How to Choose the Right CBD Oil or Gummies for Your Needs

Are you looking to choose a CBD oil or CBD gummies product in Australia but need help? It’s understandable.

There’s such a wide variety of CBD products:

• Types
• Formulations
• Names and terminologies
• Brands
• Strengths (of CBD)

It can be dizzying and confusing, to say the least. Even veteran users of CBD can still get confused or make mistakes in their choice of CBD oil.

Yet, making these choices well is more crucial than ever. CBD oil is legal in Australia, meaning many new CBD products are being launched each year. But ensuring your selection of these items is best aligned to your needs, circumstances and preferences is also getting harder.

Choosing well will greatly influence the results you can obtain from CBD. But it also means you can save money over time and avoid legal risks or problems from THC consumption.

This comprehensive guide will enable you to choose the right CBD oil for you. We’ll cover all the essentials like:

• Determining your goals with CBD products
• Gaining awareness of THC risks for you
• Figuring out the CBD dose volumes you need and corresponding product strengths
• Understanding complementary compounds in CBD oil like terpenes or minor cannabinoids
• Learning the type of CBD oil to choose from
• Factoring in additional considerations for CBD gummy selection

Save yourself hassle, risk and cost when you’re selecting CBD oil or gummies. We’ll provide you all the information you need in our handy write-up. Let’s jump in!

How to Choose CBD Oil or CBD Gummies: Guide

You’ll need to go on a journey to select the right CBD oil (or gummies) for your needs. 

Before this, you should first ask yourself whether you even need CBD in the first place. Depending on your health status and goals, it might not be the best solution to your problems. Don’t rush here. Take time to reflect on what is driving you to choose CBD oil. It’s also prudent to check in with your doctor on their perspective to get a well-rounded, medically informed view. 

Once you’re clear on whether CBD oil is right for you, there are a few key considerations you’ll want to account for before selecting a particular product. These include:

• Assessing your specific health needs and goals
• Determining how much THC consumption risk you can tolerate
• Deciding on what strength of CBD you’ll need
• Gauging what complementary nutrients from hemp you want
• Picking a CBD oil type
• Confirming what added nutrients or ingredients you desire

Let’s review these items as a guide to tailoring your CBD product choice to your circumstances.

Assess Your Health Needs

Your goals and health needs are the most essential factor in your choice of CBD product. CBD can be used for many outcomes that improve your well-being. For example, you might be looking for:

• Improved mental state and reduced anxiety
• Dampened pain or inflammation in the joints
• Better, deeper sleep
• Elevated mood, focus and mental energy

You might want to take CBD oil as a general-purpose health aid or help alleviate particular health issues you face, like arthritis. 

How severe your issues are here is also something to keep top of mind, as it will influence the amounts of CBD you’ll need.

Take note of the core reasons you’re considering CBD here. This will factor into product choice, what strength of CBD you’ll need, THC content and formulation.

Once you’re clear on your goals with CBD oil or gummies, factoring in THC content tolerance is the next step.

Gauge THC Risk Tolerance

Some types of CBD oil will contain minor amounts of THC. This is the psychoactive chemical from cannabis that can get you high. 

Why does THC content matter? It can expose you to risks and problems.

In Australia, full-spectrum CBD oil can legally contain up to 0.3% concentrations of THC. This isn’t enough to cause intoxication. 

However, even tiny quantities of THC you consume can accumulate in the body over time. In turn, this exacerbates your risks of failing drug tests that screen for THC.

Be particularly wary of these risks if you’re:

• Drug tested regularly (e.g. for your job)
• Driving in Australia and subject to Roadside Drug Testing
• Intolerant to THC or sensitive to its possible side effects

If you’re in one of these categories, it’s best to avoid any THC consumption. You can do so by choosing isolate or broad-spectrum CBD oils that have 0% THC concentration.

Failing this could lead to legal issues, fines, a DUI (driving under the influence) charge or losing employment.

The next item to account for is how much CBD you need in your product.

How Much CBD Do You Need?

When choosing CBD oil or gummies, the ‘quantity’ of CBD in your product is critical to understand and consider.

Determining how much CBD you need (in mg) daily and weekly will substantially influence the success you see with the product. 

