You know the feeling when you ate a little too much at dinner or maybe you mixed some food and drinks that you wish you didn’t? In that state of discomfort, I personally feel desperate for a little relief and, because of that, I have tried out many remedies to bring my tummy back into balance.
It wasn’t too long ago that I would carry tums in my purse and pop them almost daily to help with digestive distress. Tums are primarily supposed to be used for fighting excessive acid production which usually comes from eating hot and spicy foods. They serve to hinder stomach acid production but, at the same time, you are suppressing the acids that serve to DIGEST what you ate. So, it puts a wet blanket on the issue but the actual process of digestion will take longer.
While the easiest fix for alleviating excessive stomach acid production is to minimize acid reflux-causing foods in your diet, general digestive discomfort can be a bit more complex. For me, digestive distress comes along the lines of: an immense feeling of fullness, bloating, or just an unsettling feeling then keep reading. It isn’t as simple as going to the bathroom or burping to relieve oneself.
When I was feeling physically ill last year, I was trying all sorts of methods to help with my gut dysbiosis. The Balanced Blonde actually has a great post on the topic which you can read here but it was such an ongoing battle that I knew I needed extra help. I’ve had a small arsenal of essential oils but was not using them much until this point.
The essential oils that I like using are from a brand called Young Living. I’ve tried random brands from Vitamin Shoppe or the grocery store but there are a few reasons I keep going back to YL. 1) What I particularly like about YL essential oils is because of their sustainable methods for sourcing the ingredients for the oils and the quality testing that goes into each batch. 2) With that testing, they have formulated essential oils safe for internal consumption. Most essential oils are only for topical or aromatic use so I wouldn’t recommend ingesting any old brand you pick up at the store.
So, going back to this remedy of mine, I use a blend of massively potent and healing essential oils called Digize paired with straight up castor oil. In case you aren’t familiar with Digize, the blend contains: Tarragon, Ginger, Peppermint, Juniper, Fennel, Lemongrass, Anise, and Patchouli. Each of these ingredients is beneficial on its own—think: peppermint tea!—but when combined, they are a powerhouse for digestive support. Plus, the castor oil is not simply the vehicle for me to spread Digize on my tummy—it contains an array of benefits that research has linked to boosting the lymphatic system, inducing labor in pregnant women, and stimulating the digestive system!
Of course, do your own research and experimentation to see if castor oil and/or Digize could be right for you but now I’ll get into the HOW part of my remedy routine!
The best time for me to do my tummy balance remedy is at night after I have taken a shower. It is very soothing so this also helps to wind me down for the night. I recommend doing this in your bedroom or someplace you won’t be disturbed so as to enhance the peaceful experience!
My first step is dry brushing my entire body. I feel like this helps encourage circulation and detoxification—both being helpful when I’m trying to alleviate digestive discomfort. I’ll also rub any lotion I want on my body, while avoiding my stomach.
Next, I’ll lie down on my back. You can lay down a towel or blanket, if you’d like. Here is where I’ll be using my castor oil and Digize! I don’t measure it out but I pour about a half-tablespoon amount of castor oil into the palm of my hand and add a drop of Digize. Then, I simply smear the mixture onto my belly. The power is in the ingredients but there is also a strategy to massaging the stomach which can help speed up digestion.
Method: Using whichever hand you feel most comfortable with, start at the top of your stomach (about palm-width above your belly button). Press firmly, but not so much as to cause pain, into your stomach with your index and middle finger. Move your fingers towards your left side and then down and then up on your right side til you reach the center again. Basically, you’re moving your hands in a clockwise motion.
I usually keep this massage going for 3-5 minutes before adding my heating pad. For a long time I just did the massage and that works great! However, if you have access to a heating pad, I highly recommend using one. The heat works to activate the castor oil and help the ingredients penetrate your stomach. The warmth stimulates digestive recovery and, as I said earlier, this feels very soothing!
I’ve honestly fallen asleep with the heating pad on my stomach (temperature set to LOW) because it is that relaxing. I’ll wake up and turn it off soon after but if you find yourself in this situation you may want to set an alarm so that you won’t spend the entire night laying there with the heating pad. Seriously!
Alright, that is the end of my tummy balance remedy using castor oil and Digize. If you experience any sort of digestive distress, I hope you found this post helpful and give the routine a try!
