One of the most convenient forms of hemp extract products are CBD gummies. All you have to do is pop a couple out of the container and swallow them whole just like pills. They are small, they are soft, and they are easy to carry around. However, are they your best option when it comes to getting the most out of your CBD products? Read on and you might find a fact or two that you didn’t know before.
What are CBD Softgels?
Although there are plenty of other vessels that CBD comes in, the softgels are among the most popular. You don’t have to worry about messy oils, or eyedroppers when you use them. However, the way they are made and the process that your body must put them through in order to experience their effects may not be as good as most people believe.
Softgels are made out of a gelatinous material that is formed from some of the tissues of animals. You may have heard of gelatin, which originally came from the inside of horse hooves or pigs’ feet. This is the same kind of gelatin that softgels are made out of, however a more modern method.
In any event, there is a vegan gelatin option of softgels that is available, but you have to pay attention to the labels in order to be sure that it is 100% vegan.
Softgels are simply gelatinous orbs that contain the hemp extracts that are described on the label. Since CBD is such a popular buzzword for marketers, it is easy to attach the term “CBD” to the product when, in fact, there are most likely more compounds in the softgel than CBD itself.
Not to get off track, but understand that the spectrum of softgel that you choose will determine the components that make up the extract. We will get to that later…
How Softgels are Made
The way softgels are manufactured takes a special kind of machinery that combines the gelatin covering with the hemp extract and neatly tucks it away into a convenient capsule. Although there can be hundreds or even thousands of softgels prepared at one time, we will describe one softgel being formed.
A machine will provide a square of gelatin that is the size of a softgel if it were flattened out. As the square is raised into a chamber where it can be heated to a pliable temperature a measured amount of hemp extract will be introduced to the gelatin square. Another piece of machinery will envelop the liquid with the outer skin of the softgel and quickly seal the contents within the gelcap. The gelcap will be allowed to cool to a solid form then rolled away to join the other million softgels.
Once the softgels are formed they will be moved to containers where they will be sealed in and shipped out to consumers.
What are CBD Tinctures?
People are starting to get wise about the option of CBD tinctures. At one time most everybody was stuck on the idea of CBD oils and CBD gummies and they almost ignored tinctures. However, tinctures are slowly becoming more popular.
When manufacturers of the present time produce tinctures they extract the essence of the hemp plant from the solids and suspend it in a solution that leaves a pure hemp extract.
The old way of producing tinctures was to take the hemp solids that were processed from the crop and soak them in a solvent until the essential oils were extracted. The remaining solvent would then house the hemp oil and would be called a tincture. Sometimes the solvent used was distilled alcohol or methanol. Sometimes the solvents were chemicals that were harmful to humans.
In any event, the way that tinctures are made today is from supercritical CO2 that simply evaporates harmlessly away after the process.
A tincture, in simple terms, is a medicine -or essential oil- that is extracted directly from the source and suspended in its truest form.
Tinctures Under the Tongue
It is common for people to mistake the use of tinctures. They believe that if they drop tincture drops into drinks or onto food it will essentially reach their bloodstream and give them the effects that they are looking for. This is not how tinctures work.
The best way to use tinctures and to get the most out of them is to put a couple of drops under the tongue and swish the solution around there for a couple of minutes. The tincture will enter the bloodstream through the thin walls of the veins under the tongue and begin to take effect almost instantly.
Since the tincture enters the bloodstream so easily most of the CBD that is inside of it will absorb into the body without any resistance or delay. It does not have to go through the digestive system and be introduced to the body through the gut, all it has to do is penetrate the tissues under the tongue and it will begin to do its magic.
Softgels Vs. Tinctures
Softgels are made so that they can be easily swallowed and hit the digestive tract without their contents being burnt away by digestive acids. If a person was to swallow hemp oil without it having a protective barrier the acids in the stomach would destroy it before it even had a chance to enter the system.
In order for a softgel to be absorbed into the body, it first has to endure the digestive tract. The stomach acids will break down the gelcap slowly to allow absorption of the contents within. However, a percentage of the hemp oil will most likely be burnt away in the process.
Once the softgel is swallowed it will take between 30 minutes to two hours for the CBD to enter the bloodstream and deliver results.
When you compare the timespan of 30 minutes to instantaneous it is easy to see that tinctures have a substantial advantage over softgels.
We mentioned earlier that when softgels are made they are crafted with a carefully measured out amount of oil when they are encased in the softgel skin. What this means is that in order to get an amount that is right for you it would be necessary to take multiple gelcaps at one time. If one softgel was too much for you, there would be no way to get less than the encased amount unless you cracked the cap open and pulled out a tiny drop or two.
With a tincture, you can use as much or as little as you want without having to mess around with cutting pills or taking more than you might need.
CBD Potency Compared
When we mention the word “potency” we are referring to how effective the cannabinoid will be for the user. It is obvious that since tinctures do not have to pass through the digestive system that the potency of the CBD within will be much higher than the potency of an object that has to be processed through the body. However, if the CBD softgel was manufactured by a high-quality developer the potency could be much stronger than if made by a cheap manufacturer.
In any case, the most effective way to use CBD is to use a tincture and place a couple;e of drops under the tongue. However, there are a lot of people that can not stand the taste of tinctures and would rather simply take a softgel pill to get their CBD.
To each their own. In any case, make sure that the CBD products that you purchase are of high quality and are made by a company that cares about safety and high standards. Otherwise, it won’t matter if it’s a softgel or a tincture, it will still be junk.