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Essential Oils ORAC Scale

Essential Oils ORAC Scale

Author: Sam Vale Noya

Yoga instructor currently living and teaching in Reading, UK. View all posts by Sam Vale Noya

Posted on March 13, 2018

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Published inTop Tips for a NINJA immune system

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    • Guide to Top Essential Oil Companies + Price ComparisonGuide to Top Essential Oil Companies + Price Comparison
      Need some help shopping for essential oils? You want to use essential oils but you’re not sure where to buy them. With so many choices, and everyone claiming to sell “100% pure and natural” products, it’s a consumer minefield. This is especially so as the industry is not regulated, so you really have no guarantees about what your buying, aside from what the companies tell you.  Let me flag up my potential conflict of interests from the outset. I did much of this research a year ago when I was weighing up choices, and ultimately dove in and got a doTERRA membership and started using and sharing their oils. I’m a wellness advocate for them, which means I sell them and work with customers who, like me, decide doTERRA is the one for them. My hope is to keep this pretty unbiased and present the facts.  DoTERRA is one of several great options, and while I’d love it if you joined me over in camp DoTERRA, I understand it’s not for everyone. My hope it that if DoTERRA isn’t for you, this blog will set you on your way to buying from another great company, and enjoying real essential oils from them. And if you decide to go for doTERRA, then of course, I’m here to help further. There’s no one-size-fits-all here. Some people just like BMWs, and some just like Audis, that’s just how it goes. Right, let’s get to it. Quality Matters It seems like everyone and their cat is selling essential oils these days. You can probably buy a 10-pack at the 99p store.  There are plenty of cheap oils around, but these are little more than perfume. The focus of this review and price comparison is on companies selling at the higher end in terms of quality. If you’re looking to make perfume, or your own beauty products, and you’re not fussed about the healing properties of the plant being present, then you can save money and not bother with these more expensive therapeutic grade oils. If however, you really are looking for plant power at it’s best and most potent, if you want the many therapeutic benefits you may have heard about, or read about over on PubMed, then read on to see if one of these companies resonates, and also to get an idea of what to look out for when reviewing a potential company. The cheaper oils you’ll find around can be classed as ‘cosmetic grade’. Basically, they’re natural perfume. If you’re looking for something to make your bath or massage oils smell nice, and nothing more, then these may be a fine choice. But I’m assuming here you’re looking for full-spectrum essential oils. A List of Some Good Companies As part of my oil education I’m studying with Tiffany Pollard, her Healing Oil Collective is brilliant journey to working with plant consciousness via their essential oils. As part of the first section of the course she provided a list of Quality Essential Oil Companies  which of course, I’m linking here for you so you can get a sense of the options available. What to look out for Don’t just rely on the label to tell you what’s inside. The terms ‘pure’, ‘100%  pure’, ‘therapeutic’, ‘100% natural’, even ‘organic’, don’t tell you all that much. There is a lot of deception that takes place with labelling, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.  The main thing here is to dig around a bit beneath the label to get more information on which to base your buying decision on.  Unless quality doesn’t matter to you at all, you really don’t want to buy the first, or heaven forbid cheapest, essential oils you come across. With that in mind, always buy from a company that has a dedicated website and provides detailed information on their oils, the sourcing and  the measures they have in place to assure quality.  You can tell a lot from a company’s website. If you have questions, send them an email. A good response (indeed, a response at all!) is another good sign. Watch out for companies that sell all their essential oils for a similar price; frankincense, sandalwood, jasmine, rose, neroli….these should be MUCH more expensive than lemon or orange for instance. Organic can be good, but it isn’t everything. Some smaller companies may harvest wild plants to craft lovely essential oils, but be unable to pay for the organic certification. Other companies, like doterra, that source from over 40 countries where the definition of organic varies wildly, and who decide that they want to go for 100% pure nature, rather than 95% (which is the standard to pass as organic) may also choose to forgo the organic certification and go down a different route.  