What is Oil Pulling?

Have you ever heard of oil pulling or oil swishing before?

Me either... until the other day during one of my "raw food lifestyle" Google searches- yeah, I get pretty specific with my search engines.

This really intrigued me because I wanted to find an easy daily detox that will help my body even more than my new and improved diet.

Here is the quick in dirty facts about oil pulling:

- it has ancient Ayurvedic roots

- long list of cures: gum disease, allergies, asthma, intestinal diseases, ulcers, headaches... The list goes on and on

- can be done with any pure oil (organic), but sunflower and sesame have the most powerful effects

- oil can seep through the crevasses of the mouth to extract toxins and bacteria

- our tongue is thought to be very powerful connection between the rest of the body: think sub-lingual medications. There is so much blood supply that flows under the tongue it's a key place to reach the blood stream quickly

Here is how you do it:

- they recommend you do it first thing in the morning before you eat, brush your teeth, even drink water...

- use sunflower oil or sesame oil of high quality (organic, cold pressed)

- you swish 1 tablespoon of oil in your mouth for 15- 20 minutes doing a suck and pull motion through the teeth and around the gums

- DO NOT SWALLOW: spit out in a garbage can (because the solution is full of bacteria and toxins)

- rinse with salt water mixture

- brush teeth as normal

So I tried it with virgin coconut oil this morning while preparing my meals. It was fine other than the fact that all of the saliva and mucous fills your mouth quite quickly. I rinsed with salt water and brushed my teeth afterward. Since I don't eat in the morning anyway, I followed that sequence with 16oz of water and hopped on the train to the gym...

My teeth felt instantly cleaner. I will see how it helps my body if I continue to do it every morning for the rest of the month.

I hope to see changes in:

- joints and muscles being less achy: which is from working out and walking so much

- clearer skin: veganism has made my skin quite nice, but I want it even BETTER! #selfish

- digestion

- gum health: my gums are slowly receding so this would be great for that

- impacted molars: I read one case where a grown woman started seeing her molars rise after oil pulling

I will let you know how it goes!

Here is an AWESOME article that explains everything for more reference.