Is CBD Salad Dressing Worth the Money?
Consumers may end up spending big bucks on CBD products —like salad dressing — that likely won’t deliver. Image Credit: By Gts on shutterstock.
It’s 2019 and CBD is in anything and everything. You can find it in your coffee,deodorant, candy bar, hot sauce, bug sprays, and sparkling water. Heck, even CBD-infused salad dressings exist.
And for the record, they’re not cheap.
For example, the famous Daily Hit salad dressing from CAP Beauty, could have once been yours for the low price of $96. A still-available offering from Potli comes with a smaller price tag — but few are likely to consider $67 to be a bargain. And while POT D’HUILE’s hemp-infused olive oil might seem like a steal at $37, it loses some of its luster once you realize you’re only getting 125 milliliters for your money.
We can’t help but ask ourselves: Has the CBD craze gone too far? Are these products worth their h
The answer isn’t simple. On one hand, the very real benefits of cannabis are finally getting the attention they deserve. On the other hand, consumers are being promised a lot by marketing campaigns and end up spending big bucks on products that likely won’t deliver.
Some Questions to Consider Before Buying a CBD Salad Dressing
So how do you tell which products are worth reaching into your wallet for? Ask yourself these questions before you buy.
1. Does this product contain a therapeutic dose of CBD?
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are no official dosage recommendations for CBD. But an average dose is typically around 10 to 15 milligrams, which means any product should contain at least that much CBD per serving. If you couldn’t tell by the italics, the per serving part is important. If a serving of salad dressing is one tablespoon, there should be at least 15 mg in one tablespoon — not 15 mg in half of the bottle.
The take-home: Look out for companies tossing a few milligrams of CBD into their product and then charging you a premium. Your health is not their first priority.
2. Does it contain CBD isolate or full spectrum CBD?
CBD oil’s strong, earthy taste isn’t always ideal for adding to foods and beverages. An easy way around this is to use a CBD isolate, which contains just the CBD compound — instead of a mish-mash of different cannabinoids and terpenes like you’d find in a full spectrum CBD oil — and is virtually tasteless. The problem here is that based on the current research, CBD isolate has proven to be less effective and more difficult to dose than a full spectrum CBD product.
The take-home: Always look for products containing full spectrum CBD oil over CBD isolate. If that salad dressing you’re looking at contains CBD isolate — even if it’s 10 to 15 mg of it — go ahead and put it back on the shelf.
3. Does this product (actually) make sense?
The last question to ask yourself is whether buying a CBD salad dressing, soda, hot sauce, olive oil — you get the idea — actually makes sense. If your goal is to take advantage of the therapeutic benefits of CBD, it probably doesn’t.
Why? The CBD in that salad dressing will get stuck to the sides of the bottle, left in the bottom of your salad bowl, and has to make it through your digestive tract before it can actually be absorbed into your bloodstream. By taking it this way, you’re making it jump through unnecessary hoops to get where it needs to go to do its job.
Alternatively, opt for something a little *less* creative like a sublingual oil, spray, or strip. These delivery methods let you control your dosage more closely and allow the cannabinoids to absorb through the mucous membrane under the tongue and proceed directly into the bloodstream. In a 2009 paper titled “Human Cannabinoid Pharmacokinetics,” the authors explain that Sativex, one of the only cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical drugs, is administered sublingually in an effort to improve the amount of delivered cannabinoids.
The take-home: When you take a no-frills approach to CBD, you’re more likely to find a product that is more bioavailable, which is better for your health and bank account.
But if you really fancy the idea of a CBD-infused salad dressing, make sure you’re answering “yes” to at least the first two questions above. Or, you can make your own with a sublingual CBD oil tincture. (Salad dressing is always better homemade anyway, right?). Try using this CBD oil from Charlotte’s Web ($74.99) — which has 25 mg of CBD per serving — or the high-potency, two-ingredient Royal Oil from Lord Jones ($100), which comes with a high price tag but contains 40 mg of CBD per serving.
