People know CBD oil is a supplement but is CBD oil a natural supplement? When it comes to supplements, you have two basic options, natural or synthetic ones. Remember, you should always choose the type of supplement that best accommodates your lifestyle and your diet, but most importantly, the one that gives you peace of mind because the formula is effective and trustworthy.
The best way to make a good decision is to have all the information, and this is our goal with this article.
What Are Supplements?
Though this section might be a bit obvious to most people, it is always better to start with the basics. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), dietary supplements are concentrated sources of nutrients or other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect that are marketed in “dose” form (pills, tablets, capsules, liquids in measured doses).
Food supplements intend to correct nutritional deficiencies, maintain an adequate intake of certain nutrients, or to support specific physiological functions.
Their goal is to treat or prevent diseases in humans. In the EU, food supplements have the same regulations as foods. Official bodies use similar definitions in other geographies such as the FDA in the US.
What Are Natural Supplements?
While labs produce synthetic supplements using different physical or chemical processes, natural supplements come directly from nature. Although synthetic molecules are chemically almost identical to those in nature, the industrial production processes are very different from how animals and plants produce them. A natural product is always built up of more than a single molecule: it has additional compounds such as minerals, vitamins, enzymes, or co-factors that make the product more advantageous to our bodies.
Synthetic products are single molecules that, despite having a similar structure to the natural ones, the body is unlikely to use them in the same way as their natural counterparts due to the lack of the above-mentioned additional compounds.
With the “all-natural” trend that has been growing in the past couple of years, people always forget that most supplements in the market are synthetic. This means that they are artificial. To detect a natural or artificial supplement, you only have to read the label carefully, natural supplements list food sources, however, artificial ones tend to list chemical names or very scientific molecule names.
Synthetic Nutrients May Cause You Harm
In general, taking supplements according to the amounts directed on the package is safe for most people. However, the FDA does not review dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed. Therefore, supplement fraud can occur.
This means that supplements can contain more or fewer nutrients than stated on the label. Others may contain substances not listed on the label. If you already consume a wide range of nutrients in your diet, taking extra supplements can exceed the recommended daily intake of many nutrients.
In addition, pregnant women need to be especially careful with the vitamins and compounds they ingest as many chemicals go directly from their bloodstream into the baby’s, which can cause malformations or fetal and post-birth diseases. Other studies have linked multivitamin use to increased cancer risk. There is also some evidence that synthetic folic acid can cause more damage than natural folate in foods. The build-up of certain chemicals present in multivitamin products in the body raises the risk of cancer.
So, Is CBD Oil a Natural Supplement?
First things first, we should touch on what CBD is, and how to obtain it to make the CBD oil that we all know and love.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of over a hundred cannabinoids in the cannabis plant. Cannabinoids are defined as chemical compounds, either produced naturally by our body, called endocannabinoids (endo- means within), or found in cannabis and other plants, called phytocannabinoids (Phyto – means plant). There are also synthetic cannabinoids that have artificial manufacturing processes.
Hemp, a species of cannabis, is especially high in CBD but low in THC psychoactive cannabinoid THC. CBD comes from hemp flowers and leaves. This is possible using a supercritical CO2 extraction process to separate the CBD solids from the plant material. Although this process is part of the manufacturing processes of CBD isolate, full-spectrum CBD, and broad-spectrum CBD, it doesn’t mean the final product is less natural than the hemp flower itself.
We have established that the main compound of CBD oil is natural -no matter the variety of CBD used- but is all CBD oil entirely natural?
If you look at the labels of CBD oil bottles of numerous brands, you will find that the formulas are usually very simple: some CBD in its solid form and some MCT or fatty base, because CBD is in fact fat-soluble. The most common CBD oils found in the market have hemp oil and coconut oil as their base. These are two natural oils.
In the case of ICARIA, all our CBD oils contain natural CBD of the highest quality extracted from hemp mixed with coconut oil to increase absorption and enhance the properties of the active compound.
The Bottom Line
If you are here it is probably because you are taking, or are considering taking CBD oil. So,
As long as the CBD inside the CBD oil is from a natural source, and the other components of the formula are of natural origins, you can be sure your CBD oil is a natural supplement. However, this requires customers to do research on the brands and their products. This is why it is always recommended to purchase supplements from trustworthy vendors that regularly test their formulas and give you access to the results.
No worries, though. CBD is very safe. Contrary to other supplements, there are dozens of large-scale clinical trials on CBD. Researchers have explored its effects on specific health conditions and all studies have reported very few cases of side effects associated with the supplement.
