Is It Healthy To Eat Raw Cannabis?

By Staff Report
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Updated: September 9, 2020

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Thinking about it, cannabis is a plant like many others, and we eat other plants without a care in the world. Why wouldn’t we eat cannabis as well? Well, as it turns out, we do! Cannabis purchased from reputable dispensaries such as westcoastcannabis is classified as a superfood, filled with plenty of phytochemicals and other beneficial nutrients. You can use it to spice up a salad or a fruit juice and see where that takes you.

In fact, cannabis contains the following nutrients that have a proven track record of benefiting your body:

Minerals
Vitamins
Fibers
Proteins
Antioxidants

You could be thinking that it’s not a nice experience to suddenly start chewing cannabis leaves out of the blue. However, that’s not at all what eating raw cannabis entails. You can easily use it in salads or throw a few pinches in your smoothie in the morning or, if you did want to take your cannabis use one step further, learn how to make weed wax yourself for smoking. You’ll barely feel it’s there but over time, its benefits will influence you considerably. Are you curious about the specific benefits? Good, because we’ll go over them right now!

Actual benefits of eating raw cannabis

Did you know that smoking or cooking cannabis has an adverse effect on its molecules? The terpenes and the cannabinoid acids are altered upon exposure to high temperatures. Not everything is bad, though, as the chemical reactions often associated with smoking cannabis is getting high. However, the fumes are dangerous to your health.

Eating raw cannabis, though, preserves the natural, unaltered properties of these molecules. You get to consume chemical compounds that would otherwise be destroyed through the smoking process. BudStars points out that the main benefit of eating raw cannabis is that you get the added benefits to your endocannabinoids system without getting high or inhaling dangerous fumes.

We mentioned cannabinoid acids. These acids are actually the natural state of cannabinoids like THC and CBD. In their natural state, these acids, called THCA and CBDA, offer the following benefits to your body:

Analgesic properties

Helps your stomach relax

Produces more endocannabinoids and bind to the CB1 and CB2 receptors

Improves your mood

Not psychoactive

There are also terpenes and flavonoids in their natural form. Specific terpenes like limonene and myrcene, for instance, are known to provide relaxing benefits to consumers. This effect is even more potent when you eat the cannabis raw and you get to ingest more of those terpenes. Naturally, through the smoking process, many terpenes disappear or lose their functions.

Lastly, flavonoids are extremely important chemical compounds found in other plants such as kale, berries, tea, and broccoli. They’ve been found to have a series of benefits for the human body. In cannabis, you can find flavonoids such as Quercetin, Cannflavin A and Cannflavin B, Kaempferol, etc. These guys have antioxidant effects and are beneficial to cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, they’re very good at cleaning out your arteries.

Can I get high from eating raw cannabis?

The short answer would be no. Eating raw cannabis won’t get you high because it doesn’t contain the psychoactive cannabinoids found in the weed once you start smoking it. Through the carboxylation process (high temperatures), the THCA and CBDA (which are not psychoactive), covert to THC and CBD, which are cannabinoids we know and love.

Keep in mind that if you want to consume the cannabis in its raw form, or even a form of cannabis like the best THCA flower out there, you can’t cook it, smoke it, steam it, dry it, or vape it. Instead, you can use it in salads, smoothies, juices, eat the hemp seeds raw (very tasty), or make cold-pressed hemp seed oil. You can use the oil to cook, though, as it won’t lose to many of its properties.

The only risks you’re exposing yourself to when eating raw cannabis is contracting dangerous bacteria like E. coli. Ideally, the plants you eat shouldn’t be sprayed with chemical pesticides because these may leave potentially dangerous residues on the plant. We recommend that you only eat raw cannabis grown by you. This way, you ensure that it’s safe to eat and you retain all the health benefits coming with it.

All you have to do now is go to your growth room, take a leaf or two, cut it into bits, and sprinkle it in a salad. Ideally, add some broccoli or kale as well. These plants have similar compounds with similar benefits like cannabis. If you like the taste, you can try making juice or smoothies next time. The hemp seeds are particularly tasty and they’re rich in iron, fibers, amino acids, and omega fatty acids.