With DoTERRA they created their own standard – CPTG – certified pure therapeutic grade. Watch our for companies that primarily sell to the food/drinks industry and/or perfume/spa industry. Their prices will be cheaper but their goal in producing essential oils is not for therapeutic benefits.  The oils may undergo different treatments to remove any impurities, but also be tampered with to make the smells/taste consistent. This all has an impact on the therapeutic effects of the end result. Price!! Expensive isn’t always a sign of high quality, but you can rest assured that if you pay next to nothing, the product you get will be close to that too. Price Comparison Let’s face it, we’re interested in the bottom line here, and no one wants to pay above the odds. I gathered a selection of well-known and well-regarded essential oil companies and did a price comparison on a selection of popular oils. The six oils I chose are the six single oils found in DoTERRA’s home essentials kit. This is the kit I recommend people start with as it’s super versatile, and these oils cover a lot of ground. So I thought these would be as good as any to compare. You can checkout the spreadsheet here. Where prices were only in USD or GBP I had to do some calculations. Where companies only sold 5ml, 10ml, or 30ml, I had to do some calculations to compare at the 15ml size that most offer. So these aren’t 100% accurate, but good enough to get a sense of general pricing. What you’ll notice is that, other than lemon, which is one of the cheapest oils to produce, generally, you won’t get 15ml of a quality oil for under a tenner. Here are a few companies included in the price comparison with some notes. Mountain Rose Herbs Not a company I’ve used, but one that Tiffany Pollard recommends in her course. Their prices are on the cheaper side, but some oils are clearly listed as not for therapeutic uses, more for perfume/soap making etc..  This is reflected in the price and honestly stated in the description. Lots of good information on their website about their commitment to organic farming, sustainable farming and fair trade. All good stuff that contributes to a good oil. Rocky Mountain These guys have good information on their quality testing. They have a  “S.A.A.F.E. PROMISE: Our S.A.A.F.E. Promise is our guarantee to you that our essential oils are what we say they are: 100% pure and natural. We conduct GC/MS tests on each of our essential oils twice; once before we buy them from a supplier and again before we send them to you. The RMO S.A.A.F.E. Promise ensures you receive an authentic product you can trust.” Each bottle also has a batch number on the bottom of the bottle. This batch number is the unique identifier that allows you to access the oil’s GC/MS test results.  This shows a strong commitment to testing for quality and providing transparency to consumers. A sure sign of a good essential oil company.  DoTERRA do this also, by-the-by 😉 This one actually seems to be the closest to doTERRA in my opinion, they even have a loyalty programme. I haven’t reviewed this in great depth but it seems like a nice bonus for those who really want to embrace the oily-lifestyle. If you’re based in the US you also get free shipping-hurrah!  One of the things that prevents me from buying from many of these great US-based companies is the international shipping costs, and often the custom charges that get whacked on on-top of that! Stillpoint Aromatics Straight from Tiffany Pollard “Nice reputation, offers local plant distillations, GC/MS reports, sample sizes available, exceptional education about each EO on the site including energetics and recipes, bulk options available, easy to use website with reviews on site. Offers Aromatherapy certification programs that are well recognized. Wholesale available.” Living Libations LOOOOOVE Nadine Artemis (the owner of this company), and while I’ve never bought her products, because the shipping and custom charges are just crazy-pantaloons for someone here on ye-English-isle – I would pretty much guarantee that her essential oils are the bomb. You can listen to her talk about her work on various podcasts like this one or this one.  You can just tell she means business, she’s serious about doing things RIGHT. Lotus Garden Botanicals Wildcrafted, ethically farmed, and also many organics, GC-MS reports available. Fragrant Earth UK-based, so a great choice if you are in the UK and the above US companies and the dreaded shipping and custom charges don’t appeal. I feel you! Someone I know who is an aromatherapist recommended them. There were a couple of oils I needed recently for Tiffany’s Healing Oil Collective course which doTERRA didn’t offer, so I tried these out. The oils seemed nice. They offer a good amount of information on their website, although to be honest it was the personal recommendation (which counts a lot in my view!) which led me to try them. Shipping was £5.95 for a couple of oils, which is one reason I’ve opted to bed in with doterra and buy mostly from them as I get free shipping and other bonuses through their loyalty reward programme.  