After assuming the helm at NatureBox, I never thought I’d be in the CBD cannabis business.
I have a small confession to make. During the workday, I sneak out to my car for 15 minutes to meditate. As the CEO, I want to project a sense of calm and strength so the team feels confident and secure about our goals and how we’ll achieve them.
However, after an intense meeting, I can feel stress take over my body — and my mindset. It’s as if I’ve lost control of my own conscious thoughts. Fifteen minutes of solitude where I can step away is my “drug” of choice, a perfect self-prescribed treatment. Meditation brings back the calm; it allows me to carry on with a clear head for decision making.
The Science Behind Snacking Wellness
The self-care that I exercise when I meditate is shared in NatureBox’s purpose as a company: Our mission is to provide a way for you to lower stress by starting from the inside out. Our adaptogenic snacks provide healthier alternatives to the stress-eating that can make people sick, and with our new CBD gummies we’re taking another step as a partner in wellness with our customers. It’s not just a well-intended philosophy that drives our business; there’s scientific evidence that supports our approach.
In 1992, scientists first discovered the endocannabinoid system and began to understand the human body’s ability to self-regulate neurological, immune and hormonal systems in the body. This system controls mood, appetite, inflammation and more. The human body has an amazing network of receptors that regulate all kinds of natural endocannabinoids in the body.
It turns out that the two main receptors are CB1 and CB2. CB1 is located mostly in the brain, while CB2 receptors are found throughout the body. This internal mind-body network helps the body fight inflammation, regulate mood, and achieve homeostasis — the balance among all our body’s systems. You can activate this system through meditation and also the food you eat.
What researchers have discovered is that certain natural plant-based foods that are rich in phytocannabinoids can help bond with CB1 and CB2 receptors to boost the body’s own system. Hemp based CBD is one of them. It really is true that what we put into our bodies influences what we get out of them.
A Personal Journey
Beyond what science says, I have my own personal story of how food impacts the body.
When my daughter was a baby, she was always fussy. She never seemed comfortable and would cry incessantly. The only way to soothe her was to remove tags in clothes. Doctors told us that the receptor cells in her skin were highly sensitive.
When she entered middle school and high school, she started to experience headaches that turned into chronic migraines. My wife, as the chief medical officer of our family, took her to every medical specialist imaginable. After thousands of lab tests, CT scans, neurologists, allergists, and several visits to other medical professionals, no one could find anything “wrong” with her.
One weekend, my daughter was home from her first year in college. With my wife out of town, it was a good chance for quality father-daughter time. My daughter came downstairs from a bad night’s sleep. “Dad, my migraine….” she broke down in tears.
I was determined to get this fixed. If Tom Brady drank a liter of water every morning, by gosh, we were going to hydrate, too. We started eating leafy green vegetables, and I hired a masseuse. Yet nothing worked.
Then, I remembered a family friend in the cannabis business had suggested CBD. Eager to find a solution, I immediately went out and picked up a bottle of non-THC CBD. As soon as I got home, she put two drops under her tongue. An hour later, her headache was gone.
What we realized is that my daughter’s endocannabinoid system was sensitive. When this system was out of balance (mostly due to stress), migraines would appear. The CBD helped her body regulate and improved how her receptors performed. This allowed her body to naturally calibrate her inflammation and serotonin levels.
A Whole New Way to Wellness
While everyone could use a cookie now and then, the best options for combating daily stress are snacks that promote wellness from within. We can all make better choices about what we eat, opting for snacks that help the body do what it needs to do — rather than snacks that make it more difficult.
At NatureBox, we’re focused on delivering snack products that do the same thing in terms of reducing stress and helping the body balance itself. Our ingredients in our new wellness line work like my daily 15-minute meditation session, and they’re tasty, too. Reducing stress is easier said than done, but our CBD line aims to make it easier than ever.
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