One little known fact about hemp and cannabis is that the absolute best medicinal aspects come from derivatives of the raw plant. Much like the wheat-grass trend that swept America in the 90’s, juicing and drinking raw cannabis or hemp can provide a long list of vitamins and important cannabinoids to support immune system function. It’s no scientific secret that plants and seeds of all varieties support life and the overall functioning of healthy cells.

The problem with the American diet is the absolutely vast number of chemicals and synthetics used to make our food look, smell or taste a certain way, when the natural version would be better for us. Half of these chemicals have been tested by the FDA for relative consumer safety, but not tested enough to be pumping them into the culture without fear of genetic repercussions or emerging demographics with similar health problems. Since the introduction of high fructose corn syrup into the average American diet, diabetes susceptibility has nearly doubled. Now with astounding facts like Autism affecting almost 1 in 4 American boys being born every day, it is more crucial than ever for us to find the environmental source of these issues.

Forgive the skeptic in me when I say that the majority of medicinal herbs that have positive efficacy within the human body are being not-so-quietly suppressed by big-Pharma and frankly western medicine as a whole. Systematically these time-honored herbal remedies, some dating back multiple thousands of years with fossil evidence, are shunned as “quackery” or “off brand medicine”. It would seem, judging by our culture of television, that the only way a doctor can heal someone is slicing into their body with scarily polished precision tools. The human body is treated as a machine in our culture; blow a knee out, we’ll throw a new one in there. Bust your heart or liver up, don’t sweat it, you can have this lightly used one. Rather than playing replace the faulty part, Americans in particular need to be looking towards sustainable health-care goals, and health futures.

I propose a modest but perhaps ridiculous seeming plan. Eat well, exercise, and relax thoroughly to extend the proposition of a long healthy life. The fact is, with these three items in mind, most people will live very fruitful lives. It is being bogged down with stress and work and the poor “fast food” options laid in front of us with clever calorie advertising, that we humans enter cycles of negativity. Many holistic physicians and a few traditional western doctors would probably agree with the statement that almost all diseases facing modern man can be traced in some way back to their diet. Obviously not everyone would agree, but seeing how refined sugar causes about 70 different diseases within the body alone, I don’t think this statement is too far off base.

Photo Credit: http://www.stonerdays.com/stoner-guide-cannabis-doesnt-stop-smoking/

Raw cannabis is not yet publicly available. If you find it in Colorado or Washington even, you are lucky. But here’s why it works and why it should be available to everyone. THC is not found in most living cannabis plants, but rather THCA the acid form and precursor to de-carboxylated THC. Don’t get lost in the medical jargon here, basically THCA is not psycho-active, and THC is the stuff that has you high as a kite. The difference here is a carbon group, which when heated, activates the THCA into THC and boom goes the dynamite. However, if you manage to not heat THCA past that critical point of de-carboxylation, then you have the ability to ingest large quantities of THCA without facing the psychoactive results. According to one source, it takes about 30 mature leaves from the flowering cannabis plant to yield 11.5 milligrams of acid-form cannabinoids in juice form. This would mean to get a really nutritionally substantial amount you would need to eat thousands of leaves per day – a task best left to koalas and long-necked dinosaurs. Surely though, the added fiber of even the intake of a modest 30 leaves would have significant effects on those fiber-dependent pathways within us.

Aside from THCA and THC there is CBDA and CBD. These two important cannabinoids are the ones that do a lot of hard work fighting cancer cells within us. By stimulating our natural endo-cannabinoid system these phytocannabinoids encourage auto-phagy, a process where cancerous cells in tumors are guided to destroy themselves through hormonal signaling. Just bear in mind when starting a regimen of juicing like this, it takes a few weeks to build up levels of these phytocannabinoids to where they are helping full time.

As I said before though, cannabis juicing is not even a trend yet. It is still only available in private-size quantities to those with the cash when it’s fresh. For those looking to get some of the benefits of hemp and cannabis juicing there are more options readily available. Look at your wholefoods or GNC health stores for Hemp seed, and hemp seed oil. The seeds of these plants pack nutritious oils much like olive oil for both cooking and consumption in smoothies. Soon a nationally available CBD line will be available through a Colorado company pioneering the CBD market called Mary’s Medicinals and Nutritionals. They already have recreationally available CBD, THCA, CBN and many other isolated cannabinoid products in both capsule and patch form. Don’t expect overnight results from everything that may be ailing you, but supplementing your current health regimen with some form of cannabis could provide drastic results. If you suffer from a long list of slightly indefinable symptoms you think could be related to your diet, consider adding hemp to that daily smoothie for rejuvenation from the cellular level up!

Photo Credits in order of appearance. 1)http://www.bloomwellbend.com/benefits-juicing-cannabis/  2)

Morgan Mcgovern