When all I could think about was food, I knew that was a tell-tale sign that I had a problem. As I’ve been learning about the importance of primary food in my Integrative Nutrition program, I could recognize that I was reaching for food for the wrong reasons. I was reaching for it, not out of hunger but, to fill a void. Sweets, which at one time provided me with satisfaction, were not even doing that.
My mom used to say that when you get your sweet fix early in the day that helps to stave off cravings later in the day. While that might sound plausible, sugar is actually extremely addictive. The body has a way of getting used to added sugar. Consequently, it craves higher and more frequent servings of sugar the more you have it in your diet. I can’t even tell you how many places I had hidden or added sugars in my meals and snacks. That could be sugar in condiments, beverages, granola, yogurt, chocolate, or the plethora of baked goods I was whipping up several times a week.
I’ve talked about sugar here on the blog before but that was nearly two years ago. Nearly two years ago was the last time I went a full 7 days without added sugar! It might not sound like a big deal. If you had asked me even a week before my self-hosted sugar detox challenge, I probably would have said I could stop consuming sugar whenever I wanted. Let me say with full sincerity and zero exaggeration: I was kidding myself and it is a big deal.
My days were comprised of highs and lows and massive cravings—many of which were at night. I like to think of myself as being in full control of myself and situations pertaining to me but, with sugar, I felt like a victim to the energetic rushes and falls it caused in my body. I would feel my blood sugar crash and be desperate for a meal or a snack to balance me out. It even got to the point where it didn’t matter what I would eat or when I would eat because I felt like my heart was racing all the time.
If my reasons for initiating a sugar detox challenge haven’t been clear so far then here’s why I did it:
I was feeling physically sick, exhausted, overly full, and weighed down
If I wasn’t eating, I was thinking about what I would eat next
My mind was increasingly growing foggy and I struggled to concentrate on tasks, let alone my own thoughts
Sugar was a coping mechanism that I used to distract from problems rather than working on solving my problems
Not to lose weight but to manage my weight, which I felt was rising due to hidden calories from sweeteners
To improve my skin (i.e. reduce inflammation and acne)
I was having dramatic fluctuations in moods where I felt emotionally unstable, agitated, or like my head and heart had just run a marathon (sometimes all of those at once)
So that I can be better able to help other people—and I can’t do that without first helping myself
After reading and hearing many studies that show correlation between high sugar consumption and increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, obesity, or other metabolic illnesses
Most importantly, I wanted to regain control of sugar rather than feeling like sugar was controlling me!
Some of the above areas might not seem like they have a direct relation to sugar and that’s fine. However, I began to notice it would not even bring me the pleasure I once associated with it. So why consume it? In addition, I know that feeling tense and irritated or reaching for food every two hours is not the way life is supposed to be! I’m speaking for myself but I’d say that goes for anyone else out there, too. The food we consume has a direct relation to our bodies. I won’t go into a full tangent about that right now but, simply, the best way I knew I could start feeling better was by cutting out sugar.
So, how did I start eliminating sugar?
I took the same approach as I did the last time I eliminated sugar. From one day to the next, I completely cut out all added sugar. It might sound extreme. After all, changes are usually more sustainable when you implement a few at a time and ease in rather than fully dive into something new. Yet, sugar is one area that I personally feel needs to be cut out 100% so that I can actually notice how I feel without it. If I was to, say, just drop down to having it once a day during a snack, I would still be consuming added sugar. I would still have it in my system, crave it, and plan my day around when I could have it (that was my level of addiction!!!). Therefore, I would not fully be able to access all of the healing that I wanted to accomplish.
My intention upon starting the sugar detox was to spend at least 7 days working on re-structuring my meals with a focus on whole foods. I also wanted to come out of this feeling better and with more stabilized energy! However, I did not set a time limit on how long I was “detoxing”. I just planned to keep it up until I could feel a difference.
Some might say preparing would be helpful. Personally, I do have access to lots of healthy food options. My fridge is stocked with vegetables and fruit and I have a pantry filled with whole grains and legumes. So, it was just a matter of stuffing my packaged snacks and coconut sugar to the far corner of my pantry (out of sight) and focusing on cooking and eating whole foods. If that doesn’t sound like your fridge/pantry, then implementing meals with whole foods might be a better way to begin before trying a sugar detox.
