Weed’s Tastiest Side Effect: How Women Across the Country Enjoy the Munchies

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[00:00:55] Whitney Conroy: I love the munchies because I love sweets and treats and, and I don’t consume that often. So it’s like part of the ritual for me. The munchie is, you know, I’m like Friday night, kids are going to go to bed. I’m going to have an edible and I’m going to eat some chocolate cake.

[00:01:14] Ellen Scanlon: Welcome to how to do the pot, a podcast helping you feel confident about cannabis.

[00:01:20] Ellen Scanlon: I’m your host Ellen’s gambling.

[00:01:29] Ellen Scanlon: You just heard from Whitney Conroy, the California based chief commercial officer at cannabis genetics company, Phyllis bioscience. Today’s show is about a very tasty side effect of weed, having the munchies. Recently, we polled our Instagram followers at do the pot. Thanks to everyone who responded. And we asked you about the munchies.

[00:01:56] Ellen Scanlon: 95 percent of you said that you had experienced them. So I thought it would be fun to hear from women all across the country about this delicious part of cannabis. The most common munchie that you love, it’s salt and vinegar potato chips. And really any kind of potato chips. My mouth is watering a little, even thinking about them.

[00:02:21] Ellen Scanlon: Other fun munchies that you told us you love are milk and cookies, fresh fruit and cereal, which happens to be my favorite. Going way back since college. My favorite munchie is frosted mini wheats. In today’s show, we’ll hear from women all across the country about their favorite munchies and the rituals that go along with them.

[00:02:46] Ellen Scanlon: Whether it’s enhancing a Friday night like Whitney or supporting a medical issue that makes food unappealing, understanding how the munchies work can be a tool to help you enjoy cannabis even more.

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[00:03:52] Ellen Scanlon: What causes an increase in appetite after, for example, smoking a joint. If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you may have guessed that this has something to do with the endocannabinoid system or the ECS. And it does. In 2014, researchers found that cannabinoids bond with the brain’s CB1 receptors.

[00:04:15] Ellen Scanlon: These receptors are located in the part of your brain that controls smell, the olfactory bulb. When cannabinoids bond with these receptors, it heightens the sense of smell, and that makes food literally taste better. Cannabis also helps your brain release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that aids your body in experiencing pleasure.

[00:04:38] Ellen Scanlon: The added release of dopamine after you’ve consumed cannabis makes eating feel better, too. So cannabis causes the munchies by making food literally taste and feel better to eat. What about the added hunger that you may have heard about or experienced? Research suggests that cannabis stimulates the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone.

[00:05:03] Ellen Scanlon: Ghrelin is present in both men and women, though typically women have more of the hunger hormone than men. And yet, according to research from the Columbia University Medical Center, the munchies are one of the few side effects that affect men more than women. This has been confirmed in other studies, and we still don’t know the exact reasons why men are more likely to have an increased appetite.

[00:05:30] Ellen Scanlon: It’s one of the many studies I hope to see in the coming years. For Evelyn Ames, a California based cannabis nurse, the munchies are more than just a fun side effect of cannabis. They help her eat when stress curbs her appetite.

[00:05:46] Evelyn Eames: I utilize cannabis in order to give myself an appetite. Usually I’m consuming very calming, relaxing kind of frames and I find that those are very heavy in the munchies.

[00:05:56] Evelyn Eames: That’s usually what I go for to help me. eat throughout the day. Over the years with a lot of stress with the pandemic and with my job as a nurse, I found that food aversion has become really high and it’s been hard for me to eat at all some days. And so it’s nice to be able to just know that I can use that and know what amount I need, which is wonderful to have learned about myself and I can consume that.

[00:06:20] Evelyn Eames: And then I know that I can have a good healthy meal. I can Nourish my body, nourish and take care of myself properly.

[00:06:27] Ellen Scanlon: Evelyn’s cannabis routine starts when she gets home since she can’t consume during the workday.

