5 Tips to Help You Make Smart Choices When the Munchies Hit

I’m someone who gets the munchies pretty damn bad when I smoke, especially for sweets. Consuming marijuana can significantly increase appetite, leading to intense food cravings. This is because THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, interacts with receptors in the brain to stimulate hunger, increase sensitivity to smell, and enhance the pleasure of eating. I definitely will go through my unhealthy binges of sweets, chips, and other deliciously awful snacks. But for the most part, I TRY, *keyword here:*try, to eat the healthiest I can. In doing this, I’ve come up with a few tips and tricks I use to avoid unhealthy munching.

These may not work for everyone, and others may even have better tricks! If so, I’m all ears, I want to know and I think the rest of the world deserves to know as well!

Tip 1: Do Not Shop High on Cannabis

Whatever you do, just don’t do this. Shopping high is the ultimate no and how you end up coming home with 10 bags of Fritos, nacho cheese, and a gallon of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie. THC affects the brain by interacting with receptors that control appetite, leading to increased food cravings. It stimulates hunger by enhancing the pleasure of eating and altering satiety levels. Shopping high is a dangerous path to walk on and I wouldn’t suggest it.

Tip 2: Meal Prep

One trick I’ve been attempting to get into the habit of is meal prepping. Meal prepping can help manage food cravings induced by cannabis, making it easier to stick to a healthy diet. When you get in the groove of planning out the upcoming week’s worth of breakfast, lunch, and dinner it is amazing not only how healthy you can eat, but how much money you can save!

For me, prepping my meals, especially lunches, saves me a ton of money not eating out every day! When you do have to eat out, it can become very expensive very quickly – and that’s money you could be spending on good weed or saving for that trip you want to go on.

Tip 3: Create a List

My advice is to always, ALWAYS create a grocery list before you go. If you meal prep this is essential for obvious reasons, but even if you don’t meal prep, this is probably the most helpful tip second to don’t shop high.

Creating a list is great because you can research (Pinterest is amazing!) and plan the best munchie foods to have throughout the next few days or week. This helps manage the types of food you crave when experiencing the munchies, ensuring you have high-calorie, sweet, and fatty foods in moderation. Having the list to go off of in the store also keeps you from wondering what you’re there for and then getting home to realize you bought nothing you needed but instead got a bunch of half-meal items that you can’t cook anything with.

The point is, lists are crucial to healthy munching.

Tip 4: Healthy Munchies for Food Cravings

Now here comes the best part – what are some healthy munchies? THC affects taste by making food smell better and taste more delicious, which can make healthy munchies more appealing. The endocannabinoid system plays a crucial role in regulating appetite and food preferences.

Carrots, hummus, pita, olives, celery & peanut butter. Fruits and veggies are always great snacks! But also, I feel you and know that most don’t want to/can just munch on pretty much raw veggies all the time. That’s why I’ve included a couple of my favorite and quick munchie recipes below (excluding chips & guac of course).

Zucchini pizza bites

1 zucchini | Tomato Sauce | Cheese

Slice the zucchini into quarter-inch slices and place on a cookie sheet and brush both sides with olive oil. Broil the zucchini for 1-2 minutes on each side. Top with tomato sauce and cheese, place in oven to bake until cheese is melted. Now go enjoy!

Hummus avocado toast

Toast your piece of bread and top with hummus. Top sliced avocado, season with garlic salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast, and voila! (Sometimes I add tomato).

Tip 5: Sweet Tooth Success

This tip speaks for itself. THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, can increase hunger and lead to a sweet tooth. This increased appetite and food cravings induced by THC can potentially result in weight gain. If you’re like me you love sweets! Which can be troubling, so here are a few things I do to curb the sweet tooth.

1. Dark chocolate

Since dark chocolate is so rich, it usually satisfies my craving. I try to keep dark chocolate on hand so when I do get that sweet tooth, I can have a piece of that.

2. Plan ahead

If I know my period is coming up or that I’m going to be home for a while I like to get something for the house so I won’t go out last minute and buy something even more awful.

3. Try to bake your own sweets

By baking your own, you can moderate what items go into the sweets. For example, I like to bake with coconut sugar instead of cane, and agave nectar instead of syrups.

Check out a few links below to some seriously delicious healthy sweet options!

Healthy Snickers Pie (Raw, Vegan, Gluten + Grain Free, Refined Sugar-Free)

Maple Vanilla Bean Meringue Cookies

Healthy Key Lime Pie

So now that you know all my tips or tricks on healthy munchies, I’d love to hear yours! Please feel free to reach out with your favorite recipes and munchie tricks you have.