Here is where I’ll break down what I experienced day-to-day. Keep in mind, this is just how I felt but everybody is different so if you do a sugar detox, you could feel different depending on what you eat compared to what your body is used to eating.
Day 1
On the first day, I caught myself getting grumpy at the littlest things. My house can be kind of noisy so I usually wear headphones when I work out but on this day they weren’t working. I wanted to shout at my family for talking and being loud. I realized they weren’t doing anything wrong. It was just me. So, instead, I went to my room to work out and shut the door. Of course, cravings also occurred during the day. By the time afternoon hit, I had a headache.
The hardest habit to break is after-dinner snacks. My sugaraddiction has been very active during the day and dangerously loud in the evenings. Heck, if my sugar addiction was a person, in the evenings it would have held a megaphone next to my ears and shouted to be noticed. I made some sugar-free fudge to help me through the challenge and ate a piece after dinner. (I’ll list the snacks I consumed further down the post)
Food recap: papaya, coconut butter, protein smoothie; socca with cream cheese & avocado; gluten-free pasta with broccoli, tomato, & a plant-based cheese sauce; a piece of sugar-free fudge.
Day 2
My alarm woke me up, as per usual, but my heart was racing! I was still trying to find my groove and overcompensated with an overly indulgent breakfast to stave off cravings. Still, that did not prevent me from getting another headache in the late afternoon. I was trying to limit snacking and that used to be my “quick fix” for a headache. Around 9pm I even felt hungry but I knew I would be going to bed soon so there was no reason to eat anything now.
Food recap: soaked steel-cut oats with unsweetened coconut milk, one of my sugar-free fudge bars mixed in and one on top, plus ground flax and more milk; gluten-free pasta coated in kale-hemp pesto, with kale, romaine, olive oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, & lots of lemon; coconut curry with broccoli, peas, carrots, & red bell pepper; a few snap pea crisps.
Day 3
The headache from the night before was gone. This finally felt like a day where I didn’t have cravings and I felt pretty good. I’m low-key wondering if my dinner was sugar-free because the sauce tasted too good but I wasn’t going to obsess over it.
Food recap: Protein waffle made with pumpkin, brown rice flour, & vanilla protein powder—I ate it in a bowl with milk, cacao nibs, pee pollen, & peanut butter; rosemary sea salt crackers; spinach salad with quinoa, red lentil patties, avocado, tomato, lemon & olive oil, hemp pesto, & roasted red potatoes; Rad Na at a Thai restaurant; raspberry hot tea.
Day 4
I felt myself breaking through some mental blocks and writing was flowing out of me today. Also, despite trying to eliminate sugar, that doesn’t mean I should eliminate naturally sweet foods. This was perhaps the most joyless day of eating I’ve had in a long time! I blame it on the savory breakfast…I felt like I just started my day “off” because of that and, come the end of the day, I was reaching for the only “sweet” thing I could to compensate.
Food recap: chickpea flour scramble with red potatoes, broccoli, green onion, & hot sauce; spinach salad with hemp pesto, quinoa, Greek dressing, & red lentil patties; sugar-free fudge bar; sautéed broccoli, bell pepper, kale patty, beet chips & cream cheese; 2 more fudge bars.
Day 5
I had trouble falling asleep (eh-hem, perhaps from the cacao powder in my fudge) last night. I prioritized the inclusion of naturally sweet foods today and felt much better!
Food recap: chocolate protein smoothie with banana, 3 small dates, tahini, & unsweetened coconut milk; sweet potato with ½ large banana, almond butter, wild blueberries, & snap pea crisps with cream cheese; spaghetti squash with cauliflower bolognese sauce; one sugar-free fudge bar.
Day 6
All of my worst decisions happen after I drink coffee. I should know better by now because it has a way of raining my adrenaline and making me feel like I’m “hungrier” than I really am. And again, I may have been spiked with sweetened almond milk.
Food recap: almond-coconut cinnamon protein pancakes w/ butter & sautéed apple; “quesadilla” made w/ almond flour tortillas, sweet potato, broccoli, hemp pesto, & cream cheese; coffee with almond milk; trail mix of pepitas, coconut flakes, & cacao nibs; chickpea pasta in marinara with broccoli, spinach, potatoes, cauliflower, & vegan cheese; protein popcorn with peanut butter & fudge bar.