But if you’re in the UK, and just want one or two oils occasionally, this might be a nice option. Neal’s Yard Including this one as I know a lot of people enjoy their oils and products.   They offer aromatherapy courses which is a nice addition to their offerings.  I believe they also have distributors like doTERRA (i.e their fans help share their products) so if you know anyone working with Neal’s Yard they would be a great person to grill about the ins-and-outs of their oils.  Their oils and indicated as not suitable for internal use, so that may be a deciding factor for you, or not! Young Living This one is very similar to DoTERRA. They sell through distributors like me, and they’re also committed to quality through their ‘seed to seal’ promise.  This means they take control of the whole process of producing an oil by owning the farms themselves and overseeing the process closely from ‘seed to seal’.  DoTERRA don’t own their own farms but use the business as an opportunity to partner with communities who live in the areas where the plants grow indigenous and help bring jobs and prosperity to those areas.  They use testing instead for quality control. Young Living also have a nifty rewards programme  although it doesn’t seem  to be quite as generous as doTERRA’s. DoTERRA Last but definitely not least 🙂 Why did I opt for doTERRA in the end? A friend introduced me, and as you read above, personal recommendation means a lot to me.  I had dabbled with essential oils before, but my eyes were open to that fact that the quality I’d been buying was terrible.  My previous brand of oils might as well have had cat piss in the bottle, for all the good they did. This friend, now my up-line since I’ve partnered with doTERRA, took the time to send me some samples and explain the benefits of doTERRA over a lot of other oil providers. Some things that swayed me towards doTERRA: They’re committed to purity – 100% pure – nothing less. As per some of the above companies, their oils undergo extensive testing. The barcode on the bottom of each bottle can be typed into this site and you can access the test results. They use their essential oil business as an opportunity to pour money and build economies in places that need it most. They source from over 40 countries, many of which are developing countries. Through long-term partnerships and fair dealings with these communities they are helping to lift many places out of poverty and allowing them to thrive. This is their co-impact sourcing initiative.   You can read all about their sourcing here. Their prices are fairly comparable to other high quality oil providers, as you can see from the chart, but they also do an awesome loyalty rewards programme that gives you free shipping and brings the cost down significantly.  I’ve been a member for over a year now, so I get an extra 30% off the wholesale prices. Although they’re a US-company, they are also international which means shipping costs are much lower and the oils arrive swiftly on my doorstep here in the U of K. But still, why DoTERRA? Other companies, such as the above, have a lot going for them too. Other companies are also committed to high standards and treating people and the planet well. You know, I pondered the questions of why I was drawn to doTERRA A LOT in the beginning. You can weigh up the information, compare the prices, research high and low, draw up your pros/cons list, and your price comparison – and I recommend you do! – but in the end, we often buy based on a feeling. Our emotions are powerful forces, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We buy from the people we like the most.  The people we want to buy from. What attracted me to doTERRA and has made me an avid fan and advocate is the people, their whole culture, community and lifestyle philosophy. I wanted to join the great people I knew who were already on the inside. It just felt like ‘my tribe’. If you just want to buy a bottle or two of essential oils, then really, any of the above companies would be fine sources. If you’re looking for a whole lifestyle shift and weaving these beauties into your daily routine and wellness lifestyle + having an awesome community around you to support you in that, then doTERRA is a super choice.  I get the impression that Young Living and Rocky Mountain have this sort of vibe too, so if you know people loving those companies and selling their products, and you want to hang and enjoy the oil journey with them, then buy from them! Maybe you’ll feel the same attraction to doTERRA as me, or maybe one of the other companies here, or perhaps another company/tribe/community entirely will steal your heart.  Either way, I hope this was helpful and that you find the people and products that make you smile from the inside out 🙂 Big oily hug Sam x   P.S. If you know anyone interested in essential oils who might find this useful, please share! P.P.S If I’ve made any errors in the above or you want to nominate some other good sources for essential oils, comment below 👇...
    • Do Essential Oils Actually Work?Do Essential Oils Actually Work?