How much CBD you need is individual. It comes down to:

• Your Goals: what you’re taking CBD for will affect how much of it you need. Targeting relief of chronic conditions tends to require larger amounts of CBD. In contrast, using it for general wellness doesn’t require much daily to see beneficial outcomes.
• Symptom Severity: How acute is your health problem? There’s a strong correlation between symptom severity and doses of CBD needed for relief in most individuals. More intense symptoms generally require larger quantities of CBD to mitigate. Remember, this is different for everyone. Many conditions also don’t benefit from CBD use at all (confirm with your doctor.
• CBD Tolerance: if you’ve been using CBD oil for a while or take it often, your CBD tolerance will impact the amounts of the cannabinoid you need. Beginners with little or no tolerance need to be more conservative here regarding product strengths. Diluting a stronger CBD oil is another option.
• Your Size: body mass matters with CBD quantities. This is the same with other therapeutic compounds. Weight, height, metabolism and genes can each impact the CBD volumes that personally work for you.

Taking stock of these factors and calculating the CBD quantities you need ahead of time is valuable.

Doing so lets you choose CBD oil or CBD gummies intelligently. You can be strategic about what you buy and how you dose over time for maximum benefit. 

Knowing how much CBD you need will help you decide on a product’s strength.

Deciding on Product Strength (mg of CBD per mL)

The strength of a CBD product is the weight of CBD molecules it contains in milligrams. This is calculated on a per millilitre basis (CBD mg/mL) for liquid products like oils. The CBD weight alone in mg is used to measure the strength of CBD gummies.

You’ll find a product’s strength specifications on its label. Most often this describes the total quantity of CBD in the individual product, as opposed to a ‘per dose’ strength (as individuals will frequently dose differently).

Strengths (total mg of CBD) per 30mL dropper bottle can be categorised into:

• Low strength (up to 1500mg of CBD): more diluted CBD extracts are best if you use CBD oil infrequently for general health purposes or have minimal CBD tolerance (for example, if you’re a beginner). Alternatively, you can explore diluting high-strength products or consuming them in smaller doses.  
• Medium strength (around 3000mg of CBD): Opt for a mid-strength extract to relieve mild health conditions or to start increasing your overall CBD intake. If you’re a larger individual or have built up a tolerance, stepping up your CBD concentrations here can help maintain overall effectiveness.
• High strength (over 3000mg of CBD): In Australia, high-potency CBD oil requires a doctor’s prescription. It is classified as a medication due to being targeted at alleviating severe health problems. Some examples include relief from anxiety, chronic pain, or inflammatory colitis (a gut disorder). 

Remember that for most people, less is more regarding CBD intake. 

A rookie mistake for new users of CBD oil is overconsuming it unnecessarily. Taking too much CBD won’t improve your results. But it will mean you waste money.

Avoid this. Be savvy when choosing a CBD product strength. Align this to your CBD quantity needs to get the best value when you shop.

Minor Cannabinoids, Terpenes and Phytonutrient Content

When you’re picking CBD gummies or oil, there’s more to these products than just CBD or THC. 

In fact, hemp contains a rich variety of naturally occurring, beneficial compounds that can help you in unlocking better health. 

These compounds can complement and enhance CBD’s effects in many instances. 

What are these ‘other compounds’ from hemp?

Some examples include:

• Minor Cannabinoids like CBN, CBG, CBC or CBDA
• Cannabis Terpenes such as limonene, myrcene or humulene
• Antioxidants and Flavonoids from like cannflavins, beta-caryophyllene, or lignans

Each of these can be powerfully effective at increasing the total health benefits you gain from the CBD oil you choose. 

Why is this? 

• Complementary to CBD (Synergistic): Terpenes, cannabinoids, and even cannflavins magnify the beneficial effects of CBD. In other words, they’re synergistic. Taking CBD with these other compounds in your oil will net superior wellness outcomes. Often, this also means you can use less CBD oil over time but still achieve your health goals with the product. This means greater value for money over time and better overall effectiveness. 
• Offer Unique Benefits: Similar to CBD, other natural compounds from hemp have valuable advantages for your mind and body. Terpenes like linalool, for example, are potently anxiolytic and aid with stress management. Minor cannabinoids, like CBG, have anti-inflammatory effects that support immune cell function. Getting them in your CBD oil or gummies is the perfect opportunity to capitalise on the valuable health advantages that each can provide. 

However, not all types of CBD oil contain these helpful natural chemicals. You’ll need to select the right formulation of oil products to obtain them. 

This is where your choice of CBD type or formulation matters. Let’s take a look.

