More and more people are using CBD oil in food. In this article, we will discuss the use of unflavored CBD oil in food. There are a number of common delivery methods for this popular hemp-derived supplement including edible products. Rather than sticking with traditional tinctures, capsules and other types of CBD oil products, more and more people are choosing to buy unflavored CBD oil to produce their own CBD-infused edibles.
CBD Oil In Food
Cannabidiol, aka CBD oil, a non-intoxicating yet therapeutically beneficially compound found in cannabis, is quickly growing in popularity in the U.S. The most common reasons given for using the hemp-derived supplement are to reduce pain and to relieve stress and anxiety. There are numerous other conditions listed by users as well, including insomnia, depression, digestive issues, skin conditions, and many more.
Although there are numerous applications or formulations for CBD oil including tinctures, capsules, edibles (eg. candy and baked goods), beverages, and topical preparations, one of the delivery methods which is most popular among homemakers and parents is home-cooked edibles.
We discussed this trend with an expert in the use of CBD oil in foods and beverages at one of the top CBD makers in the U.S., Diamond CBD. Diamond is one of the top 10 sellers of CBD products in the U.S. with a full line of flavored and unflavored CBD oils as well as edibles and skin creams.
CBD Oil In Food: What Type of CBD Oil Is Best for Cooking?
For use in home cooking, you generally want to stick with a simple CBD oil product such as an unflavored CBD oil or possibly a CBD isolate product. Flavored CBD oils are also popular for use in particular recipes, but for general use in cooking unflavored oils are a good choice because they can be used in just about any recipe.
There are a number of different types of CBD oil that people should be aware of. The main difference between CBD oils is that there are what are known as full-spectrum oils and CBD isolate-infused oils. The full-spectrum oils contain a variety of compounds found in hemp including compounds known as terpenes. Terpenes have very strong flavors. They’re what give cannabis its distinctive aroma and flavor. These full-spectrum oils are often added to seed oils such as hemp seed oil, coconut oil, and other oils which also have flavors of their own. So, if you add one of these products to a recipe they are going to affect the flavor of the final product to some extent.
CBD isolate-infused oils, on the other hand, are made with pure CBD which is completely flavorless and odorless and won’t affect the flavor of the food you’re preparing. CBD isolate is often added to oils which do not have strong flavors. Oils like vegetable glycerine and MCT oil — which is made from coconut oil — are the most common.
CBD Oil in Food: How Much is Too Much?
You can also use pure CBD isolate in cooking but you need to be a lot more careful to not use too much. When using unflavored CBD oil it’s fairly easy to gauge the amount that you should use in a particular dish. CBD products are generally measured in milligrams, so you don’t need a lot — like five or ten milligrams per serving. Not that using too much can be harmful — it’s completely non-toxic — but you really should stick with a measured dosage, not just to gauge the effects, but also to not overspend. It’s much easier to overuse isolates than it is to overuse isolate-infused oils.
Using drops makes it easy to measure whereas using CBD isolate, which is a powder, means you have to have a very accurate scale which can measure very small amounts. Oils are also more likely to infuse evenly throughout a recipe.
On our website, on each product, we have a chart which shows recommended servicing sizes and how many milligrams are in each drop. So, let’s say you want to make four servings with five milligrams per serving, that’s 20 milligrams. And if there’s a half a milligram in each drop, then you use 40 drops of that particular oil.
So your best bet is to use a high-potency unflavored oil for cooking.
CBD Oil In Food: Flavored CBD Oil Versus Unflavored CBD Oil
Diamond CBD offers hundreds of different flavors. If you’re preparing a dish like vanilla pudding, then you could use a vanilla-flavored CBD oil. But the fact of the matter is that a few drops of flavored CBD oil are not going to impart a lot of flavor to a single serving. If you drop it on your tongue you’re going to taste it. But you won’t really taste much difference in a good recipe.
Also, by purchasing unflavored CBD oil you can use it in any recipe, so you can use it today in your vanilla pudding and use the same product tomorrow in your chocolate brownies.
Why would someone want to cook with unflavored CBD oil rather than just taking a capsule?
Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, people who are preparing food for a family are putting an extra ingredient into the mix — love. When you’re preparing a meal for your kids and loved ones it’s a good feeling knowing that you’re making the food that can contribute to their health and happiness. Not only that, letting them known that you care enough about them to prepare delicious and healthy food actually helps to keep them healthier. It’s the placebo effect. The brain thinks, “this is good for me” and it acts accordingly. It’s kind of mysterious how this works, but it works.
Another reason is to make taking CBD more enjoyable. Some people are just not easily persuaded to take capsules or tinctures. So giving them a piece of fudge or a popsicle with CBD in it is going to be much more enjoyable and saying “I love you” much more so than making a person swallow a capsule. It’s the old, “spoon full of sugar” trick.
CBD Oil In Food: The Best Recipes
The recipes that work best with CBD Oil are the ones that produce a particular number of servings with a particular amount of CBD in each serving.
So, for instance, you could add it to salad dressing or spaghetti sauce, but everyone likes a different amount of dressing or sauce on their food. Some like a small amount and others like to a lot. So, in that case, you can’t really control the serving size. Same goes with any entree or side dish if you let people serve themselves.
On the other hand, if you add unflavored CBD oil to something like fudge where you can make some number of servings each with a particular dosage of CBD you can be sure that each member of your family is getting the same dosage.
Some of the recipes that follow this rule are things like candy, baked goods like brownies or cookies, also things like popsicles, parfaits — anything where all the servings are the same size.
Another thing you can make where you can control the serving size is butter, but you have to add it yourself and not let everyone just dig in. So let’s say you make some CBD-infused butter and each tablespoon has ten milligrams of CBD and you want each person to have a five-milligram serving, then you put a half a tablespoon on each person’s serving. This would be for stuff like pancakes, or vegetables. That way — you know, you might give more peas to dad for dinner, and less to kids — but each of them gets the same half tablespoon of butter.
There’s also another simple way to do this, and that is to add some particular number of drops to a drink each day like milk or hot chocolate or something your kids drink every day. Again, just make sure you’re using unflavored CBD oil so you’re affecting the flavor as little as possible.
CBD Oil in Food: Part of a Healthy Diet
Another important point is that this is generally just for using CBD oil in food as a healthy part of a diet. You don’t need a lot — just a few milligrams once a day. If you’re using CBD to treat some kind of medical condition, you really want to do your homework on what dosage is going to most effective and how many times a day it’s being taken. And if you’re making stuff like fudge that kids could be tempted to ear more of, let them know that they’re only allowed to have on piece per day, or whatever, and keep it someplace where they’re not going to get into it. Again, not that it can hurt them — it’s not like a drug that could poison them — but you want to have a good handle on their daily dosage and not overspend.