      You may be wondering if all the hype around EO (which, let’s face it, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard from me!) is actually true. Do essential oils really work? Or are they just nice smellies, like air freshener or perfume (ew, and yurgh) but a bit more natural? The question you’re really asking here is ‘does nature work?’   Think about that one for a second. Do you believe there is an intelligence built into nature that’s at work? Yay or nay? Let’s dive in. What is an Essential Oil? This is super basic, but if you’re like me, you probably never really gave this much thought. Maybe you were attracted to the nice smells, and you’re a nature-loving kinda gal/guy. Well here’s a simple description. Visualize this if you will. A delicious, juicy, orange, growing wild and free. Not in an orchid (or whatever the orange equivalent is!), not tended by people, just wild and free. Doing it’s thing as nature intended. Unlike us mammals it can’t fight off predators with a baseball bat.  If environmental circumstances become unfavorable, it can’t move to another postcode. If it’s cold, it can’t whack on the heating. Basically, our wild orange has to rely on the intelligence built into it by mother nature to thrive in this world. The rind of this wild and free (and probably rather happy) orange has natural chemical compounds in it. The compounds are it’s immunity. It’s intelligence. It’s in-built defense mechanism that keeps it alive and kicking, so to speak.# That’s why many essential oils are naturally anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral….etc….that’s how they survive in the wild. They have this inbuilt immunity that wards off pathogens. When we cold-press the rind of an orange to distill the essential oil (not an oil at all really, actually the plants essence) we extract the plant’s immunity. When we use their essential oils, the plants are essentially lending us their intelligence and their immunity. Pretty cool, huh?   Here’s the science bit… If you like to see a good study or two to see what the science says, you can fill your boots over at PubMed.com, a search engine for geeks. Here’s a study that found “evidence that essential oils are potential antimicrobial agents against bacteria associated with porcine respiratory infections.” Here’s one that showed essential oils were good repellents against a type of mealworm (told you this was geeky) here’s one that suggests adding oregano essential oil to meat could be a safe way to inhibit things like salmonella in food products.  Here’s another beginning the conversation on using essential oils to help with depression. Essential oils for pain relief.  Here’s one on their anti-inflammatory action. I’ll leave it there. There are literally hundreds of studies over at PubMed, so fill your boots and have fun learning about their super-natural powers!  👊   Not All Essential Oils Are Created Equal If you’re feeling pumped and ready to start benefiting from this plant goodness, know that not all essential oils are created equal. If you want the above benefits and all the awesomeness you can see over at PubMed, you need real, true, actual plant essence. Not perfume. Not something that smells kinda like it. The thing. The actual thing. The Aromatic Plant Research Centre notes on their website that it’s estimated that 80% of commercially available oils are adulterated in some way. Because the natural products industry is not regulated, and there is growing consumer demand for natural products, well, lots of shit is getting bottled and sold as “natural” that has nothing (or not much) to do with nature. So watch out! Obviously as a Wellness Advocoate for DoTERRA I love their oils and can vouch for them. But there are of course other brands doing a good job of making the power of nature accessible to us in this way. I’ll be doing a few more blogs soon on how to spot a good quality oil, along with some tips and suggestions on good places to shop.   Want to learn more now?  Come join me over in my free Essential Wellness community.  ...
    • Is DoTERRA Expensive?Is DoTERRA Expensive?
      This was on my heart this morning. I used to think it was expensive too, so hope this brings some clarity to the question.       Some links referenced in the video, for those of you interested in further research: Co-Impact Sourcing of Vetiver Co-Impact Sourcing of Frankincense   Co-Impact sourcing of Cardamon   https://sourcetoyou.com https://aromaticplant.org/   For more from me and to start your oil journey with me ttps://www.mydoterra.com/inspiredlifeyoga/#/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/575685326107834 (join my free facebook community)...
