social settings and people have a bag of chips there,'' she said, adding that pot smokers are not likely to seek health foods.
Now on the flip side of that is marijuanas common use for weight gain in diabetics because of its hunger inducing properties, obviously speeding up metabolism would not be on the "to do" list of a drug for weight gain.
Giving the places I pulled up this the weight loss one seems pretty scetchy and is based mostly on user oppinion (they were asked to recall what they ate as best they could) while as the weight gain effect is actually in use.
MONTEREY -- A chemical similar to marijuana may be the latest treatment in the battle of the bulge.
Researchers said rats given the chemical OEA eat less and lose weight.
OEA is produced in the body and works much like marijuana's active ingredient.
It is thought to play a key role in controlling appetite.
The chemical does not affect the nervous system like other weight loss drugs, which suggests OEA may not have many of the side effects linked to diet treatments now on the market.
I also keep finding more and more studies regarding it as a weight gaining AID.
A few regarding how it impedes nutrional absorbtion of vitamins ect...
It would seem to me that if you overweight it might end up making you lose weight if your under the opposite. Sort of like how ginko or whater ever it is mabe its another plant is supposed to promote hemeostasis.
I certainly wouldn't reccomend it considering the other ill effects it also has. though OEA is interesting.
Also consider that if it does put you in homeostasis naturally most of us are not a nice 6% so its not going to help much in cutting.
Possibly the more smoked the worse you body becomes at aborbing hte food you eat, that would be an easy openeing for weightloss but man would it suck for trying to maintaine muscle who knows what your absorbing right and what your not.
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