Nourishing Your Endocannabinoid System

Take a deeper dive into your inner world of wellness and discover an intrinsic relationship that exists between your body and the Cannabis plant. When used in its natural bio-available form, Cannabis provides your body with essential nutrition and can help restore even the most depleted Endocannabinoid System (ECS). This is a unique and synergistic partnership that has significant potential to amplify your well-being, resulting in a healthier and more vibrant way of life.

This blog is an invitation to explore nourishment more intimately, and to take the time, with loving attention, to observe this human-plant relationship within yourself and your daily living. After all, your own direct experience provides the most valuable form of learning alongside essential energy for true change.

Whether you are currently following a purposeful protocol, taking formulas as you need them, or new to the plant medicine, the following are helpful guide posts on this exploration;

• Cannabis and the ECS

• The Entourage Effect

• Maintaining a healthy ECS

• The lost Art of Chewing

Cannabis and the Endocannabinoid System

The Entourage Effect

Cannabis contains approximately 500 botanical compounds, including:

• Major cannabinoids CBD, THC, CBN, CBG and more than 100 other trace cannabinoids, which are collectively called phytocannabinoids

• More than 200 terpenes (called terpenoids when they become oxidized), such as limonene, myrcene, humulene, pinene, linalool, and beta-caryophyllene

• Other botanical compounds, such as vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre, omega fatty acids, flavonoids, phenols, and chlorophyll

  
  

Cannabinoids interact with cannabinoid receptors that are found in your body’s endocannabinoid system. Your ECS helps your nervous, immune, endocrine and digestive systems work together to regulate sleep, mood, reproduction, immune function, pain, motor control, brain function, appetite, metabolism, cardiovascular function, body temperature, and digestive functions.

The entourage effect is a term that refers to the enhancing, synergetic effect that occurs when the full spectrum of cannabinoids, terpenes and botanical compounds that naturally occur in the cannabis plant are consumed together.

In addition to the therapeutic properties of phytocannabinoids and terpenoids, full-spectrum cannabis products also contain important nutrients that support overall health and can even be used to supplement your diet.

Maintaining a healthy Endocannabinoid System

Essential nutrients and food groups to assist maintain a balanced ECS

• Leafy Green Vegetables

• Antioxidant Fruit & Vegetables

• Omega 3 & 6 – Good fats and Oils

• Absorbable Proteins

• Terpenes – Herbs and Spices

• Chemical free water

  
  

The key to maintaining your Endocannabinoid System is awareness of what you put in and on your body, and particularly the way in which you assimilate your food. Not to consume food for the sake of eating, but to assimilate the nutrition in food as part of a conscious and healthy diet - from the greek word dieta meaning "way of living".

Nutrition involves more than simply eating a “good” diet—it is about nourishment on every level. It involves relationships with family, friends, nature (the environment), your body, your community, and the living world around you. Bringing the ECS into this context, when your key internal signaling system is balanced and calm, it reflects outward in your relating with others and the environment around you.

When consuming Cannabis, awareness of WHY you are consuming it is an important element of the assimilation of the medicine. Like any food, taking the time to appreciate its aromas, feeling confident in its procurement, being in the right state of mind, all contribute to the plants nutritional value and your body's ability to absorb and utilise it fully.

Eating or juicing fresh cannabis leaves provides the richest source of nutrients the plant contains. A super food indeed.

The lost Art of Chewing

When considering the assimilation of nutrition from food, including fresh cannabis leaves, chewing is an essential step to ensure the body receives and utilises the most bio-available components.

Our teeth are designed to chew, to masticate, to shred the fibers and release the juices whilst the gut enzymes are activated to receive the sustenance from the food as it travels through the digestive tract and into the stomach.

It also provides the opportunity to slow down, savour the flavours, enjoy the connection over food with friends and family, and ultimately eat less and choose right with each mouthful. A form of mindful eating.

Chewing properly and carefully has also proven to assist with;

• increased blood flow to the brain

• relieving tension in the body

• assisting with headaches and stiff jaw

• stomach cramps and gut health

• posture

In whichever way you feel to improve the relationship between your body and Cannabis, to be more mindful of what you eat and consume, to have a greater understanding of the intrinsic connection of your inner and outer worlds, know that even the most hesitant step in the right direction, is still a step in the right direction.

Blog written by;

Nikki Freeburn