cannabisnews.com: Snacks, Alcohol Raise Marijuana Users' Calories





Snacks, Alcohol Raise Marijuana Users' Calories
Posted by FoM on June 11, 2001 at 11:38:32 PT
CNN Health
Source: CNN
Regular marijuana smokers consume up to 40 percent more calories than non-users -- mostly through alcohol, salty snacks and cheese -- and are more likely to smoke tobacco cigarettes, researchers said Monday. But they are also no more likely to be overweight than non-users, researchers found. The study examined the dietary and nutritional habits of about 11,000 marijuana users and non-users between the ages of 20 and 59, and appears in the journal Public Health Nutrition. The data came from a survey done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1988 and 1994. 
"We know little about the long-term effects of marijuana on the human body and other health behaviors associated with it," said Ellen Smit, assistant professor of social and preventive medicine at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and lead author of the study. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. About one-third of Americans over the age of 12 have reported smoking marijuana at some time in their lives, and 8 percent currently use the drug. More chips, beer, cigarettes but little weight gain:The study found that regular marijuana users consumed 24 to 40 percent more calories than non-users. Marijuana users consumed more beer, liquor, soda, pork, cheese and salted snacks such as potato chips, and less diet soda and fruit than non-users, the study found. The study found that 70 percent of the most frequent users of marijuana also smoked tobacco cigarettes, which is nearly three times the rate of non-users. Users also had lower levels of helpful antioxidants in their blood stream, but most vitamin and mineral levels were normal, the study found. The "munchies," the snacking phenomenon associated with marijuana use, may have serious long-term consequences for health, according to the study. "Sparking an appetite would be good -- if it was sparking the right kind of appetite. But we think alcohol accounts for the increased calories," she said. Alcohol accounts for 6 percent of the total caloric intake of marijuana users, but only 3 percent with non-users, she said. "That may not seem like a huge difference, but it all adds up," she said. Despite the increase in calories, Smit found that the body mass indexes, or BMI, of marijuana users were no higher than non-users as would have been expected. BMI measurements take into account height and weight to gauge total body fat in adults. "That is the surprising finding. You would expect their BMIs to be higher," Smit said. One possible explanation is that smoking marijuana increases metabolic rate, Smit said. But more research is needed to determine marijuana's impact on metabolism, she said. The findings contradict other controlled laboratory studies that have shown smoking marijuana increases body weight, along with appetite and food intake, said Dr. Herbert Kleber, professor of psychiatry and director of the Division on Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York. "It increases appetite in patients with AIDS," Kleber said. "If it does that, but it doesn't increase weight, then it doesn't help those patients very much." Source: CNN (US)Published: June 11, 2001Copyright: 2001 Cable News Network, Inc.Contact: cnn.feedback cnn.comWebsite: http://www.cnn.com/Press Release:Dietary Study Finds Marijuana Users Have Normal Nutritional Status, Risky Lifestyle HabitsSource: University of BuffaloRelease Date: Monday, June 11, 2001Contact: Lois Baker - ljbaker buffalo.eduPhone: 716-645-5000 ext 1417Fax: 716-645-3765Website: http://www.buffalo.edu/newsBuffalo, N.Y. -- Smoking marijuana and "the munchies" go together like ham and eggs in anecdotal popular culture. But how do marijuana users fare nutritionally in their everyday lives? Data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), analyzed by University at Buffalo researchers, paint a mixed nutritional picture. Their study, published in the June issue of Public Health Nutrition, found that: • Marijuana users consumed 24-40 percent more calories than non-users, but ate fewer fat calories and had a somewhat lower body mass index, a measure of obesity. • Users ate fewer fruits and vegetables and had lower levels of helpful antioxidant carotenoids in their blood stream, but levels of most vitamins and minerals were normal. • Users drank more soda and beer and ate more cheese and salty snacks than non-users. • Marijuana users smoked more cigarettes. "We know little about the long-term effects of marijuana on the human body and other health behaviors associated with it," said Ellen Smit, Ph.D., assistant professor of social and preventive medicine in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and lead author on the study. "It is important that we learn more about the changes in dietary habits that accompany marijuana use and their beneficial or detrimental effect on the development of chronic diseases." The study examined diet and nutritional status of marijuana users and non-users between the ages of 20 and 59 based on NHANES III data collected between 1988 and 1994. Users were defined as having smoked or consumed marijuana in the past month. The survey involved a complete physical exam and medical history, blood chemistry assessment and questionnaires on foods eaten recently and regularly. The need for information on the health consequences of using marijuana stemmed from public pressure for approval of the medical use of marijuana, and because marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the U.S. Earlier research had shown that a third of U.S. residents over the age of 12 have smoked marijuana at some point. The National College Health Risk Behavior Survey found that 59 percent of students 25 years and older had used marijuana and that 8 percent were current users. In NHANES III, 45 percent of the survey population between the ages of 20 and 59 reported having used marijuana at least once, while 13 percent said they had used it 100 times or more. Nearly 9 percent had used the drug during the past month, with 2 percent qualified as heavy users (11 or more times a month). Users differed from non-current users in some significant ways: They were younger, less well educated, and more likely to be male and to have lower annual incomes. After adjusting for these variables, marijuana users in general did not have poor nutritional status, judging by body mass index and an analysis of important blood components, the study showed. However, they smoked more cigarettes, drank more alcohol, consumed more salt and ate fewer fruits, in addition to having lower carotenoid levels. "These lifestyle habits could increase their risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer in the long term," Smit said. Carlos Crespo, Ph.D., UB associate professor of social and preventive medicine, also contributed to the study. Related Articles:How To Be Thin As A 'Weed' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10016.shtmlThis is Your Brain on Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9884.shtmlNerves Need Marijuana-Like Substance http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9799.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by Robbie on June 11, 2001 at 17:11:40 PT