Day 7
I’m working on a balance between including naturally sweet foods and also not overdoing it on carbohydrates. I realize I build up this idea of “deprivation” in my mind. That is exactly the sort of mentality that leads me to overeating tendencies.
Food recap: pink lady apple; English muffins w/ sweet potato, half a banana, tahini, cream cheese, and bee pollen; tea and protein popcorn; stir-fried quinoa and chickpeas with greens & lemon water; snacking on batter for chocolate tahini date donuts; one & a half fudge bars.
Day 8
Those donuts that I made last night? Yeah, so, I overbaked them and tried to salvage them but they weren’t good. There’s this weird thing I notice I do where I still try to achieve pleasure from food after I already know it is not satisfying taste-wise. My breakfast made me super full and I felt icky for hours afterwards. The sugar detox is really bringing to light some of the patterns and habits I associate with food.
Food recap: vanilla protein and pear smoothie 2 chocolate tahini date donuts; ginger turmeric black tea with lemon & a large banana; bell peppers and onions sautéed with veggie sausage, served over salad greens with tomatoes, cilantro, vegan cheese, & lemon turmeric dressing.
Day 9
Despite stuffing myself these past several days, I realize I don’t actually need to eat as much as I thought. I used to eat “a lot” but, now that I’ve fazed out the refined and added sugars, I can feel pretty content with eating just plants.
Food recap: chia pudding w/ unsweetened coconut milk & chopped strawberries; blueberry larabar and mango chamomile tea; chickpea cucumber & tomato salad over jicama chips with an herbed tahini sauce; harissa tahini roasted cauliflower with chickpeas served over spinach.
Day 10
Today I used a lot of ingredients but it felt very plant-filled and eating in such a way made me feel “clean”, for lack of a better word. I felt like I was choosing better options and thriving on food in a way I hadn’t in a while.
Food recap: protein cookie dough made with applesauce, coconut flour, almond milk, vanilla protein, and a crumbled up fudge bar; reishi cacao elixir made w/water; leftover veggie sausage with peppers, onions, more greens, cilantro & lemon; fresh orange; pizza made with cauliflower and GF flour for the crust, topped with marinara, vegan mozzarella, mushrooms, & a side salad of romaine, cucumber ½ avocado, lemon, chickpeas, and fresh herbs.
Day 11
I feel like I approached my food with patience and was able to enjoy a post-dinner snack because I wanted a treat and for no other reason. It wasn’t necessary but it also felt like I was taking a balanced approach and that is all I’ve wanted to achieve.
Food recap: Buckwheat porridge w/unsweetened coconut milk, flax, ¼ banana, a tsp of almond butter & a fudge bar; mixed greens salad with chickpeas, cucumber, parsley, tomato, olive oil & lemon; sauté of garlic chickpeas, collard greens, & kale with roasted butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, herbs, and ¼ avocado; protein mug cake with a drizzle of cashew & coconut butter; reishi cacao elixir.
Day 12
The place I’m at is one of balance. I really feel like I’ve come to a healthy place where I don’t crave sweets. I can do without them but I can also enjoy naturally sweet fruit or, if I’m craving a snack, opt for something more savory.
Food recap: unsweetened coconut yogurt w/berries, cacao nibs, bee pollen; collard green “tacos” with white beans, chipotle mayo, roasted mushrooms, vegan provolone cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, avocado; comfort wellness tea; half a bag of snap pea crisps; veggie stir-fry with brown rice noodles, cilantro, & kimchi.
My thoughts post-challenge
It might not sound like I made too much of a change in my meals and attitude towards food. I bared my honest truth about the struggles I had with overeating and reaching for foods when I knew that wasn’t what I needed. Prior to the sugar detox I was consuming way more sugary baked goods than I’d care to admit, I was drinking kombucha like if it came from the tap, and sweetened yogurts had replaced my plain yogurts. I needed help!
Obviously, behaviors and cravings don’t change overnight. I dealt with those for over half of the sugar detox because my habits still existed; I was just reaching for alternatives. Yet, there was a turning point where I took on a new perspective with food—I’ll have to share about this in another post! Anyway, soon I realized that sweets weren’t satisfying me. They weren’t what I was truly craving and, when I wasn’t filling myself up with food, I felt more vibrant and like a clear vessel for information. The days seemed brighter and I felt happier. It sounds silly, I know, but it is true!
