The 4 Best Cannabinoids for Triumphing with the Munchies

• While cannabis can give you the munchies, it doesn’t have to.
• There are lots of physiological factors besides cannabis that can affect your appetite.
• Read on for the 4 cannabinoids you can turn to in order to stimulate, regulate, or decrease appetite.

7-minute read

Holidays, the Munchies, and Cannabis

Depending on your perspective, combining the holidays with cannabis and the munchies is either a happy throuple or an unholy trinity. Due to urban lore, though, most of us perpetually associate cannabis with a big appetite. And we have to admit, there’s nothing that enhances a festive meal quite like cannabis. Its properties as an apéritif and sensation enhancer can turn even just a good meal into an unforgettable feast. But, for those of us with health issues ranging from arthritis to diabetes, concern about overeating regularly isn’t just vanity. It’s important that we stay at a healthy weight. Does that mean you have to forego the potential benefits of cannabis? Not at all. While cannabis can stimulate your appetite, it doesn’t have to. Whether your intention this holiday season is to eat mindfully or fully surrender to the pleasures of food, we’ve got your back.

Setting The Table For an Inclusive Conversation

Our very life force is inextricably intertwined with food. So, it’s no surprise that we find eating inherently pleasurable. When humans gather, we eat. Breaking bread together is a universal form of bonding that spans all cultures. But, in modern life, hunger, eating, and digestion can be emotionally fraught. Our Instagram world is too often obsessed with thinness. Meanwhile, not being able to properly eat or digest can damage your health more than almost anything else. Then, add to that the enormous power that stress has on our appetites. For better or for worse, our dietary impulses stem from a nuanced mix of the physiological, the subconscious, and the collective. So, our aim here is to share the facts we know about cannabis and eating. Then, you can draw your own conclusions about how to fit them into your life.

Does Cannabis Always Give You The Munchies?

Both science and lived experience have a lot to tell us about the connection between cannabis and eating. Even if you’ve only consumed cannabis a few times, you’ve probably encountered the munchies at least once for yourself. And that doesn’t just mean waking up with the remnants of a bag of chips stuck to your face. It can also mean that ordinary food suddenly tastes like the best meal you’ve ever had. From THC to THCv and CBD, the truth is that cannabis is all over the place with eating and hunger. Depending on the cannabinoid and the person, cannabis can either increase, decrease, or regulate appetite. That means you could turn to cannabis for any number of digestive assists. Nope, we’re not kidding.

The Physiology of The Munchies

The munchies aren’t just related to cannabis. We all know that person who becomes insufferable as soon as they’re hungry—from a Real Housewives drama queen to a whiny, little beee-atch. They need food, and they need it now! But that’s an extreme. For the rest of us, there’s still a number of ways that our bodies can drive the appetite bus.

The Hormone Monster

As most of us know far too well, the complex interactions of hormones can also impact both your appetite and your metabolism. Don’t get us started on the war stories….

Digestive Dysfunction

If you have challenges with your digestive system and/or your mental health, it’s a safe to bet that your relationship with eating and digestion is likely to be inconsistent at best. Some kinds of stress drive us to eat our anxiety. Other stress makes us lose our appetites completely. Read on for ways to adjust your cannabis consumption to ease yourself through these rough patches.

Medication 

Medications can also impact how you might (or might not) experience the munchies. That goes double for meds related to hormones, mental health, and digestion. Ugh.

Exercise 

Like cannabis, exercise is one of the best ways to take control of your appetite. One well-worn holiday hack is working out or taking a long walk before a big eating event. Depending on your specific physiology, those can either stimulate or suppress your appetite.

Why Can Cannabis Give You The Munchies?

We all get the munchies sometimes, cannabis or not. But here’s how cannabis works on your appetite. Cannabinoids interact with the neurotransmitters involved with our metabolism and eating behaviors. More specifically, they either turn our CB1 receptors on or off. When our CB1 receptors are turned on, we’re hungry. When they’re turned off, we’re not. We have CB1 receptors in the parts of our brains that are involved with eating pleasure as well as food palatability and intake. They’re also in our stomachs and intestines, both of which are involved in the production of hormones that regulate our appetites.

What Cannabinoids Can Bring On the Munchies?

Since everyone has their own quirks in terms of holiday eating goals, here’s a quick look at the various cannabinoids and what we know so far about how they could impact appetite.

Trust THC for both the Munchies and the High

Let’s talk about THC’s role as an appetite stimulant as well as its ability to heighten sensation and even appreciation for food. If your jam is to increase your appetite or appreciation for food, then THC will do the heavy lifting for you. Can you say holiday aperitif? There’s even some indication that higher THC levels are associated with increased appetite. Ghrelin is one of the 5 hormones that control hunger and regulate weight. In a pilot study, a group that smoked THC experienced a significant increase ghrelin levels over a group that received only a placebo. That said, we still need a lot more research to see if it’s just THC or a combo of THC with certain terpenes or other cannabinoids that best stimulates appetite.

CBG could give you the munchies without the high

If you want to avoid the intense high that THC can bring, you can also try CBG. Known as the “mother cannabinoid”, CBG doesn’t provoke any psychoactive effects, and it shows early promise as an anti-inflammatory. Early research also indicates that CBG might stimulate appetite. In 1 study, rats who were satiated before receiving CBG “more than doubled their food intake and increased the number of meals consumed.” So, if you’re looking for a cannabis product that could support pain relief, appetite stimulation, and nausea suppression, CBG could be the ticket.

The Appetite Regulator—CBD

We’re just starting to understand CBD’s role in supporting a healthy appetite. But this well-known cannabinoid seems to play a role in returning the body to homeostasis. There’s initial evidence that CBD might do this by aiding in the regulation of the nervous system. A small study (just over 100 participants) found that 30% of the respondents who were given CBD-enriched cannabis noted increased appetite and weight gain. Conversely, through its mood enhancement and stress regulation, CBD might help decrease the urge to overindulge for those of us who are emotional eaters. If the science continues to support these findings, it’s possible we could use CBD to maintain a healthy appetite that supplies our bodies with the fuel they want, but only when they actually need it.

What Cannabinoids Could Decrease Your Appetite?

If the science of cannabis stimulating appetite is sparse, research is even less clear yet about its appetite decreasing effects. Still there’s some early indications that certain cannabinoids can help you avoid the munchies.

THCv could give you a high without the munchies

The potential of THCv (Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabivarin) is one of the more exciting recent discoveries in cannabis. While THC turns on our CB1 receptors—which makes you feel hungry—THCv seems to turn them off. And that seems to reduce your appetite. In studies on animals, THCv has increased metabolism and satiety as well as reduced appetite. In addition, pharmaceutical companies have conducted research to see if THCv derived medicines might have a positive impact on insulin sensitivity in diabetes patients. Of course, this research is still in its infancy. THCv-specific products are also still fairly rare because not every cannabinoid is in every strain. And THCv occurs in less strains than most. But THCv does occur in African sativa strains like Durban Poison and Red Congolese. So, if you can’t find concentrated THCv in your area yet, there’s always home grow. Finally, since THCv doesn’t occur in large quantities, if you want a strong high, you’ll likely need to combine it with some THC.

The Joy of Food and Cannabis

This holiday season, we’re all about finding joy. And we’re not gonna lie. Whether savory or sweet, food is one of our biggest holiday joys. One of our favorite things about cannabis is its ability to enhance that joy like nothing else. But that doesn’t have to mean being perpetually plagued by the munchies.