Perpetual munchies

As Murphy (the narc) says in “Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke” (1978): “Ingestion of marijuana from smoking invariably produces not only severe hunger pains, but ... [a] portentous appetite ... manifesting itself in a total uncontrollable frenzy of eating quite a lot.”

Well, research now shows that the typical high-fat, sugar-packed American diet creates similar impulses by overstimulating your body’s endocannabinoid system.

This system is needed for appetite regulation (and other stuff), and it’s made up of lipid-signaling molecules called endocannabinoids that essentially are the body’s natural cannabis. In fact, these molecules activate the same receptors in your brain and body that THC, the active component of marijuana, does. According to the study in Physiology & Behavior, mice fed a typical American diet, loaded with fat and sugar, ate larger meals, took in more calories and did so more rapidly than mice fed a low-fat, low-sugar diet. But don’t take the mice’s word for it. One medication that blocked the brain’s endocannabinoid receptors effectively prevented the munchies that high-fat, high-sugar foods trigger. It was approved for use as a weight-control drug in Europe, but had to be pulled off shelves because it caused severe psychiatric side effects. The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. never did approve it. However, the researchers who did the recent mice experiments say they can prevent those side effects, so one day you might be able to turn off your endocannabinoid-triggered munchies and watch your compulsion to overeat go up in smoke!