Wanna Get Higher? Eat More Fats Before Toking Up, Says Study
One of the most interesting aspects of cannabis studies on human biology as of late show that getting high isn’t just a black and white thing.
What you eat before and during your smoke session actually has an impact on how your body absorbs certain cannabinoids. Fat seems to be a particularly important food group, though it’s no surprise as any seasoned cannabis cook will tell you that coconut oil, butter, and other sources of fat are essential to make edibles more potent.
For instance, a brand-new clinical study conducted by Canadian researchers and published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research revealed that eating a meal high in fat before consuming THC orally had a positive impact in the duration of your high.
The researchers analyzed the effects and absorption patterns of 28 subjects who consumed oral THC capsules, either after eating a high-fat meal or while fasting. They found that when the subjects ate a high-fat meal before their dose, their hit had a delayed onset but they experienced enhanced effects.
“Altogether, these findings suggest that the presence of a high-fat meal before administrating an oral dose of THC increases the levels of both THC and 11-OH-THC, but at the rate at which this occurs is slower,” they write. They also acknowledge that oral THC doses were “well-tolerated” by the participants whether they were in fasted state or not.
What this means for consumers, both medical or recreational, is that there is surely some economical and therapeutic advantage to consuming a healthy yet high-fat meal before your dose. This isn’t new, as there are older studies that say, eating healthy fats before getting stoned can enhance your high.
That’s because THC needs to bind to fatty acids in order to be transported through the blood-brain barrier. THC, as well as CBD, are fat soluble.
What About CBD?
It seems the effect has been observed in CBD as well, which has an impact on patients who consume CBD to treat epilepsy or seizures.
A 2019 study of how CBD is affected by food intake, researchers analyzed CBD concentrations in the body of patients who consumed it fasted and compared it to those who consumed it within 30 minutes of eating a breakfast containing at least 800 calories, with 600 of the calories contributed by fat.
They found staggering results: the average levels of CBD among the subjects who ate a fatty meal were 14 times more compared to those who fasted. They didn’t connect the absorption levels to a difference in the cognitive effects of CBD though the study suggests that eating a high fat meal improves the benefit of CBD for seizure control.
“For epilepsy patients, a goal is to maintain consistent blood concentrations of the drug,” explains co-author Angela Birnbaum. “This study shows that CBD concentrations could vary significantly if patients take it differently, sometimes with or without food. Variations in blood concentrations could leave a patient more susceptible to seizures.”
“The type of food can make a large difference in the amount of CBD that gets absorbed into the body. Although fatty foods can increase the absorption of CBD, it can also increase the variability as not all meals contain the same amount of fat.”
“Increases in the amount of the CBD dose being absorbed into the body can also lead to lower medication costs,” explains Ilo Leppik, another co-author.
An important takeaway of this study is that epilepsy patients should indeed consume their CBD medication with a healthy high-fat meal consistently at the same time every day.
What Kind Of Fat To Eat?
If you want to enhance your high using fat, know that not all fats are made equally. While butter is the carrier of choice for many out there, this saturated fat contains high levels of long-chain fatty acids and has been shown to be the most potent in dissolving cannabinoids.
But it’s also healthy to explore plant-based fats including olive oil, avocado oil, and sesame oil. Plant-based fats are unsaturated, and they do make cannabis compounds more bioavailable but with less of the potency that saturated animal fats do.
Coconut oil has taken the health industry by storm in recent years. It is proven to deliver significant health benefits, particularly those of saturated fats, without the harmful effects of saturated fats on the heart. For this reason, many cannabis enthusiasts are consuming cannabis-infused coconut oil.
Coconut oil contains some 90% of saturated fat, yet it’s a plant-based option that is derived from medium-chain fatty acids that do not harden the arteries nor increase cholesterol levels. If you are watching your health, coconut oil is an option you may want to consider.
Fat and cannabis interact in fascinating yet complex ways, much of which still remain to be understood. These findings will be vital for medicinal users, but also for recreational consumers especially if you medicate with edible forms to ensure you get an optimal dose with the cannabinoids that you need.
Have you tried experimenting with your cannabis dosage and fat? What were the results like?
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