Marijuana consumers gain less weight than non-users
The long-standing belief that marijuana users are nothing more than stoners who sit around “getting high” and fat has been perpetuated by Hollywood and this is apparently the main source of education for most people when it comes to the benefits and drawbacks of cannabis consumption. That education has been completely off base and science is continuing to show the true value of cannabis. The latest comes from a group of researchers who show that marijuana use is actually tied more greatly to weight loss – not weight gain.
Researchers at Michigan State University studied data that was made available from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESAR). This is a national study designed to represent a major cross-section of the population of citizens in the U.S. 18 years old or older, and the researchers considered responses from over 33,000 individuals in conducting their study.
In 2001-2002, participants were asked about their cannabis use. When they returned for a follow-up interview in 2004-2005, they were once again quizzed on the topic. Researchers used these responses in conjunction with charting body mass index (BMI) of all respondents and found “an attenuated BMI gain for cannabis-use subgroups when compared with never-users.”
Put simply, those who consumed marijuana gained weight, but at a rate lower than those who had never consumed.
The researchers stated, “In NESARC, persistent cannabis users and the initiates were under-represented in stably obese subgroups. In addition, these same actively cannabis-using subgroups were under-represented among newly incident cases of obesity observed at W2.” They also went so far as to assert, “For many patients. Cannabis may be a better option for weight loss than surgery or pharmaceuticals.”