I am writing this when I should be working on one of my assignments from the Institute of Masters of Wine. They send occasional tasting assignments that require us to write essays on a wine we are not actually tasting, but should be so intimately familiar with, we don't need to taste it again. I lost my nerve at the high and the low end of the spectrum, having only rarely tasted $100 Premier Cru Puligny-Montrachet from 2010 and inexpensive mass production Aussie Chardonnay. So I went and bought some and now am waiting for it to chill before tackling the assignment.
Sooo...I'm just cruising the internet and the news and I came upon this article from the Smithsonian that puts forth some theories on the munchies. I don't smoke pot or anything else because it's bad for tasting and my health (and I know the studies on pot say its not bad but smoke in lungs causes cancer!). BUT, this article posits that the munchies are caused by THC (the active ingredient in pot) via a binding process in the Olfactory Bulb in the brain that intensifies the ability of the nose to smell AND reduces the effect of olfactory habituation, a phenomena whereby you get used to smells and stop smelling them.
Hmmm.
If there was a way to get this smelling advantage without reducing analytic abilities because I was high, I would try this. I'll let the people with the lab rats work a while on thresholds and whatnot, but an MW student looks for every advantage! Stay tuned and wish me luck on my assignment.
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