Move over, coconut. You, too, avocado and olive. The latest, greatest oil I’m making room for in my kitchen is CBD oil. It’s extracted from the marijuana plant, but don’t worry because it won’t get you high. That is, unless you experience the natural high you’ll feel from the relief of pain, insomnia, anxiety, and the other potential benefits CBD oil may offer. Just make sure it’s legal in your state!

A few weeks ago, I described the stress I was experiencing opening a new commercial kitchen in New Jersey.

But hey, it turns out New Jersey ain’t so bad. At least it’s one of the states where CBD oil is legal.

Too bad I didn’t get turned onto CBD oil last month. Brandon (my husband) and I could have really used a squirt of CBD oil in our Green Drinks to cope with the stress.

As a certified nutritional therapist, I could no longer ignore looking into the benefits of CBD oil. Now that we’ve had our grand opening for our new commercial kitchen, I’ve had the time to get back to one of my favorite extra curricular activities: geeking out on nutrition and natural health articles.

Sure, I’ve heard all the hype about CBD oil over the last couple years. But I wanted to see for myself if the glorified testimonials were legit.

Here’s what I found….

Limited Research But So Far Very Promising

If you’re not familiar with CBD, it’s one of over 100 chemical compounds in marijuana. THC is the compound in marijuana that makes you feel high. But CBD itself doesn’t have any psychoactive properties. In fact, it can counteract the effect of THC.

And that’s a good thing, considering that CBD seems to offer the most benefit when it’s combined with at least some THC. But here’s what we know about CBD oil thus far, although there’s a limited amount of research. It helps to:

• Reduce the number of seizures caused by epilepsy
• Fights inflammation
• Lessen the severity of muscle spasms
• Lower blood pressure
• Ease anxiety
• Normalize blood sugar
• Help treat drug addiction
• Aid in treating psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia

In addition, preliminary studies on CBD shows it possesses anti-tumor potential. One day, it might even be part of a regimen doctors use to fight Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Another thing that really intrigued me about the potential of CBD I read is its ability to regulate metabolism and body weight. In fact, in one study on mice, it even lowered the incidence of diabetes. Granted that study wasn’t on humans, but, and excuse me if this sounds creepy, the protein-coding regions (the area from which we inherit our characteristics) of the mouse and human genomes are 85 percent identical. So, squeak, squeak, y’all!

Adding CBD Oil to Green Drinks

All this research on CBD is relatively new. That’s because CBD itself wasn’t extracted from the cannabis sativa plant (aka, weed) until just a couple decades ago.

But what if the preliminary research proves to be legit … could CBD help people lose weight?

We already know that certain fats can actually help improve your metabolism. Many CBD oil products contain coconut oil. That’s because coconut oil is very high in fat and CBD is fat-soluble. That means in order for you to absorb it, you need to combine it with fat. Coconut oil contains MCT’s, which stands for medium-chain triglycerides. Perhaps you’ve heard of MCT oil? If you haven’t it’s become popular because it’s good for both your brain and your metabolism.

(Two important side notes: be careful not to eat too much coconut oil if you have very high cholesterol. Also, don’t buy hemp-based CBD products like hemp seed oil because hemp contains far less CBD than cannabis-based CBD extract.)

So this got me thinking….

What if people starting adding CBD oil tincture to Chef V Green Drinks? I really think that adding a little bit of this therapeutic oil has the potential to help you lose weight. Plus, the fat from the coconut oil will help you feel fuller for longer.

In fact, if you’re doing one of my cleanse programs adding some CBD may even enhance your cleanse. How? For starters, it will help you relax. And also, other research shows CBD can stimulate genes that can help you breakdown fat; increase metabolism and slow down new fat cell generation.

If you live in these 6 states, where CBD in all forms is illegal, you’re out of luck: Idaho, South Dakota, West Virginia, Nebraska, Kansas, and Indiana.

As for these 16 states, you likely need a legit serious medical condition for buying and using it: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

However, in the rest of the states, you will likely be able to use CBD oil products with no problem. Currently, nine states allow recreational and medicinal marijuana. And 30 states have legalized medicinal pot.