I already have a really particular diet with being plant-based and gluten-free so I can’t imagine adding sugar-free to that list, too. At this time, it is too much restriction for me, personally. Though, I do see that my sugar consumption is something I want to stay on topof so it doesn’t get out of hand again. Therefore I plan to pencil a challenge into my calendar every few months. I think if I can do another 2-3 this year then that will be perfect for maintenance.
Have you ever done a sugar detox? I feel noticeably better and would recommend it to anyone. A 1-3 day challenge may be better to test the waters. Also, if you’re uncertain of how to even approach this, we could work together on removing sugar or any other health goals you may have in one of my 6 month programs! I’ll soon be taking on clients as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach so stay tuned for that!
When I first started my blog, I knew I had a passion for cooking and was hoping to go down the route of a recipe developer. While I have certainly made the recipes I’ve posted on here, multiple times usually, I know they are relatively simple.
My love for cooking made me also consider the idea of starting a food business. I was legitimately investigating how I could go about getting a permit to make food and sell it out of my kitchen!
Ever since I realized how important of a role food has in my personal health through my own struggles, I have a growing desire to share that with others. I’m not totally giving up on the idea of a food business or becoming a professional recipe developer (more romantic in theory than it really is), but right now I think my path is taking me in another direction.
My way to bring the message of nutrition for health is not necessarily by cooking for people, but by providing meaningful information. Not everyone is willing to do the nitty-gritty research about why you should cycle-sync, if you’re a woman, or what to put in their smoothies besides fruit but I will be your girl! 😉 I find that while many people won’t seek it out, they welcome the information. Knowledge is power and they may then utilize it, if they so choose.
As I face obstacles in my wellness journey, I will continue to be open and share those with you all. I’ve already talked about everything from issues with veganism and anxieties surrounding food to not feeling good enough and discovering presence. Some of these things are uncomfortable to talk about but I feel good sharing them. The way I see it, if my posts can reach even one person who resonates with what I’ve been through then that’s already enough. Thanks for checking out the recipe!
For today, I’m tapping into the recipe side of me (hey, I didn’t say recipes won’t be a thing at all) again. Just like my turmeric chickpea and potato salad, this is also more of a lose add-as-much-as-you-like style recipe. I’ve been eating this one for months and have posted it on my Instagram stories so much that you probably think I don’t eat anything else. The sweet potato and quinoa make the salad hearty. Yet, the water-rich cucumber and romaine/greens make the salad super hydrating. Oh, and the curried tahini dressing on top! Mmmmm! 🙂 I’m in love but don’t take my word for it—try it and let me know what you think!
Xoxo,
Melanie
Sweet Potato and Cucumber Salad with a Curried Tahini Dressing
Recipe Type: Entree
Author: Melanie
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 salad
When you batch cook staple items like sweet potato and quinoa, it makes for easy salad throw-togethers at lunch or dinnertime. Add a fabulous dressing and you’ll wonder where this simple salad has been all of your life.
Ingredients
2-3 cups mixed salad greens or chopped romaine lettuce
Chopped cilantro and/or parsley
1 small sweet potato chopped and roasted
1/3 – ½ cucumber, chopped
¼ cup raw or roasted beet, chopped (optional)
½ cup cooked white quinoa
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp curry powder
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp water
Instructions
This recipe assumes you have all of your ingredients cooked already: the sweet potato, quinoa, and beets, if using. In a bowl, add your quinoa (mine is hidden under the lettuce), greens of choice, cilantro, cucumber, and beets.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the tahini, lemon, curry powder, salt, and 2 tbsp of water to form a dressing. The amount of water depends on the thickness of your tahini. Also, cold water seems to make for a thicker, fluffier dressing so that may also require 4 tbsp. However you like it, this recipe usually leaves me with an extra serving for another salad but you do you.
Add the dressing to your salad bowl and top with half of a chopped avocado. Crack some fresh black pepper over your salad and maybe another squeeze of lemon if you’re zesty like me! Enjoy!
3.5.3251
Be sure to leave a comment or tag me on Instagram if you try it out!
I want to help empower people to take control of their personal health. In order to do so, I want to provide people with the tools and information they need to be their most empowered and healthiest selves.
