How To Fight Obesity? Maybe Try Smoking Marijuana

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The rapture is still right around the corner, but even if we somehow get past that cataclysmic event, America has other problems—like the fact that half the population will be obese by 2030. But there may be a solution: start smoking marijuana!

That's what new research out of France suggests, although researchers decidedly do not recommend that course. Because marijuana increases appetite, researchers hypothesized that users would be more obese than non users. But they discovered the opposite: "We found that cannabis users are less likely to be obese than non-users. We were so surprised, we thought we had [made] a mistake. Or that our results were due to the sample we studied. So we turned to another completely independent sample and found exactly the same association," says Dr. Yann Le Strat, a psychiatrist at Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, France and co-author of a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Obesity rates among participants in the two surveys who didn't smoke pot were 22 percent and 25.3 percent; those who do smoking pot at least three days a week had obesity rates of 14.3 percent and 17.2 percent. Le Strat warns that there could be "confounding factors"—pot users might exercise more, be outdoors more, eat more fruits and vegetables—and doesn't think the take-home message should be 'smoke cannabis, it will help you lose weight.'

But Andrea Giancoli, a Los Angeles-based registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, says that maybe it's time we started thinking differently about the typical pot head: "I know when we think about smoking pot, one of the jokes is that it gives you the munchies and dry mouth so you drink a bunch of water and eat a bunch of Cheetos. Maybe we need to adjust the stereotype." And while neither Le Strat nor Giancoli recommend people start smoking pot to lose weight, we can't help but wonder what might happen if a certain overweight Governor stayed away from the helicopters, fatty foods, and beaches for awhile and got in touch with his inner Snoop Dogg.

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By Ben Yakas in Food on September 4, 2011 3:25 PM

Comments [rss]

MaintainTheConstitution

http://medicalmarijuanacouncil... provides lots of good information from doctors, scientists, researchers, and patients showing the broad range of health benefits of marijuana. Why hasn't the federal law been repealed? It's clearly not a schedule 1 drug, but rather a non-toxic herb.

Greg

it's true

kyridgeruner

Enjoyed reading the article. Thanks.

soothsayer

if that's true, maybe this poor girl should lay off the reefer.

CedrickD1

What is Kush? No just kidding. I love to smoke daily and I think mmj kelps me stay in shape.

nicemarmot

I used to be a pothead and I wouldn't say I was thin, but I certainly wasn't fat. I think if you're really a regular user you get used to the effect it has on your appetite. I enjoyed food more when I was stoned, but I didn't necessarily stuff myself or eat junk food.

T. Funke

Yeah this is true. All the potheads I know are really thin...

Unemployed and lazy, but thin nonetheless...

/get a job, hippie.

kyridgeruner

Well instead of calling them lazy, why not help remove some laws? Laws that prevent those consumers from obtaining work!

Unemployment might also be reduced by those actions. The economy might even be able to grow again. Wars are why the economy is like it is, and locking up tax payers for consuming their product, well that lowers the tax base dollars. It also increases spending for tax dollars to pay to jail these consumers/ tax payers/ citizens.

So why not try becoming part of the solution? Try to help instead of hurt! It's time to change some laws, and get America back to growing some trully Green Jobs.

From what I have seen yes most are healthy consumers.

The people I have seen that are way thin, suffer from emotional issues. They are taking anything and everything to try and cope daily with life in our society. I pray they find peace someday, before life ends.

Have a Happy Labor Day :)

malcolmkyle

Then how come all the one's the rest of us know are so successful? Here's an incomplete list of the planet's most famous "potheads" (there's only room here for A through B) :

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Louisa May Alcott

Robert Altman

Jennifer Aniston

Louis Armstrong

Hal Ashby

Mary Aubert

Dan Aykroyd

Tallulah Bankhead

Candy Barr

Mischa Barton

Orson Bean

Glenn Beck

Gertrude Bell

John Belushi

Walter Benjamin

Jack Black

Lewis Black

Susan Blackmore

H.P. Blavatsky

Michael Bloomberg

Usain Bolt

Paul Bowles

Pattie Boyd

Peter Boyle

Bill Bradley

Richard Branson

Jeff Bridges

Pierce Brosnan

Christopher Buckley

Lord Buckley

William F. Buckley

Richard Burton

Chris O'Hara

oh like steve jobs bill gates prez bush and obama michael phelps sir richard branson rick steves michael bloomberg ted turner montel williams steven king arnold schwarzenegger i guess these people never amounted to a dam thing except for being famous powerful and extremely wealthy worthless pot heads can never amount to anthing hahahahaha

T. Funke

You sound fat

And good god, man. Have you ever heard of commas?

malcolmkyle

And you sound like a 'low-life prohibitionist'

Haven't you heard of what happened to the economy during alcohol prohibition (1919-1933)?

Or have you ever watched the drug war clock as it ticks away all our hard earned tax dollars? Maybe YOU'RE still flush enough to continue throwing money at this moronathon, but the rest of us have definitely had more than enough of this idiotic farce.

It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but you prohibitionists wish to waste hundreds of billions of our money in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets. Please go and sell crazy someplace else because we've had a guts-full

Duncan20903

The motto of the Know Nothing prohibitionist is "never let the facts get in the way of disseminating an effective piece of hysterical rhetoric."

T. Funke

Wow, you are a fucking idiot.

I never said anything about the legality of pot or the war on drugs. My opinion on drug users has nothing to do with whether or not I think it should be legal.

You must have hit the bong a little extra hard this morning.

malcolmkyle

You're displaying signs of pathetic sadomoralism in every single one of your posts, so I'm afraid it's quite obvious as to what you exactly are.

Why are you waging war on your own family, friends and neighbors?

Why do you rejoice at wasting precious resources on prohibition related undercover work while rapists and murderers walk free, and while additionally, many cases involving murder and rape do not even get taken to trial because law enforcement priorities are subverted by your beloved failed and dangerous policy?

T. Funke

Since you obviously have no reading comprehension skills, I will spell out my beliefs in all Caps: I DO NOT SUPPORT THE WAR ON DRUGS OR THE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF PEOPLE THAT SMOKE POT.

I was in favor of the decriminalization or marijuana in CA, or other localities that want to decriminalize it.

As for your comment about my friends, families and neighbors being drug users that I'm waging war on: fuck you. I'm not waging war on anyone. I merely stated that people who smoke massive amounts of pot might not be the most productive individuals. It's my opinion. You have jumped to your own conclusion about my political beliefs, which makes you an ignorant asshole.

Bill Sanders

Stoners are only lazy when under the affect of marijuana, and that is by complete choice so that they can achieve the full affects without "walking off" their high.

As for generating abstractions, a third of the stoners in the world become on par with geniuses in creating abstractions and ideas to invent, help the world, etc. Thus being why many pot smokers usually talk so much, the mind is generating thoughts faster than the person can grasp.