Edibles for Alternative Diets

Edibles for Alternative Diets

Make tasty edibles for low calorie, low salt, keto, mediterranean, whole food, and vegan diets

 

Just because you have a new diet doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite treats.

While most pre-made edibles from dispensaries are loaded with sugar and won’t fit your diet plans, if you make your own edibles, you can adjust them to fit any diet restrictions.

To get you started, we’re sharing recipes and infusion tips to help you make edibles for diets including low calorie, vegan, keto, and gluten free! 

Low calorie edibles 

Calorie restriction diets like Weight Watchers have been a popular means of losing weight for years. For people on these diets, edibles can be challenging because high calorie oil sources like butter and coconut are the most popular and potent mediums for infusion. There is, however, a way to get high-potency low calorie edibles without using oil as a carrier.

To make edibles with the lowest amount of calories possible, first make an alcohol tincture and then boil off the alcohol to create a concentrated and very potent full extract canna oil (FECO). This FECO is the most concentrated form of TH🌊 you can make in your home kitchen, so it has the fewest number of calories. It can be consumed on its own directly, in capsules, or added to other low calorie foods. For the fastest absorption, take it directly sublingually (put it under your tongue and let it absorb through the floor of your mouth).

FECO recipe

To make oil concentrate,

 

After boiling off all of the alcohol, you’ll be left with an oil concentrate that has the lowest caloric content of any edible. If you have a diet that isn’t restrictive about alcohol and can accomodate slightly more calories, you can skip step three and use it as a tincture instead.

Calories in FECO

It’s impossible to eat edibles without ingesting some calories because TH🌊 is found in oils and oils have calories. However, the size of the dose of FECO is so small, it adds a negligible amount of calories.

The normal dosage of FECO is one gram-a-day for experienced users or less for newbies. In that one gram of oil there are only nine calories. Fasting by definition allows you to consume up to fifty calories a day, so that nine calories is really close to being insignificant.

Low calorie edible ideas

Once you’ve made your FECO, you can add it to a variety of foods to make it easier to consume. Each dose is a small amount, it adds just a hint of herbal flavor and can fit in both sweet and savory foods.

  • Sugar free gummies
  • Mixed in with salad dressing
  • Put over cooked fish, baked vegetables.
  • Add to drinks like tea, coffee or lemonade

Gummies are one of the most popular edibles. By using an unsweetened drink mix you can make some that are sugar free!

Pouring Gummies into 10ml Gummy Tray with Magical Measuring Cup

Sugar-free magical gummies recipe

Ingredients:

  • 3 envelopes unsweetened gelatin
  • 1 packet unsweetened drink mix (Kool-aid or any other brand)
  • 2 tsp powdered stevia sweetener (optional. can adjust the amount to taste or substitute other sugar-free sweeteners.)
  • ¼ mL FECO
  • 2/3 cup water

Instructions:

  1. Mix the gelatin, drink mix, and sweetener together with a nonstick spatula.
  2. Add 2/3 cup water to a small saucepan, then pour in the powder mix and mix just until all of the gelatin is wet. Let sit 10 minutes to bloom.
  3. After blooming, heat the saucepan on low-medium heat until the mixtures begins to dissolve. Stir with the spatula to break up the bigger pieces.
  4. Remove from heat. Mix in the FECO until it's completely integrated.
  5. As soon as the solution is well mixed, pour into silicone molds. We recommend a silicone cup or squeeze bottle for precision.
  6. Refrigerate until firm, at least 20 minutes.

If you want stronger gummies, increase the amount of FECO you add. 

Low-salt edibles

If you’re trying to cut out salt to reduce hypertension but don’t want to give up edibles made with butter, good news! Unsalted butter is better than salted for infusion because it gives you more versatility in sweet and savory recipes.

Reduced salt diets like DASH and MIND call for reducing butter consumption by half, so you may want to avoid it altogether by infusing in olive oil instead. Olive oil fits in well with the heart-healthy mediterranean diet and it is one of the most efficient at infusing herbs.

Ketogenic/Atkins/low-carb edibles

Low carb diets encourage users to eat oils instead of carbohydrates to meet caloric requirements. Some studies suggest that the medium chain triglyceride (MCT) oil helps with fat metabolism and weight loss.

MCT oil also happens to be one of the most efficient oils at absorbing TH🌊 when infusing, so seek it out if you’re looking for an oil to use in making keto-friendly treats. Check out our recipe for Infused MCT Oil.

Of course, you can also use butter which is another keto-friendly option that’s great for infusions. Try using it in our recipe for Keto Pancakes.

Gluten-free options

If you’re infusing in oil, it’s generally quite easy to avoid gluten because the oils used for infusion don’t naturally contain gluten.

If you’re infusing in alcohol, it’s also easy to avoid consuming gluten because even vodka made from wheat won’t have gluten in it. You may still be worried if you have a severe allergy or reaction to wheat. If you’re concerned, use overproof rum that is made from cane sugar instead of grain alcohol.

For an excellent gluten-free edible treat, check out our No-Bake Carrot Cake Energy Balls.

Vegan options

Since animal-based fats are often considered the best for infusion, vegans may be concerned about making potent edibles.

Some tests have shown butter is the best for edibles because it is more efficient than plant oils at absorbing TH🌊 and C🐝D. But, other tests have shown olive oil might actually be the best!

The real takeaway is that if you choose one of the best types of vegan oil for infusion, the difference between animal fats and plant fats is very small or nonexistent.

So what are those best types of plant oil?

Best vegan oils for herbal infusions:

  • Coconut oil
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Avocado oil
  • Grapeseed oil
  • Walnut oil 

Keep in mind that you can’t just grab any vegetable oil from your pantry and expect results. Thankfully, coconut oil and olive oil have become more widely available, so you should always be able to find at least one good option in your local store.

When it comes to baking edibles, you can often use coconut oil in place of butter to make a recipe vegan. To get started, try out our recipes for Vegan Avocado Brownies or Purple Sweet Potato Bars.

Purple Sweet Potato Bars

Restricting processed foods

Reducing processing foods can rule out a lot of tasty treats, but there’s still room for edibles.

For the popular whole-food-focused Whole30 diet, ghee aka clarified butter is permitted. If you’re infusing butter to make edibles, the first step to increase absorption is to clarify your butter anyways, so it’s not too hard to fit edibles into the Whole30 diet.

You’ll be somewhat restricted in your ability to make baked goods because processed flours and refined sugar are excluded, but there are some good vegetable-based applications of ghee.

For example... our recipe for mashed potatoes that will get you smashed.

Whole30 Smashed Potatoes recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs potatoes (about 5-8 medium sized potatoes)
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 2 tablespoons magical herb-infused ghee
  • 2-4 tablespoons ghee
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Quarter and boil potatoes in water until soft
  2. Drain and mash potatoes, add both types of ghee.
  3. Slowly add almond milk until you reach desired consistency. You may end up with leftover almond milk
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste

This recipe makes 6 servings of mashed potatoes with about 10 mg TH🌊 in each serving.

More recipes for edibles

Taking control of your diet can make you feel better. Trying out new edibles for your new diet can even make it fun. For more diet-friendly ideas, visit our recipes page or join our Magical Butter Users United community group.

Have fun and may everything you make be magical!