Choosing a CBD Oil Type

There are three formulations of CBD oil that you can find in Australia. These are CBD isolates, broad-spectrum and full-spectrum CBD oil.

They all contain CBD. But their core difference lies in their THC content and concentrations of minor cannabinoids, terpenes, plus other nutrients from hemp.

• CBD isolates have no THC and no complementary nutrients or minor cannabinoids. They’re specifically purified to only contain CBD.
• Full-spectrum CBD oil has all minor cannabinoids, hemp nutrients, terpenes, and antioxidants. The biggest downside of these formulations is their higher THC content, which can pose risks.
• Broad-spectrum extracts are nearly equivalent to full-spectrum in their breadth of hemp compounds. These formulations are carefully filtered, however, to remove any THC traces. They’re safer for those who can’t consume this cannabinoid.

Again, deciding which CBD type is best for you will require some thought. If you can’t risk any THC intake, you’ll need to rule out full-spectrum oil.

Beyond this, we’d recommend pursuing products with a greater variety of nutrients. Terpenes, minor cannabinoids and cannflavins from hemp all accentuate the power of CBD for your body and mind. Plus, each is very valuable therapeutically on its own.

In other words, seeking broad-spectrum or full-spectrum CBD oil is best if you want the best overall effects. Only consider CBD isolates if you’re particularly concerned about THC or have intolerances to some of hemp’s compounds. Isolates can also be good if you don’t like the tangy, pungent taste or scent of terpenes in your product.

Selecting CBD Gummies

CBD oil isn’t for everyone. The flavour or smell can be offputting. A popular alternative is CBD gummies, which are simply gel candies infused with CBD.

Most of the same principles in choosing CBD oil apply when selecting CBD gummies. However, you’ll want to include additional items in your selection criteria here.

Because these products are candies, they’re often infused with sweeteners or undesirable chemical additives, which you may want to avoid. Some items to look out for are:

• Flavourings: can often be from artificial sources (produced in labs). Try to find gummies that use extracts from fruit or plant essences to avoid the health downsides of synthetic flavourings.   
• Sweeteners: watch out for synthetic sweeteners in your CBD gummies, like aspartame, sucralose or corn syrup. It’s best to opt for products naturally sweetened with fruit extracts, honey or cane sugar.
• Colourings: avoid gummies that use artificial dyes like Red 40. These can irritate the body or cause inflammation. Some dyes are also carcinogenic. 
• Preservatives: find CBD gummies that use organic preservative agents like citric acid. Those preserved with chemicals like sulphites or benzoate can cause toxicity in the body over time.

Beyond this, you might also seek gummies enriched with vitamins, adaptogens or other helpful nutrients.

For instance, many CBD gummies are diffused with:

• Melatonin or magnesium for sleep support
• Vitamins like B12, C or D to help with metabolic health
• Ashwagandha or L-theanine adaptogens for calmness, focus and mood

Each can complement the effects of CBD to amplify the overall value the gummies provide you.

Takeaways

You should now be confident in selecting the best CBD oil or gummies for your needs. Our guide here has covered all the key items to think about when you’re making a selection. This should help you beat the often confusing, overwhelming task of figuring out which CBD oil to pick. In Australia today there’s a huge variety of CBD products that have hit the shelves. Knowing what to look for to find the right product fit for you is critical.

Let’s recap on what we covered in our guide. We delved into a number of important items to factor into your CBD oil selection process. These included:

• Clarifying your purpose and goals for taking CBD oil or gummies
• Understanding how much THC you can consume and the risks associated
• Determining your ongoing CBD quantity needs
• Selecting a CBD product strength
• Deciding on whether you want to obtain minor cannabinoids, terpenes and nutrients from hemp in your CBD oil
• Picking a type of CBD oil based on these factors
• Identifying some of the items to look for when selecting CBD gummies specifically

Why does all of this matter? It’s easy to select the wrong product when you’re starting out with CBD. 

Picking the wrong thing could mean you:

• Waste money or time on items you don’t need
• Encounter legal or personal risk from THC you accidentally consumed
• Don’t tailor your product choice to your needs
• Fail to see results with CBD

This applies whether you’re seeking CBD gummies or CBD oil products in Australia. This is more important than ever now that these products are legal (in low-dose formulations). Applying what you’ve learned in this guide will mean you make smarter, better decisions about your CBD product choices.

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