Today’s post is not about me trying to convince anyone else to become a health coach. Rather, I just like to keep you guys informed of what I’m up to and that’s exactly what I’m going to do today. I may have alluded to it before but I find it cathartic to express myself through these posts. It is purely a splendid bonus if, in the event that you’re contemplating anything similar, my experiences feel relatable and are of some help. (Also, if that is the case then feel free to email or DM me and we can chat more♥)
For the past few years, my health has become the most important thing in my life. If you asked teen Melanie what the most important thing in her life was, it would’ve probably been something like watching her favorite shows on The CW…which is just nowhere near as important now. Anyway, my health has been through wild ups and downs all throughout my life. It is a funny thing to look back on what events or behaviors occurred that were basically alluding to something bigger.
What are the big life things that made me want to become a health coach? Well, I could tell you about how I have had issues with disordered eating or exercise addiction that caused me to even lose my freaking period for over a year but I think these sort of situations were only the tipping point(s).
As well, I could tell you how I’m SUPER passionate about food. I have been a foodie since I was born and it was only a matter of time until I started caring what went into my food. Yet, I am only one person with my own experiences in nutrition. Therefore, I want to further educate myself on the subject so that I can help others make informed decisions about their personal nutrition. As a result, better nutrition can lead to improved health in other ways, not to mention, overall an increased state of well-being.
At the moment, I am in the process of obtaining my certification as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. Before explaining what that means, let me reiterate the first sentence of today’s post which provides my personal mission as a health coach.
I want to help empower people to take control of their personal health. In order to do so, I want to provide people with the tools and information they need to be their most empowered and healthiest selves.
Though, I want to dive a little deeper into the WHY.
I used to think health coaches were a joke in the health and wellness space. Basically, I thought this was a made-up career. I thought health coaches were people with self-dubbed titles who just spammed fitness accountability groups online in an effort to gain clients (and rip them off). Obviously there is a commercialized aspect of many career fields like this but that isn’t everything health coaching is about!
I have learned that people seek out the information they want when they need it. There is a degree of outward effort that I will put into gathering clients and sharing (ideally with minimal spam, LOL) what I do but people need to find their way to me organically. I can spam all the fitness accountability groups on Facebook and Instagram with advertisements about my services but that won’t get me very far.
I greatly believe that when you seek out information yourself, you are more likely to take action or make personal changes because you are ready to invest in yourself.
I am walking into the next steps of my coaching journey ready to soak up all of the nutrition information and develop skills on how to better assist clients on a personal level. That is my next step and I sought it out by researching, investigating, and signing up for the Institute of Integrative Nutrition’s health coaching program. Not long from now, in 2019, I will hold the title of an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach.
It is no secret that everyone has their own ideas of what it means to be “healthy”. There are countless books, blogs, and careers with different approaches to target that exact same concept. Plus, I know the information in the health and wellness industry is over-saturated and nutrition information in particular is confusing. I hope to prove that there is no need for trendy or crash diets because a whole foods way of eating is simply something that everyone can benefit from. Understandably, there are other factors that make eating healthy hard and I will be here to address those, too.
I want to be the link between people and their personal health. I am all about the holistic approach and believe that we each have the ability to achieve optimum health. In my process of achieving my Integrative Nutrition Certification, I look forward to enhancing my own system of knowledge and skill set so that I can help others create their best health.
I hope I’ve provided a clearer perspective on my WHY behind becoming a health coach—a nutrition health coach in particular. I’m not ready to begin seeing clients yet but if you would like to work with me in the future, then stay tuned around here because you all will be the first to know!
As a final note, I did not write this post with the intention to recruit others to join me as a health coach but if you are interested in my same program, through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
All day long I’m either eating or snacking—and in between those moments I’m brushing my teeth. The last thing I want is to stack food smells and flavors in my mouth. As much as the food I eat is important to me, so is clean, fresh breath. I brush my teeth three times a day so I realized that the oral care products I’m using so frequently should be chemical-free and as natural as possible. For this reason, I’ve been on the hunt for toothpaste that meets those standards and aligns with my values.
Why Brush Your Teeth?
I carry around a toothbrush and mini toothpaste in my purse that way I never miss an opportunity to brush! It’s so important to me but I know not everyone makes it a priority. Here are a couple of incentives that make me motivated to brush my teeth:
Clean Mouth Feeling
Oral Hygiene
Fresh Breath
Bonus: It curbs the desire to snack or graze needlessly.