    • March – Spring ResetMarch – Spring Reset
      Q1 is officially over. That’s 25% of the year down. This year I’ve been focusing on just ONE health habit to elevate my wellness each month. My word of the year is FOCUS so I’m really, really trying hard to practice doing less, but better. It’s hard. I want to do it all. But the honest truth is I really can’t do it all. Not well. Can you relate? In March I committed to doing (and leading) two seasonal cleanses each year, one in Spring (March) and one in Autumn (September). Doing a cleanse as part of a group adds the extra accountability that ensures it gets done and remains fun and positive. So if you didn’t join this time around, why not register your interest in joining us in September for Reset and Renew: 30 Day Cleanse   Why Detox   Before I dive into my detox experience you might be wondering why even bother to detox? Doesn’t the liver take care of that anyway?   Well yes, and no.   Yes the liver, and kidneys, and skin, and digestive tract, are always working to keep things moving along and through and out, and the body is a marvel at always working to maintain health and balance…. BUUUUT … we live in a super toxic world.  We’re exposed to unprecedented amounts of environmental toxins.  On a physical level alone we’ve been exposed to around 80,000 new chemicals in the last 50 years or so. Our body’s are battling with these daily. And that’s just physical. Thanks to amazing technological innovations we’re now constantly connected, which takes its toll on our mental body. Every bit of information we’re exposed to takes up part of our attention, and fragments it. Every bit of information we take in, we have  to process. Think just how much you have to deal with and respond to on a daily basis? Detox is about pressing the ‘pause’ button, or at least the ‘slow motion’ button so that we can start to process everything our physiology and psycho-spiritual body is expected to handle. It’s an opportunity to focus on our self-care and refine how we’re living, so that we can operate at a higher level. I like the computer analogy. Imagine if every time you got a notification from your computer letting you know that there were updates to install, you just ignored it. Forever. What would happen? The computer would slow down, get problems and eventually break and become obsolete. Same deal with our bodies. We have to reboot from time-to-time, ideally with the changing of the seasons. So that’s that. Onto some insights and highlights from my detox this spring. My Spring Detox First off, I am still mid-cleanse, so it ain’t over yet, but I like to write about my monthly habit at the end of the month so here goes. The 30-day cleanse I’ve been doing has three phases   💃Activate 💆🏻 Reset   🧚‍♀️Renew   Phase one is all about getting ready for the cleanse. That means preparing our space, carving out time in our schedule, planning for success. Failing to plan is planning to fail, so these first 10 days are crucial. Plus it gives you time to slip into detox mode. Whatever you’re planning to do for your main detox, you can start experimenting with.   I’ve been juicing lots of greens, starting my day with a fresh green juice, followed half an hour later by a super-charged cacao elixir (the fat in the cacao helps the nutrients from the juice get absorbed). I’ve been drinking lots of water. This is crucial because the detoxification supplements I’ve been taking assist in liver detoxification, but you don’t just want to have toxins being released, and shaked up, and then left to float around. You want to get that stuff out, and water is a great way to help the body flush stuff out.   Inspiration-Station I’ve also been spending a lot more time offline and doing less of everything.  I’ve chosen two books to focus on during this period for inspiration, and can highly recommend both of them. Essentialism keeps reminding me to be intentional about what I’m saying say and no to, and the Beauty Diet has so many great tips on healthy living and how to support your body with simple practices and nourishing foods and herbs.   Upgrades The idea with a seasonal detox is that you pick up some upgrades, so that when you go back to regular life, you’ve actually elevated a few areas, or picked up some new healthy habits.   This time around I’ve really been cutting back on technology (a whole other post on this coming soon on my experiments with life without a smartphone!) but I’ve also picked up some simple practices and tools like…   Chaga and Charcoal Activated charcoal. have you heard of it? Do you use it? This natural and ancient substance is such a cool tool to have on hand. Charcoal absorbs toxins like a sponge so is great for detoxing. I was recommended charcoal tablets when I travelled through India, to help with any belly-troubles. The idea is that you take the charcoal and it sweeps through and attracts anything dodgy. then drags it right on outta you.         I even made myself a detoxifying juice by adding some to my green (now black) juice this morning. Not the most appetising, I know!     You can also make a simple face mask AND wash your teeth with it!!! Amaze-balls if ever there was amaze-balls. And, as you look like something that’s returned from the dead, it’s also great for scaring the kids in your life 😉 Funnily enough, this stuff is great for whitening your teeth in a healthy natural way. I know, you wouldn’t expect it, but it does work a charm!     And chaga, ahhhh, medicinal mushroom tea, how I love thee now. I’ve certainly been cugging-the-chaga ☕️ these past few weeks. Considered the king of the medicinal mushrooms, it’s antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antioxidant and has liver-protective properties. Its basically a bad-ass you want to be chugging on 👍🏾 Recipes Simples: 💓 a teaspoon of chaga plus hot water. Enjoy the simplicity Chaga Chai 💓 teaspoon of chaga 💓 water or a nut milk 💓 cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, ginger, teeny bit of black pepper 💓 maca (optional) 💓 dash of salt and some honey to sweeten if desired Simmer for 20 minutes and then enjoy Chaga-Super-Charged-Cacao 💓 tablespoon of ceremonial cacao 💓 teaspoon of chaga 💓 hot water 💓 dash of cinnamon and sweetener is desired – blitz in blender, pause, enjoy!     Brucy -Bonus A quick tour of my juiciest juicing tips, including tutorial on that pulp cracker bread mentioned above.   The video’s  a bit ropey, but we’ve all got to start somewhere, right? Heaps more ropey videos and fun resources in my Reset & Renew programme. Why not join us? You get lifetime access, so once you’re in, you’re in, and you can do this bi-annual reset with us every year. Sounds good, right? Just make sure you join and order your Cleanse and Restore kit a few months ahead of kick-off, we sold out this time around!  ...
