5 Important Things To Note When Trying CBD Products
So, you’ve heard a lot about CBD. It’s the new(ish) kid on the market and here’s my take on it:
The human body is a complex thing. When everything is in balance, we feel like we can achieve anything, but if any of our systems are out of sync, we can experience a number of adverse health effects. Natural solutions exist, that can help keep your body in balance and improve your health as a result. CBD helps in various ways, by promoting homeostasis in the body. Here are 5 things you should look out for, when wanting to consider trying out a CBD based product.
NOT ALL CBD IS CREATED EQUAL
It’s extremely important to be an educated consumer. As CBD products are now legal in our country, there are many retailers who boast high end tinctures and infusions, but quality does vary. Oil science hemp is grown in Lesotho, following international culturation techniques, ensuring quality and consistency in each batch. The hemp is then processed in a good manufacturing practice certified facility, so that each batch is produced consistently and full traceability is maintained from raw material to final product. Products are sent to an independent laboratory for final testing. When considering your brand choice of CBD, a full certificate of analysis should be available for each product, including a full cannabinoid and potency profile.
CHECK THE LABEL
These days, people won’t buy cereal without knowing what’s in it, and same should go for CBD. As mentioned above, reputable CBD companies use and publish certificates of analysis (or COA’s), that tells you the quality of the CBD source, listing key information such as potency and solvents. All reputable CBD companies use, and publish COA’s to verify the quality of their products. The product label should display a batch number, which can be researched on the brand website for more information. If the COA seems tampered with or there isn’t one, take a huge pass. Without the COA, you may be buying a product that’s toxic or fraudulent. Given the health risks, not to mention that true CBD can be pricey, it’s just not worth taking the chance.
KNOW YOUR HEMP FROM YOUR MARIJUANA
There is a difference, and it’s vital. Although both hemp and marijuana are cannabis plants, hemp has higher levels of CBD and lower levels of THC (the psychoactive compound that makes you “high”) than a marijuana plant. In South Africa, the legal definition of hemp requires the plant to contain no more than 0.3% of THC.
CHECK THE COLOUR OF THE CBD OIL
A surprising large number of people are blissfully unaware that CBD oil comes in varying degrees of strength and quality. Generally speaking, there are two types of CBD oil.
Raw: the type of oil is black/dark green in appearance, because it has been extracted from raw hemp material, and no further purification process has been implemented. You can be sure that this will contain plant matter, varying amounts of THC and chlorophyll.
Filtered: This comes in a lovely light golden/amber colour, and has undergone both decarboxylation and filtering processes, removing parts of the plant that were left over from the initial extraction process. If you want to look at things in a more translatable way, high grade CBD oil (like the Oil Science brand) is like a fine brandy, in so far as it has been triple distilled for purity.
QUALITY OVER AFFORDABILITY
We all love a bargain, but as a customer concerned about your general health and well-being, it definitely pays to know what you are buying. If you were to go online and do a simple search for “CBD oil”, hundreds of thousands of results would pop up at the click of a button. Sounds fantastic right? Well, the fact of the matter is that the majority of these products are likely to be cheap, low quality oils that probably wont offer much more therapeutic benefits than the cold pressed olive oil sitting in your kitchen cabinet. By simply ‘knowing your source’, you can save yourself loads of money, time and frustration. When in doubt, always consider quality over affordability.
Here are my final thoughts on how to identify high grade CBD oil: there is an enormous amount of research which shows the efficacy of CBD in the treatment of a wide range of medical conditions. This versatile compound is a potential game changer in the medical field, as it produces no high, but in order to achieve full therapeutic potential, you will need to sort your choice of CBD oil from the host of low-quality garbage that’s out there.
