Cannabis as Superfood: Comparing Cannabis to Other Beneficial Plants

Author’s Note: I like to say that cannabis was my gateway drug to other beneficial plants—a doorway into the knowledge of what plants do for all of our biological systems, not just humans. There’s a plant for everything, and many of these plants have many of the same benefits as cannabis, with overlapping bonus benefits. Put them together with cannabis, and you have a full profile of not just the much talked about cannabinoids and terpenes but a world of beneficial compounds, all working together with biological systems, supporting homeostasis, or a place where illness cannot dwell.

When cannabis came into my life as medicine more than a decade ago, I had been eating from my own home garden all of my adult life. I raised my daughter in the garden, teaching her how to grow her own food at a young age.

But, I really didn’t know just how important including as many plants into your diet was – specifically beneficial herbs—until I presented with breast cancer in my 50s.
Plant propaganda is real. The demonizing of plants as medicine began in the late 1930s, as synthetic formulations patented for profit became the pharmaceutical industry and apothecary—the thousands-of-years-old practice of making medicine from plants—was demonized out of existence.

When Adam & Eve were threatened with being banished from the metaphorical Garden of Eden, it wasn’t about sex; it was about the apple.

Biological beings have a symbiotic relationship with plants. Highly beneficial plants have fragrances because we have a nose.

We are all biologically the same. Only our individual alchemy differs—or what we each put into our systems.

If you are partial to the smell of citrus, it’s likely your system is craving the limonene terpene, found not just in citrus but limonene-heavy plants, such as lemongrass or lemon verbena.

Garnering help from beneficial herbs is a challenge for the average person. Searches on most of these herbs found medical sites warning of negative effects, stating nothing is really known about plants and their healing properties, while herbalists sites expound on the known benefits and exceptional healing found in the garden. I feel privileged to be educated on plant remedies.

#NotJustCannabis

Prior to the late 1930s and the birth of the pharmaceutical industry, the practice of Apothecary – making remedies from plants—was the way we healed and prevented illness on this planet. In this respect, pharmaceuticals are a fairly new mode of treating illness—and still very much experimental, with myriad negative side effects.

In fact, the word “drug” came from the Dutch word “Drog,” or the wooden crate plant materials were shipped in. Drugs were all about plants, but the messaging became muddled over the decades.

Beatrix Potter wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1893, with millions of children and adults alike reading of Peter’s mother putting him to bed with a cup of chamomile tea to settle his tummy after he’d made a feast out of Mr. McGregor’s garden.

Sadly, chamomile and many other potent medicinal plants have been reduced to a cup of tea over the years or into mild tinctures treating symptom relief only. It wasn’t until I learned about making cannabis oil concentrate in an alcohol reduction that I realized the value of the essential oils of plants and how life-changing they can be, with little negative side effects and lots of healing.

Super Plants = Superfoods

The definition of a superfood is any nutrient rich plant containing many beneficial compounds, able to treat multiple symptoms and disorders.

Superfoods strengthen our immune system while addressing all 11 of our biological systems via the endocannabinoid system.

The endocannabinoid system, aka eCS, was a little-known biological delivery system discovered in 1988 by American researchers Allyn Howlett and William Devane at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine in a government-controlled study.

The eCS system was found while exploring the compound Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), originally realized by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam in Israel in 1964, opening the floodgates of cannabinoid research.

What Devane and Howlett added to the research was the fact that we have CB1 and CB2 receptors that respond to cannabinoids from plants—not just cannabis. They also made the realization that the most prevalent cannabinoid receptors are in our brain, connecting functions throughout the body—making the brain-to-body connection real. We are what we eat, we feel what we eat—and our emotions are definitely connected to our physical well-being.

By 1992, Dr. Lumir Hanus, with American researcher Dr. William Devaneat at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, found that the endocannabinoid system distributes beneficial plant-based compounds to all our systems, preventing illness and keeping us healthy.

Sidenote: Dogs and cats have similar biological systems to humans, which is why they also respond well to plant medicine.

According to Biology Online.com, the systems supported by plants are integumentary, lymphatic, muscular, nervous, reproductive, respiratory, skeletal, endocrine, immune, urinary, and neurological systems.

A simple search for superfoods comes up short, as within the brief list of berries, broccoli, and salmon are “leafy greens,” like spinach—which is a great food. And while many might assume that some lettuces and spinach are at the top of the nutrient list, they are sorely lacking in many of the beneficial compounds that give strength for healing, like those found in the herbs. As a footnote, merely juicing the fan leaves of the cannabis plant has been found to put serious ailments, such as Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus, into remission.

In April of 2010 a paper was published (link below) showing ten essential oils tested on acne (bacterial) and cancer cells. They included mint, ginger, lemon, grapefruit, jasmine, lavender, chamomile, thyme, rose, and cinnamon.

Of the ten, thyme, cinnamon, and rose essential oils were said to exhibit the best bactericidal activities, killing acne in five minutes. Thyme showed the strongest cytotoxicity towards human cancer cells. All ten were said to be significantly stronger in treating human lung carcinoma and human breast cancer.

The studies on plants listing their benefits and in treating numerous ailments are published for all to see. The concentrations of essential oils and the use of isolated compounds are key in determining the efficacy.

For example, when studying cannabis, is the study using an isolated single compound or the whole plant? This rule of thumb can be used in all plant-based studies and has everything to do with the outcomes. The difference in treating symptoms or putting an ailment into remission has everything to do with the strength of the plant concentrate used.

For instance, in the study finding that THC can trigger existing psychosis, a high concentration of THC via an isolate was used. Meaning the person receiving the dose was getting pure THC without any supporting compounds from the plant—making the outcome limited and severe in its findings.

Using the whole plant, be it cannabis or oregano, with all supporting beneficial compounds, is key in treating any illness while supporting the endocannabinoid system properly. Breaking down the plant to formulate in order to patent for profit is where we fall short with plant remedies, in my humble opinion.