    • DIY Natural Dental CareDIY Natural Dental Care
        What’s in your toothpaste? Have you read the ingredients? Take a look, see if it’s something you really want to be dumping in your mouth. And what about flouride, yay or nay? My dentist says it’s necessary to have it in my toothpaste, and that Lila should use the same stuff, but there are lots of concerns that it’s not safe. As always the information online can be pretty confusing. That said, my initial research seems to suggest it might not be the best thing to have in our toothpaste. This Harvard study reckons it impacts children’s neurological development. And this review of studies  comes to the following conclusion: “The enthusiasm with which fluoride was introduced as a public health measure in the 1950s is gradually giving way to a more rational analysis of its benefits and costs as a caries prevention technology. This review argues that the modest benefits of ingested fluoride in caries prevention are thoroughly counterbalanced by its established and potential diverse adverse impacts on human health. Due to the abundance of this chemical, it is little surprising that humans ingest or inhale fluoride from a variety of sources.” Add to this the fact that we’re exposed to fluoride through a number of different ways, including through processed foods, pesticide-residues, teflon pans, tea, and some foods including, urghhhh, sadly cocoa – NOOOOOOOO! Pfft. So, anyhows.  Luckily it’s not hard to detox this small aspect of your daily routine.  Check out my video for tips. Giving up the colgate is easy, Cocoa is going to be tough, next stop, researching the best suppliers of cocoa! My Dental Essentials   Want to detox with me? Check out my bi-annual 30-Day Cleanse where we do lots of fun stuff like this together. More charcoal fun over on Instagram ...
    • January – RecoveryJanuary – Recovery
        Each month I’ll be sharing progress on my monthly wellbeing focus, and the top resources that have  helped and inspired me to live a little better than before.  This month I reflect on reclaiming my attention, addiction, taking myself seriously, living life without sugar, and the journey to recovering the person I was meant.   💜 January Inspiration 💜 My focus this month has been on identifying the influence certain addictive products, namely sugar, and secondly social media, have been exerting on my life.   As someone who has freedom as one of their top values, it’s been a real eye-opener to say the least, to realise the trap I’ve been living in. The three books I’ve read this month that have sparked a mini revolution and a deep investigation and reflection on my addictive patterns are: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World   – Helped me see how f$%£king shot to pieces my attention is thanks to social media, modern hyper-communication, and the source of all knowing, as well as all rubbish, the internet. This book helped me step back from ‘busy-ness’ and question what I’m doing in life and how I’m actually adding value. Or rather, how I could be adding value, if I could just stay the f%$k off insta-crack for long enough to get something worthwhile done! Realising how much power social media and other bits of technology were holding over my attention and the addictive loop we can so easily fall into with them, I started to contemplate addiction generally and to look at other areas of my life where I had a sneaking suspicion I was less in control than I liked to think I was.  This led me to shine my freshly-wrangled-from-social-media-focus onto another core health topic: food. As a health lover and someone in the biz for over ten years now you’d think I’d know what to eat. And yet. I’d say food nirvana is still a tad out of reach and feeding myself in a totally nourishing and non-neurotic way is still  a habit that’s up for grabs for me. Food Focus These two books have been incredible resources and I highly recommend them both. Food: WTF Should I Eat?: The no-nonsense guide to achieving optimal weight and lifelong health : Does what is says on the tin. With so much conflicting advice on what to eat it really can be a case of scratching your head and thinking WTF?? The chapter on sugar is particularly enlightening, which is what led me to read the next book:     Good Sugar, Bad Sugar This is an Allen Carr book, part of a series called the Easyway that helps people let go of unhelpful behaviours in their life by reframing how you perceive these so-called ‘treats’ and ‘rewards’.. Its most commonly known for its Quit Smoking title. If sugar, or feeding yourself in a less than optimal way,  is something you grapple with I cannot recommend this book highly enough!! If you could press a button and remove your desire for sugar (the bad kind obviously, we’re not talking fruit here) leaving just a desire for foods that deeply nourish your body, mind and spirit, would you press it? This book is that button. So if you’re not ready to part ways with sugar, then definitely don’t read this, cuz when you’re done reading it you won’t look at it the same again.   