[00:06:33] Evelyn Eames: Usually when I come home, it’s kind of like a, how’s the day been? How much have I been able to eat throughout the day without it?

[00:06:40] Evelyn Eames: Do I need to consume more calories for my health? Do I, do I need it or not? Eventually. And so I kind of play it every day as a day by day thing. Um, typically when I do feel like I’m coming home, it’s six ten o’clock at night, I have zero appetite. I don’t want to eat dinner. And I barely ate throughout the day.

[00:06:57] Evelyn Eames: I’ll be outside for a second and just half a joint, even just a quarter of a joint. And so I just feel kind of that interesting food coming back on. And as soon as that happens, I go start making dinner. And by the time dinner’s ready, it’s just the perfect time and I can eat a whole plate and I can nourish my body.

[00:07:12] Evelyn Eames: That is the number one reason and the one thing I use it for.

[00:07:15] Ellen Scanlon: You know that moment when you realize that you have the munchies? Food suddenly seems so good. Whitney Conroy, who you heard from at the beginning of the show, has created a special weekend ritual, taking an edible and really enjoying the sweets that she loves.

[00:07:34] Whitney Conroy: I joke with the bakery woman, the woman who bakes all the cakes at the Vons down the street for me, that I single handedly like keep her in business because I buy all of the little like five inch round cakes and I take them home and hide them from my children and just eat them by myself. I love the munchies because I love sweets and treats and and I don’t consume that often so it’s like part of the ritual for me, the munchie.

[00:08:01] Whitney Conroy: is, you know, I’m like Friday night, kids are going to go to bed, I’m going to have an edible, and I’m going to eat some chocolate cake because I don’t drink too. So it’s like when people would go out to a bar and have two drinks, I’m like my calories chocolate cake instead of two beers. So it’s part of my ritual more so than something I’m trying to avoid.

[00:08:20] Ellen Scanlon: Janet Matula, the California based Director of Compliance and Business Development for Gelato Caneco, knows that the munchies enhance her already strong love for carbs.

[00:08:32] Janet Matula: I am such a carb person, oh my God, it’s a sickness, you know, it is a total sickness. That’s my go to, carbs, and I have tried to switch myself to Halo ice cream things, but give me a bagel.

[00:08:47] Janet Matula: Give me the crust of pizza. Those are my go to. Absolutely. I would never turn down sugar, of course, but I’m totally into carbs. A big bowl of pasta will do me every time.

[00:09:03] Ellen Scanlon: Kate Oles, the Ohio based Executive Vice President at Acreage Holdings, is on Team Salty Snacks.

[00:09:10] Kate Ols: So I like try and be healthy, meaning I don’t have the worst snacks in the house all the time, but I am known to demolish a good box of Cheez Its because they’re like baked and that means they’re good for you.

[00:09:22] Kate Ols: So like I can put down some Cheez Its like nobody’s business. Always salty, never sweet. Sometimes I’ll go goldfish. Again, another like baked cheese cracker, but those would be my usual go tos. Cheez Its are number one though.

[00:09:37] Ellen Scanlon: To really enjoy her munchies, Kate chooses a strain that helps her stay focused when she’s cooking.

[00:09:43] Ellen Scanlon: And she enjoys a different strain when it’s time to relax and eat.

[00:09:47] Kate Ols: If I’m cooking, I’m putting the effort in. Like, we’re going all out. This is not some pre made sauce that I’m just tossing in a pot. So, I would probably lean more to like a Northern Light taste because this is a marathon. After an hour, I need to still be completely in the right mind of thinking to determine if I like this or not and have the energy to like make it to the end.

[00:10:08] Kate Ols: And I would enjoy the gelato After I’ve cooked so, but I have to like make it through all of the effort that it took to get that on the plate first.

