When I first heard of oil pulling I thought we were talking offshore oil rigs and Gulf politics. Then I learnt that it’s a DIY health and beauty procedure and thought that it must be weird and painful.
Turns out my fears and assumptions were unfounded. Oil pulling is less complicated, not painful at all, and much closer home than I’d imagined. It is an ancient holistic practice of swooshing oil in your mouth for roughly 20 minutes a day before spitting it out. Lipids in oils bind with bacteria and other impurities and the oil acts as a carrier to escort them out of your system.
Sesame is considered one of the best oils for this procedure but even coconut, olive and sunflower will get the job done. The results of your troubles are improved oral health, whiter teeth, fresher breath and stronger gums. The benefits of this ancient practice go well beyond beauty and oral hygiene to bigger medical matters. More of said benefits can be found on food matters.
www.foodmatters.tv/articles-1/oil-pulling-the-habit-that-can-transform-your-health
A few complaints about oil pulling:
- Having spoonful of oil in the mouth cannot possibly be pleasant but the advocates of oil pulling have never filed it under pleasant anyway.
- Disposal of oil can prove a problem. You do not want to pour oil down your drains every day since with time it will harden and cause blockage. That should not be a hindrance though; you should be able to come up with simple solutions to this based on your circumstances.
- You will need to stay quiet and shut your family out for the 20 minutes it takes. Not too easy to explain this especially to kids.
Should you try it? – By all means. True, there may not be extensive modern scientific documentation of the full extent of the benefits seeing as it’s an age old idea. But the procedure is easy, relatively cheap and non invasive so that anyone wanting to try it has nothing to lose. Besides, traditional remedies do strongly hold their own in healthcare. The people of yore were not as sick as we are, a fact attributable to their way of life.
Oil pulling could very well gross you out at first. Keep an open mind and ease into the routine.
