If Bethenny Frankel is anything, it’s a smart businesswoman and she’s using her savvy to cash in on the growing marijuana industry, now that recreational use of the plant is legal in Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon. To add to her Skinnygirl brand, Bethenny is reportedly planning to release a type of marijuana that sources tell Us Weekly “will be a specially engineered strain of pot designed to not give you the munchies.”
While this may sound like a boon to weight-conscious stoners, or weight-conscious people who use marijuana infrequently, something about this seems a bit troubling. As the pot economy grows, these marketing ploys are naturally going to crop up, but this kind of “keep your girlish figure while toking” is just so not…chill. By creating this particular strand for the Skinnygirl label, Bethenny could be adding an unnecessary burden on female smokers that takes some of the fun out of getting high. It puts a negative message on something that’s supposed to be fun and communal — not about maintaining some kind of ideal weight.
Besides, it’s not like weed necessarily makes you fat. A study done by researchers from the University of Nebraska, the Harvard School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center showed that pot smokers tend to have better cholesterol and smaller waistlines than people who don’t smoke…and yes, that’s with the munchies. The study also found that smokers’ bodies better regulate insulin, which could be why they are less likely to have diabetes. A study done by the American Journal of Epidemiology showed that obesity levels within the pot smoking community decrease by a third compared to non-smokers.
Also, marijuana already contains appetite-suppressing chemicals. In 2005, researchers investigated tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), a chemical in cannabis that keeps you from getting hungry. In 2014, British scientists got together to determine if the power of THCV and cannabidiol (or CBD, also found in weed) could be harnessed to help manage obesity and diabetes.
So as far as staying slim and trim goes, it’s pretty much a nonissue when it comes to smokers. Besides, weed gives you the ability to eat a whole sleeve of Oreos without feeling sick to your stomach afterward and that’s something that should be celebrated, not eliminated and wrapped up into one big body-shaming marketing ploy.
Give me munchies or give me death.
[via Us Weekly, Atlantic, High Times]