[00:10:23] Ellen Scanlon: When you smell cannabis flower, you can tell pretty quickly if you’re going to like it. The saying goes, your nose knows. Terpenes are naturally occurring chemical compounds found in plants. Terpenes and cannabis are complicated and they have a lot of very scientific names. Kendra Stocking, the director of sales at Notura Life Sciences, shares how she helps people understand them.

[00:10:51] Kendra Stocking: I used to tell people, think of terpenes as essential oils, right? It was really easy to make that comparison. Linalool is lavender. Lavender helps calm you down. Indica are more sedative because they’re higher in linalool, right? So, pinene has like a piney smell to it. They do, they make you feel different ways.

[00:11:11] Kendra Stocking: So, if you can recognize those smells in the strains of cannabis, that should help drive you to understand what way you want to feel. So, something kind of has like a bright uplifting smell. You just think about aromatherapy, essential oils, it’s all the same thing, right? It all comes from plants too.

[00:11:28] Kendra Stocking: Essential oils are just like, steamed extractions of terpenes from lavender or limonene from lemon. It’s the same thing.

[00:11:35] Ellen Scanlon: Dominique White is the Illinois based director of people and operations for women owned dispensary chain Ivy Hall. She believes that understanding terpenes can help guide your munchies toward different flavors, sweet, salty, or savory.

[00:11:51] Dominique White: I think munchies definitely ties to certain terpenes and terpenes are the active ingredients in cannabis. It’s what makes you feel a little loopy or tired or give you that pain relief that you’re looking for. But most of the times for me with munchies, if I smoke like an indica strain or something that gives you more of a body high, then naturally you’re relaxed.

[00:12:11] Dominique White: You’re more in that chill environment. So it makes you want to start to snack. The terpenes would give you more of a taste for a certain something, whether it’s more of that salty or more of that sweet, I’m a big sweet tooth person. So I love something, um, that has like a nice cold texture, something that’s chewy or something that, again, that that’s nice and sweet and gives you kind of like a sweet tooth.

[00:12:32] Dominique White: I love an ice cream or like a ice cream sandwich or ice cream that has maybe some nuts or something like a, like a granola texture to it. And then on the flip side of that, uh, more of like immersing. So it’ll make you kind of want something a little bit more of that sweet side or sometimes even like a salty side.

[00:12:49] Dominique White: Since you’re smoking, there’s a terpene called osmine, which gives you that kind of sweet sensation while you’re smoking. So that kind of will make you want to have the opposite, something kind of a little bit more savory, or, you know, maybe some Doritos, some pretzels. It ties all back to those terpenes and how they interact with your, your body chemistry.

[00:13:07] Ellen Scanlon: While we’re celebrating the joys of the munchies today, sometimes eating a lot of extra food is not the goal. If you’re trying to avoid overeating, Dominique swears by chewing gum.

[00:13:20] Dominique White: So for someone like me, I love to chew gum because it actually makes your mouth water, gives you some of that saliva back from that cotton mouth feel you can have from traditionally smoking.

[00:13:30] Dominique White: For me, always watching, watching what we eat and watching our figure. Um, so for me, sometimes when those munchies take over, it’s late at night, I’m trying to get some relaxation to get some sleep. I don’t necessarily want to have an ice cream sandwich or have a high calorie content. It’s like popping in a, you know, a piece of gum or a peppermint, something to give you that satisfaction for that craving, but it’s not too naughty on, on the hips and the tummy area.

[00:13:54] Ellen Scanlon: Georgia based Takesha Harvey and Florida based Diana San Miguel are the co founders of Cannacurious, an online magazine showcasing the many ways cannabis can enhance a woman’s lifestyle. Takesha normally has a sweet tooth, but her favorite munchie is salty. Tortilla chips.

[00:14:15] Tekisha Harvey: I’m typically a sweet person, but when I consume, it’s like my salt savory tongue goes into effect and I love, love, love tortilla chips.