Manufactured reality
I think fivepounder (speaking of five pounds :) hit it dead on...these are purposely corrolated statistics to show something in a certain light.Plus, do you notice that stories about marijuana can never be positive? There are always negative connotations paired together with any bit of info that puts marijuana in a good light. "Well, it doesn't increase weight, and body fat is about normal... That just means that people will pay the price for their risky behavior" Whaaaaa???And another thing, LONG ago I decided that inebriation through THC was FAR superior to alcohol. If I have a good and steady supply of weed, and if I dont have to clean my system of THC because I'm looking for a job, I drink NO alcohol whatsoever. I think that the methodology in this "study" is entirely too loose to claim certainty in its conclusions.Back to fivepounder, notice Dr. Kleber, and old friend to the drug-reform community...NOT. He is truly pathetic.The findings contradict other controlled laboratory studies that have shown smoking marijuana increases body weight, along with appetite and food intake, said Dr. Herbert Kleber, professor of psychiatry and director of the Division on Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York. "It increases appetite in patients with AIDS," Kleber said. "If it does that, but it doesn't increase weight, then it doesn't help those patients very much." How brilliant. This new research contradicts what he's done before, so instead of capitulating to that fact, and instead of questioning his own certainty on that and other studies, he takes hold of the new research findings and uses them to reconstitute a new theory If it does that, but it doesn't increase weight, then it doesn't help those patients very much. So he thought MJ made people gain weight, but now that it doesn't he has a reason to take it away from people with AIDS. Wonderful compassion for a doctor. 
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Comment #8 posted by MikeEEEEE on June 11, 2001 at 16:02:01 PT
HA HA
And beer makes you fat, this is more useless information.
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Comment #7 posted by J.R. Bob Dobbs on June 11, 2001 at 15:13:09 PT
Think before you drink
  The alcohol and tobacco industries are major contributors to places like the Parents for a Drug Free America. Anyone who is serious about their freedom should stop giving the liquor and nicotine industry their hard earned dollars, and save that money instead and get yourself a NORML membership. 
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Comment #6 posted by jeff snyder on June 11, 2001 at 13:56:00 PT:
Tim
If you name your child Tim it will be more likely that he will blow something up. Please. OK, give me one of what Tim is having and then lets go blow something up. Love, Tim
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Comment #5 posted by jeff snyder on June 11, 2001 at 13:37:26 PT:
Sorry
I love to drink some beer and smoke a joint and eat some chips. I am bad, please fell free to lock me up and take my property. What a sad thought. I am very happy when i have many fruits in the house. I love strawberries and grapes, a good apple, I love all fruit even if it tastes like shit, I want a bite. Just lock me up and throw the key away, I am no good. Yes please just send me to buttfuck school. I try to live right, i try to be fair, i try not to break the law but love to get high in my house sometimes. I am bad so please kick my door down and make me stop and tear up my house for me and put a gun to my head just because i am normal, oh i mean, i am bad so just lock me up.
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Comment #4 posted by fivepounder on June 11, 2001 at 13:32:57 PT
If you believe this I have a bridge for sale 
My experience is that pot smokers use a lot less tobacco then the general public. Many people start using pot and stop forever using tobacco. It is deadly to your health unlike marijuana which never gets mentioned. This whole story seem strange. Its a bunch of so called statistics that we are suppossed to mindlessly believe. This story is as if someone was trying t come up with a way to make pot look bad and somehow commisioned this so called test. 
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Comment #3 posted by aocp on June 11, 2001 at 13:21:41 PT
stoopid gateway drug
Regular marijuana smokers consume up to 40 percent more calories than non-users -- mostly through alcohol, salty snacks and cheese -- and are more likely to smoke tobacco cigarettes, researchers said Monday.What's that? MJ is now the gateway drug to legal intoxicants? What planet are these guys from, anyway?But they are also no more likely to be overweight than non-users, researchers found.I always knew that MJ made my stomach kind of like the Bag of Devouring, from back in my D&D days as a kid. You know, you put a bunch of stuff in and only get some back? Almost as if your digestive tract becomes more streamlined when you're high. Granted, i've gained much more sensible eating habits, coupled with exercise, since i started, but i always wondered about that. :)
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Comment #2 posted by Doug on June 11, 2001 at 12:08:28 PT
I agree
Here is yet another example of a study presented in the mass media without much (any) information as to how the research was done. What kind of control group were they using, for example. Were ther any age-related differences. The figures given in this report certainly differ from my personal experience. But if the mj smokers are concentrated amoung younger people, where the use of tobacco is higher than average, it whould skew these figures. Nothing like this is even commented upon.Most people, and unfortuantely most reporters, are not familar with statistics, their use and misuse, and so reports like this are pretty worthless without a lot of commentary, which of course is not provided. Useless, that is, except to inflame and alarm people.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on June 11, 2001 at 11:53:12 PT:
What and Who Was Really Studied?
Once more, without defining terms, all this produces a lot of heat without much light.The people that I know that are most into cannabis, whether "recreationally" or therapeutically are extremely health conscious, and keep only good things to eat in their abodes. This kind of stereotyping is dangerous, both as propaganda, and in its tendency to create false impressions that carry over into public attitudes and legislative imperatives. Seen any nutritional data on Amerika's regular alcohol tipplers lately?
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