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Cooking with CBD: 7 Tips To Make Your Meals Even More Relaxing



CBD is the latest wellness trend, but you probably know that, considering that everyone from doctors to celebrities is talking about it. The hashtag #cbd has over 11.5 million posts on Instagram, and raving reviews don’t seem to stop. You can find CBD in many forms, from the classic oils, tinctures, and vape pens, to more innovative consumption methods, such as pastes, mints, and isolates. There are also CBD edibles such as gummies and lollipops, but, if you still haven’t found an ideal means of consumption on this list, you can also use CBD oil as a food ingredient and mix it with your favorite dishes.
 
According to scientific studies, CBD can have a variety of beneficial health effects, such as reducing anxiety and insomnia, relieving pain, calming down inflammation, and generally promote a sense of wellbeing and balance. And, since CBD is a non-psychoactive compound, (that’s THC, the other constituent of the cannabis plant), it won’t get you high or have unwanted effects on your mental state.
 
You needn’t be a chef and not even an experienced cook to use CBD in the kitchen, and with these simple tricks, anyone can learn to give recipes a relaxing twist.
 

1. Mix CBD with fatty ingredients

When taking CBD oil, you want to maximize its effects as much as possible and, according to recent research, combining it with high-fat ingredients is one of the best ways to do that. That’s because fatty foods help the CBD absorb better into the bloodstream, delivering longer-lasting results. In fact, this study showed that taking CBD oil with a breakfast burrito increased CBD levels by 14 times compared to taking the oil on its own. So, if you need sustained effects throughout the day, you can mix CBD with foods/ingredients such as butter, coconut oil, avocado, or Greek yoghurt.
 

2. Don’t heat CBD oil directly.

While it may be an oil, CBD oil is not cooking oil so you shouldn’t try to use it as such. In fact, you shouldn’t heat CBD oil directly or expose it to high temperatures (over 120°F) because they may cause it to evaporate or lose its potency. CBD has a sensitive molecule, so cooking it over high heat will just waste your money. Besides, cooking hot dishes with CBD will accentuate its natural bitterness and cover the other ingredients, so the result won’t be too delicious. So, instead of cooking CBD over high heat, add it at the end.
 

3. Drizzle a bit of CBD oil into your favorite salad dressing or pasta sauce

One of the simplest ways to include CBD in foods without affecting its potency is to add it as a finishing touch to savory dishes, such as salad dressing or pasta sauce. This won’t modify the taste of the dish, and you might even manage to boost CBD’s potency if the recipe includes fatty ingredients.
 

4. Mix CBD oil with sweet ingredients to neutralize its natural bitterness

CBD has a naturally nutty, slightly bitter taste that not everyone fancies. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons why some people avoid oral or sublingual consumption and prefer vaping CBD instead. However, if you want to get the benefits of oral or sublingual consumption and avoid that specific taste, you can mix CBD oil with sweet ingredients in cookie and cream recipes. You can make delicious snacks such as chocolate bars, brownies, mousse, or caramel sauce to enjoy the beneficial effects of CBD and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time. And if cooking sweets is not your thing, you can always find sweet CBD snacks such as gummies, brownies, and chocolate on stores such as cbdplanetuk.com.
 

5. Add CBD to your favorite smoothies

Do you like starting your day with a vitamin kick? Add a few drops of CBD oil to your breakfast smoothie, and you’ll feel energized and rejuvenated without the jitters. CBD blends perfectly with any fruit and vegetable and, to maximize its effects, you can also add a bit of milk or yoghurt instead of water or orange juice.
 

6. Don’t forget to control your dosage!

When cooking with CBD oil, it can be easy to forget about dosage and slip a few more drops than you usually would. After all, the taste is mostly masked by the other ingredients, and you might falsely assume that the effects of CBD will be diminished. In reality, even if you don’t feel it there, CBD is just as strong (even stronger, if you mix it with fatty ingredients), so respect the recommended dosage. You can technically overdose on CBD, but taking too much of it can cause side effects such as fatigue and diarrhea.

Keep in mind that oral consumption takes the longest to work because the CBD first has to go through your digestive system. So, even if you don’t feel the effects now, you will in a few hours. Also, the CBD consumed in food counts in your daily intake. For example, if your recommended dosage of CBD is 40 mg/day, and you got half of that from your breakfast smoothie, only take 20 mg in the afternoon or evening. If you’re taking pre-made CBD edibles, such as gummies, try to calculate the dosage in each portion. Usually, the label only shows the concentration of CBD in the entire pack, not in each gummy, so portioning them can be a bit tricky.

And remember, track how much CBD you’re taking, what effects you get, and after how long. You might discover that certain recipes taste better or give you faster, longer-lasting results, and those are the ones you’ll want to try again.
 

7. Store CBD oil in the right conditions

Unlike other oils in your kitchen, CBD oil doesn’t go bad, so you won’t feel ill if the drops you added in your food weren’t fresh. The taste won’t be dreadful either. However, CBD can lose its potency if it’s not stored in the right conditions for a long time (a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight). If the oil changed texture and color, it’s probably not fresh anymore, and you need a new bottle.  

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