[00:14:25] Tekisha Harvey: They’re not allowed usually in my house because I will eat the whole bag. You know, the family size bag. And that probably is by and far is chips. So it could be barbecue chips. Voodoo chips, the Zaps Voodoo chips, I also love, which I found out is a combination of salt and vinegar in barbecue. So again, more salt and tortilla chips.

[00:14:46] Tekisha Harvey: I love the lime flavored tortilla chips.

[00:14:51] Ellen Scanlon: Diana San Miguel sticks to microdosing weed, in part because she wants to avoid getting the munchies.

[00:14:59] Diana Sanmiguel: For me, it’s a tough one because I have kids and kids have snacks. So I have them all. I go for the sweets. I’m usually like a no sugar person in my not high life or when I don’t consume.

[00:15:12] Diana Sanmiguel: So when I do get the munchies, I go for the Oreos. For the Cheetos, all that my kids have in that drawer. So that’s why I’m like, I don’t like getting high. Cause I go through a pantry. I try to keep the micro dosing and I’m very, I’m a very light consumer. I realized I do it more for like wellness aspects.

[00:15:34] Diana Sanmiguel: And I try not to get myself to a place where I’m high and I can’t control those munchies. Once in a while I’ll get high and that’s when I hit the Oreos.

[00:15:44] Ellen Scanlon: Takesha and Deanna both mentioned a very popular strain, Jack Herrera. Jack Herrera is one of How to Do the Pot’s essential strains for women, and you can learn all about it in episode 226.

[00:15:58] Ellen Scanlon: For Tekesha, it seems to stave off the munchies.

[00:16:02] Tekisha Harvey: I found that I think Jack Herrera does not give me the munchies. It’s more like uplifting, focused, clear, but everything else. I’m eating. And so usually what I do to avoid munchies is either I consume right after I eat or right before I eat. So then as it kicks in, I’ll enjoy my food a little bit more or I’m already full and I’m not.

[00:16:23] Tekisha Harvey: So I don’t get like hungrier.

[00:16:25] Ellen Scanlon: Jack Herrera is beloved for its stress free euphoria that comes without any uncomfortable spikes or anxiety. It’s known in some circles as a daytime medical strain, so if stress relief is what you’re looking for, this strain could be something to try earlier in the day and see if it helps you feel more at ease, calmer, and in a better mood.

[00:16:48] Ellen Scanlon: It’s also a perfect reminder that cannabis affects everyone differently. For Diana, Jack Herrera takes food to a new level of delicious.

[00:16:59] Diana Sanmiguel: I just eat and eat, and it’s just such a pleasure to eat on that string. You remember that? Because that’s one of my bay pins that I use, and I’m like The times that I’ve gone out, I’m just like, Oh my God, this tastes so good.

[00:17:13] Ellen Scanlon: Do you have a favorite strain for enhancing or reducing the effects of the munchies? I’d love to hear about it. Please reach out to hi at do the pot. com or DM us at do the pot. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. We love new listeners and are here to help everyone feel confident about cannabis.

[00:17:38] Ellen Scanlon: Thank you for listening to how to do the pot for lots more information and past episodes, visit do the pot. com. Are you one of the thousands of people who love how to do the pot’s newsletter? If you’re not getting it, please sign up at do the pot. com. And if you like how to do the pot. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

[00:18:01] Ellen Scanlon: It really helps people find the show. Thanks to our producers, Maddy Fair and Nick Patry. I’m Ellen Scanlon, and we’ll be back soon with more of How to Do the Pot.

[00:18:24] Ellen Scanlon: We drinks are popping up everywhere, and if you’re looking to drink less alcohol, I really recommend trying one cans drinkable, delicious cannabis beverages come in lots of flavors and with THC levels that range from one milligram to 10 milligrams. So you can choose how you want to feel. Use promo code.

[00:18:45] Ellen Scanlon: Do the pot for 20 percent off when you visit drink can. com. That’s drink C A N N. Try a can today and have a great time without the hangover. Thank you for supporting the brands that support our show.