Do recreational drugs have any caloric value? Never having done any, it’s been my understanding that many drugs in and of themselves cause a person to lose weight, either because they cause a person to forget to eat or because they suppress appetite. (There are those which enhance appetite, of course, but the weight gain is likely caused by the extra food thereafter consumed.)
Please note this is General Questions and I am not asking whether drugs should be legal, nor am I advocating their use by anyone. I’m sure the mods will close this thread if it strays from the factual answer.
Their caloric content is nil, because the amount needed to either give the mood-altering effect or kill you is so small, metabolism of the molecule generates insignificant calories.
Exceptions consist of alcohol, mushrooms, and raw opium. But to actually survive on any of these would require intake so great as to kill from complications of the drug.
Hallucinogenic mushrooms contain about 20 calories per cupful. As do other mushrooms. Ethanol has about 7 calories per gram (170/oz). I am unable to find a cite for the caloric content of opium. :mad:
'cause you would more than likely die pretty quick on that diet. Even if the drugs did have some caloric value the amount you actually put in your body would be nowhere near enough to sustain you very long.
Pot, crack, meth or opium you smoke so no calories enter your system.
Cocaine you snort into your lungs again no calories.
Heroin you inject directly into the blood stream. Can’t imagine you get much good out of that but it is possible if there is some sugar or something like that in it.
That pretty much leaves pills and 'shrooms. 'shrooms were discussed earlier. Pills have some fillers that may have some nutritional value but is more likely clay or something else rather inert.
Thank you for the answers, everyone. (And also that someone out there knew the song reference.)
I had a suspicion that the calorie content couldn’t be great, considering the volume of drugs consumed would likely be very small compared to, say, a sandwich.
It leads me to a second question, of course. Many recreational drugs give the sensation/illusion of energy. Are they only causing the body to accelerate its metabolizing of stored muscle and fat, or is it more complicated than that?
