Explained - Hemp Seed Oil vs. CBD Oil: watch out for these Marketing Traps
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You step into your local health food store and… wait, what? Hemp products are all over. So, what’s the big hype and all that legal fuss?
And, yes, these “hempy” products have been gazing at you from these shelves for quite many years, whether it be cooking products, skincare products and much more.
Let’s make some order with this popular confusion.
What CBD Oil Is and Where Can You Find It within The Hemp Plant
As in most similar-appearing plants, the hemp plant will start its life as a seed from which a stem will grow and split into many sub-stems and grow leaves and flowers. All these parts that are above ground, above the root system, are called “aerial parts.
As the hemp seed grows, the process of cannabinoids creation will begin. We’ve already mentioned in the past that the initial cannabinoid is CBG, from which, the two major cannabinoids, THC and CBD, will come to formation.
As, we’ve already discussed, cannabinoids and CBD in specific is the naturally occurring substance which we are all so excited about for its health benefits. Of course there are many more cannabinoids, in fact a whole world of cannabinoids, not just CBD and THC.
Putting it simple, CBD is present only in the aerial parts of the plant, those mentioned above, with the greatest concentration of CBD in the plant’s flowers. And although the highest concentration of CBD is present within those flowers (these are the aromatic wonders that we visually associate with the plant and that get us so excited), CBD oil is most often produced from all aerial parts.
Including all parts of the plant maintains all the benefits nature has in store for us like in Reclaim’s pain relief tincture and Reclaim’s pain freeze roll on.
So, What Hemp Seed Oil is and How It Is Derived
We’ve covered the aerial parts of the hemp plant so now we are left with the rest, or simply, the seed. As its name indicates, hemp seed oil is the oil that is made out of the hemp’s seeds involving a process called cold press.
Cold pressed, unrefined hemp oil is dark to clear light green in color, with a nutty flavor. The darker the color, the grassier the flavor. Some would define this flavor as earthy.
Refined hemp seed oil is clear and colorless, with little flavor. It is primarily used in body care products. Industrial hemp seed oil is used in lubricants, paints, inks, fuel, and plastics.
Hemp seed oil is used in the production of soaps, shampoos and detergents. It can also be used for large-scale production of biodiesel. Pretty impressive ah.
But not only that, hemp seed oil is highly nutritional, hence its rising trend as an overly priced “super food”. Hemp seeds contain over 30% fat. They are exceptionally rich in two essential fatty acids, linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3).
They are also a great protein source, as more than 25% of their total calories are from high-quality protein. That is considerably more than similar foods like chia seeds and flaxseeds, whose calories are 16–18% protein.
Hemp seeds are also a great source of vitamin E and minerals, such as phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron and zinc. If that’s not enough, thanks to its well-balanced profile of fatty acids, hemp seed can greatly nourish your skin and may also relieve dry skin and improve itchiness.
While hemp seed oil has risen to its glory in the western world in relatively recent years, such as many good things, it has been consumed in china for food and medicine for over 3,000 years!
How Can You Distinguish Between Hemp Seed Oil and CBD Oil; What to Watch For
While the chemistry of the oils made out of the aerial parts of hemp and those out of the seed is clearly different, since both come from the same plant, some companies will deliberately create confusing labels to make you think you are buying a CBD oil product when in fact you are buying products with hemp seed oil.
Why is that? Since for CBD oil-based products, nowadays, much higher prices can be justified, and in general, it’s much cheaper to produce hemp seed oil than to produce CBD oil (equipment, expertise etc.).
Products with hemp seed oil should be marked simply as having hemp seed oil in its ingredients. And as discussed, since this type of oil is rich with essential fatty acids, it will usually also indicate the presence of such substances (e.g. Omega-3, Omega-6) in its nutritional values section of the label.
Hemp oil, called by many CBD oil, should be clearly marked as such. If it’s hemp oil that went through the multi-stage refining process to extract only the plant’s CBD, then is should say it’s a CBD Isolate.
If the original composition of the plant was preserved through the extraction process, then it should be labelled as Hemp oil or, full-spectrum hemp oil. Hemp extract is also legit and if you wonder hemp extract vs CBD, well, CBD is a part of the entire extract.
Since manufacturers want to highlight the presence of CBD, I’ve seen some other variations like “CBD rich full-spectrum hemp oil”, that also works.
A good practice is for manufacturers to indicate the specific amounts of the various cannabinoid (CBN, CBD, CBG, etc.) and even the composition of terpenes.
But since there’s no real regulation, manufacturers will sometimes come up with their own interpretations of labelling rather than adhering to a general convention.
But things are slowly improving with the public’s knowledge build-up. But in general, any brand you are considering for yourself, whether it’s Reclaim CBD, cbdmd, cbdistilary, justsbd or whichever, make sure to thoroughly inspect the details to make sure you are buying the right thing.
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