Cannabis and Nutrition Gives You Legs To Stand On

Cannabis is one of the most powerful healing medicines available to humanity. It works in harmony with the body’s natural systems to fight inflammation, reduce pain, kill cancer cells, and regulate emotions. However, the medicine does not work in a vacuum.

It is absolutely imperative to maintain excellent nutrition to optimize cannabis therapy, especially when dealing with a life-threatening illness.

One of the most important things you can do is maintain a proper Omega-6 to Omega-3 essential fatty acid balance. We all need to ingest essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot produce them. However, the Western diet includes far too much Omega-6.

Foods to Avoid

Stay away from chips, soda and candy.

We should ideally consume a diet with equal quantities of Omega-6 and Omega-3, but most people eat up to 17 times more Omega-6. This is because of the prevalence of vegetable oils like canola, corn, cottonseed, peanut, and safflower oil. Common snacks like potato chips and processed foods are usually loaded with these oils. An unbalanced fatty acid profile promotes the development of inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, and even cancer.

Enhancing Your Endocannabinoid System

Omega-3 fatty acids are especially critical to the function of the endocannabinoid system, which cannabis works through to deliver its benefits. If your endocannabinoid system is not working effectively, then cannabis will not work effectively. Indeed, Omega-3 deficiency is linked to abolishment of certain endocannabinoid activities.

The best way to improve your fatty acid ratio is to decrease sources of Omega-6 and increase sources of Omega-3. This can be achieved by cutting out the aforementioned vegetable oils and adding Omega-3-rich foods like:

• Flax Seed
• Chia Seed
• Hemp Seed
• Walnuts
• Eggs
• Fish

The Omega-3 from plants comes in a less developed form than that from animals, so if possible it is important to ingest Omega-3 from both sources. Fish oil is a great source of high-quality Omega-3. However, patients undergoing chemotherapy should not consume fish oil on the days surrounding chemotherapy, as a specific type of fatty acid in fish may interfere with the conventional treatment.

The Mediterranean Diet for Healthy Living

In general, Omega-6 fatty acids are proinflammatory and Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory. For optimal health, it is best to cultivate an anti-inflammatory environment in the body.

One of the best diets to promote this internal environment is the Mediterranean diet.

The Mediterranean diet is low in:

• Sugar
• Refined flour
• Processed meats
• Processed foods

It is high in:

• Vegetables
• Fish
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Healthy oils (predominantly olive oil)

Furthermore, coconut, hemp seed, and avocado oils are also tremendously healthy. Overall, higher quantities and varieties of green foods like spinach, kale, lettuce, collard greens, and sea algae will rapidly help reduce inflammation and improve general health. Not surprisingly, the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Sugar is The Enemy

Sugar is one of the most damaging food additives in our society. There is strong research suggesting that excessive sugar intake can directly lead to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. It also displays properties of an addictive substance. Cutting out sugar is very difficult for most people, but after a few weeks avoiding it becomes remarkably easy.

Cancer patients must take special care to avoid refined sugar and consume an anti-inflammatory diet.

Multiple studies have found a relationship between sugar and cancer. The 4th Edition of the European Code against Cancer, released July 2015, recommended that people limit sugar, processed meat, fat, and salt in order to reduce the risk of cancer. A recent study even showed that increased sugar uptake by normal cells could cause them to become cancerous.

Normal cells primarily rely on oxygen to produce energy for cellular processes. However, most cancer cells rely on glucose (the simplest form of sugar) metabolism because it helps them reproduce faster. While normal cells use glucose as well, they do not consume it at the same rates as cancer cells. Eliminating refined sugar cuts off a significant source of fuel to cancer cells. However, having some source of carbohydrates is critical to prevent fat and muscle from being broken down into sugar. Complex carbohydrates from whole grains is preferable to simple carbohydrates from fruits.

As you can see, combining an excellent nutritional protocol with cannabis extract therapy is critical for optimizing therapy. It is impossible to get the most out of cannabis while having a poor diet. It can certainly be quite difficult to make dietary changes, especially radical ones, but such measures are necessary to benefit aggressive diseases.