What You Need to Know About Ingesting Essential Oils
The discussion about ingestion of essential oils can raise quite a stir. Mostly in fact to different parties with vested interests. Let's put some real perspective on this, and consider some common sense.
Those involved with the distribution of adulterated oils will warn against ingestion, or avoid the topic overall because it would be harmful if synthetics and additives got into our digestive tract, obviously. Would it be fair to say that a genuine oil shouldn't be ingested just because an adulterated one should not be?
It could also be argued that such oils shouldn't be used at all because as we know, even topical application of an oil will reach the bloodstream and eventually the liver because of their ability to penetrate lipophilic (fatty) skin tissue.
It's important to understand that even if we just use an oil topically- we are still consuming. Any synthetic, or filler, or additive in that bottle of essential oil, becomes bio-available to us. In fact, ANYTHING we rub on our skin reaches our bloodstream in about 20 minutes. After all this is one of the reasons why essential oils work- our skin is our largest organ, that's a fact!
Because over 85% of essential oils on the market are perfume grade or food grade quality, our society is based on the "English model of Aromatherapy, which mainly does not encourage ingestion. Just about all the articles you can find that warn against it.....ALL the studies you will most likely read, are conducted with such oils or products containing such adulterated perfume grade or food grade oils- and NOT a concentrated, pure essential oil. PLEASE consider this fact as you come across such information. The French model of Aromatherapy operates around 100% pure therapeutic grade oils only. There are many references to oral ingestion, suppository use, and consumption via veggie capsule with dilution.
Ingested essential oils reach the liver very quickly, where they are metabolized and then eliminated. That being said, it's only safe to ingest authentic essential oils that have a beneficial effect for the reasoning to ingest them in the first place. We completely miss the point if we say "No never ingest oils", or "Yes, it's okay to ingest essential oils" .
So after we obtain the most pure, unadulterated oils to use/consume, common sense tells us that ingesting an entire bottle of Lemon oil in two days would be too much. It takes over 75 beyond organic lemons to make one 15ml bottle of Young Living Lemon essential oil (just lemons, all lemons, nothing else but lemons). When the lemon essential oil is cold pressed from the rind, the citric acid from the lemon is non-present, and just the nutritional constitutes of limonene remain. Google "Limonene" - it is incredible! Bottom line is, limonene (a component in lemon essential oil) carries an incredible portfolio for overall health and supports healthy immune system function.
SO... what is safe? Everyone needs to honor their intuition AFTER education. Education is made easy when you are plugged into the right community of support and experience. This is VERY important!
What I consider safe, and smart guidelines for ingesting PURE essential oils:
using safe oils identified as safe to ingest- list below.
drinking them in a glass water cup, or off a spoon with some honey (or diluted in a veggie capsule with some olive oil or grapeseed oil)
some essential oils may be too intense for children under 5 years old. Again- use your intuition considering the circumstances!
Anise seed, cardemom, carrot seed, celery seed, german chomomile, cinnamon bark, coriander seed, cypress, dill, all citrus oils, helichrysum, fennel, frankincense, ginger, lavender, peppermint, tarragon, tea tree, marjoram, thyme, oregano, myrrh, melissa, ravintsara. Young Living has made this SO easy by creating an entire line of ingestion-safe essential oils- called VITALITY oils.
XOXO, Yours Truly,
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