My Background in Oral Care
The first time I ever went to the dentist in my life was at age 12. Prior to that, my family didn’t have dental insurance and felt we would be fine without the annual dentist check-ups. Despite that, my mom instilled the importance of teeth-brushing from the very beginning.
As a kid, I’d hate to eat something after I had just brushed my teeth. It distressed me to ruin the clean, minty fresh feeling that brushing my teeth achieved. Flash forward to my first dentist visit and I was cavity-free. Yes, CAVITY-FREE after 12 years of never seeing a dentist. Young Melanie sure ate a lot of sweets daily so I can’t attribute my results to an impeccable diet. I say it came from a great oral health care routine: brushing my teeth after any meal.
I’m not a dentist or registered anything but, from personal experience, I know teeth-brushing is important for cavity prevention and oral health overall. That is, the action of effectively cleaning debris off teeth helps prevent build up that can lead to tooth decay. Unfortunately, oral care products often have fluoride and other elements that I don’t want to ingest or have in my mouth, even in small amounts.
Fluoride and What Else to Avoid in Oral Health Care Products
Perhaps you might remember being a child in elementary school and being provided a cup of fluoride to swoosh around in your mouth during recess. Or was that just at my school? Maybe your city or state utilizes water-fluoridization. The idea behind both is that fluoride is helpful to clean teeth and people, children especially, need more help in that department. Though, recent research, which collated the use of fluoride in water across multiple countries, demonstrated miniscule decreases from its use. If anything, a scientific review of fluoride in drinking water is shown to be a potential endocrine disruptor and that is the last thing I personally want in my body. Particularly when hormonal balance is a major concern of mine.
Thus, I am happy to bring to light a company that produces oral health care products free of fluoride. Oral Essentials toothpaste and mouthwash range are completely chemical-free and non-toxic. In addition, the products are made without dyes, preservatives, alcohol, glycerin, or SLS (a shady ingredient even found in household cleaners)!
Why I Like Oral Essentials
What is in Oral Essentials products, then? Their brand utliizes the natural exfoliating power of Dead Sea salt. Other ingredients worth mentioning are coconut oil, aloe vera, non-GMO xylitol, and essential oils. All of these ingredients are familiar, safe, and allow me to continue my oral care routine without worry.
I tried out the Whitening toothpaste and mouthwash, Sensitivity toothpaste and mouthwash, Dry Mouth mouthwash, and Original formula toothpaste. I honestly cannot differentiate between the products as far as effectiveness goes. Though, I can feel a difference in the cleanliness of my mouth in comparison to my old toothpaste. It wasn’t until I started using Oral Essentials that I realized how traditional toothpaste leaves a slippery film on my teeth. I would sometimes double brush my teeth because I just didn’t feel like my mouth was clean enough after the first brushing. Not anymore.
Simply one brushing with Oral Essentials toothpaste leaves my teeth feeling residue-free and clean. While there are a few choices, the toothpastes are all quite similar. They each feel slightly dry from the sea salt but there is no gritty feeling. Unlike the typical store-bought brand, Oral Essentials toothpaste is not thick and goopy, and it dissolves quickly. At first, I found myself using a little bit more toothpaste than I would normally use. The light-mouth feel and thinner consistency of the toothpastes are different than what I am used to. I now use a small amount and that serves to efficiently remove any bit of gunk I may have on my teeth. I pair it with the mouthwash for an even fresher, sting-free clean feeling!
My Oral Essentials Product Variety of Choice
When it comes to the product line varieties, I enjoy the original and sensitivity formulas the most. I do not have a tooth sensitivity issue but the flavor and feel of the original and sensitivity line are most similar to what I previously had in toothpaste. The whitening variety made with lemon peel is a bit zingy for me, though it is not harsh! I should mention that each Oral Essentials product is designed to be suitable for sensitive mouths. Therefore, each product is non-irritating and safe for frequent, daily use.
I could definitely see myself continuing use of Oral Essentials toothpaste and mouthwash. Any of the varieties are great and I’m proud to recommend these non-toxic products. I hope my review is helpful if you are also interested in natural products. 🙂
DISCLAIMER: The Oral Essentials product review is completely my own opinion. I am not under any obligation to promote or endorse their products. I truly enjoyed them so I just want to share my review.
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