💜 This Month’s  Experiment: Sugar-Free Jan 💜 A few days before the new year I was feeling sick and tired of not feeling optimal and decided something needed to change. I narrowed down the most destructive thing in my lifestyle to sugar. That shit was bringing me down and it was time to part ways with it. I set myself a 30 day challenge. Sugar-free January. There’s nothing like removing something completely to properly gain some perspective on what it adds and detracts from your life. Compared to the average person I probably eat fairly healthy.  I cook my own meals and love a good kale salad. But I also have a chocolate-tooth. It’s totally a thing.   Cacao is still in my diet, nothing wrong with cacao per se, but I knew the sugar had to go. I couldn’t continue to fool myself that there was any place for it in the sort of high-vibe, feel-great-all-the-time-skip-out-my-door-in-the-morning life I’m aspiring to live. Sugar has no place in a healthy human diet.  It really is that simple. It’s a fact substantiated by plenty of scientific research. There is no healthy or recommended amount, except maybe 0. It’s barely a food! 💜 Sugar: What I Learned 💜 One of the best bits of advice I got from reading Food: WTF Should I Eat is to treat sugar like a recreational drug. Would you sprinkle some MDMA on your cereal in the morning to help you get the day off to a pumped up start? Probably not. A quick line of cocaine at 3pm to get you through the afternoon slump? A bag of ecstasy passed around as treats to the kids after school for being good? It’s crazy shit I’m talking right there, and yet, we do this with sugar! Why do we ‘reward’ ourselves and our children with a substance that’s so toxic when consumed in anything but minuscule amounts? A substance that causes obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, stroke, and depression? How is that a treat? We have to really pay attention to the things we expose ourselves to and be honest about whether they are life-affirming or life-detracting. This isn’t always an easy process. We often want to continue clinging to things that we know don’t serve us because the illusion that they provide some sort of value is so strong.  That’s the hood of addiction. But there comes a time when enough is enough. I think I’ve reached this point with sugar.   The books above have helped me to reframe my confused thinking around sugar and see it for what it is, a drug like substance that provides no benefit and deserves no space in my life.   💜 Abstainer or Moderator 💜 Gretchin Rubin talks about people falling into two camps. Those who can moderate their intake of something and those who need to abstain. You may be an abstainer for one thing and a moderator for other things. Only you know if something is a problem for you, but if you find a lot of your mental energy being chewed up constantly debating whether you should have something or not, and if so how much , and how frequently, and then constantly having to re-asses…..maybe it’s time to just abstain. Maybe abstinence is easier. With sugar, I think abstinence will provide me with a great deal of freedom.   💜 Recovery 💜 On anything addiction related Russell Brand is a great resource. I’ve read his book Recovery and love his definition of recovery as “recovering the person you were meant to be all along.” Yes! My 30 day challenge has been freeing so far, and what’s making this stand out from similar forays into sugar-free living is that I’m taking myself and my sugar addiction seriously. I’m taking my recovery and my extraction from the pull of sugar very seriously. I’m seeing sugar for what it is finally; a vitality-detracting addictive substance. I’m acknowledging that it has had a power over me and it’s time to put it in its place and take control again. Before I’d always end up making excuses as to why I should go back and ‘treat’ myself to sugary things again after a bit of a break. But as you can read above, how much of  a treat is something that leads to obesity, diabetes and all manner of health-problems? I want to start acting like I really love myself and start treating myself accordingly by treating myself to actual treats. Obviously it’s early days, who knows where I’ll end up with this. But I’m taking it day-by-day and letting myself enjoy life without sugar. I’d like to look back at the end of the year and say YES – January was the month I elevated my life to next level by dialling this new habit of sugar-free living. The Moon is my Calendar Journal pictured here is helping me track my monthly wellness focus. For every day that goes by without sugar I give myself a little love-heart, a visual reminder that I’ve done something loving for myself. There’s no deprivation or suffering going on here, I’m actually stepping into a new level of freedom and self-love. Big Sugar You might say sugar is the new smoking. A widespread health epidemic that ‘Big Sugar’ – as I’ve taken to calling the peddlers of processed-edible-food-like-substances packed with sugar- are keen for us not to look too closely at. Did you know that if you removed all the ‘food’ items in your local supermarket that contain added sugar you would be left with just 20% of what you see there? Also, experiments by these companies were run to try and reduce the sugar and salt intake as a way to to address the health epidemic. They failed as it turns out most processed food with added sugar doesn’t taste of anything when the sugar and/or salt is removed. Because they aren’t real food! Bonkers isn’t it. 80% of what we’re presented in a supermarket is highly addictive, engineered-food-like-substances, with little if any nutritional or taste value, salt and sugar aside,  designed to hijack our biochemistry and keep us hooked on something that will insidiously and slowly poison us. I’ll share something straight from Food: WTF Should I Eat: “If it were a brand-new product, the government would treat it like a dangerous substance to be controlled and regulated, not something that should be given to babies and added to 74% of all packaged foods in supermarkets. In fact, it would be approved as a good additive because it is so toxic when consumed in anything but small amounts. When you look at the damage caused by sugar – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, stroke, depression – you have to wonder why we continue to eat it as we do, and even worse, why we spoon-feed sugary junk foods to our children.” The food industry is poisoning us for profit. Just like the tobacco industry did. Same shit. Different poison.    A Rose By Any Other Name   …..would still smell as sweet, And sugar by another name will still mess you up. The Eskimos have over 50 ways to say snow. We have over 50 ways to say sugar. Gives you an idea how  deeply woven into the fabric of our society this toxic substance is. Read this list of the different names sugar is coated under and soak it up.  Next time you’re looking at an ingredients label and wishing to avoid sugar don’t be fooled by fancy names for it.  Dehydrated cane juice, agave syrup, coconut sugar….it’s all just sugar dressed up in fancy shoes. Once it hits your bloodstream it hijacks your chemistry and brain just like SUGAR SUGAR. Phew, that’s a hell of a lot of information and rantings on sugar. If you’re still looking for more inspiration and information to advise your own re-assessment of sugar, here’s what else I found useful this month:   Research Papers Sugar Addiction: From Evolution to Revolution Sugar addiction: is it real? A narrative review.  Impact of sugar on the body, brain, and behavior Podcasts Barry Friedman: How to Detox from Sugar, Beat Cravings & Become A World-Class Juggler https://fatburningman.com/dr-mark-hyman-what-to-do-about-fake-foods-nutrient-deficiencies-pesticides/ Russell Brand – for general addiction information is great! https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/russell-brand-on-recovery-addiction-life-love-fatherhood/id1290769207?i=1000393025416&mt=2 And this podcast, The Doctor’s Farmacy, is awesome for all things food as medicine. Essential Oils Of course I’ve been using my oils to support me with this month’s focus. Cinnamon is wonderful for balancing blood sugar and banishing sugar cravings. I use a teeny-tiny-not-even-a-drop in my cacao to satisfy any need for sweetness. Peppermint is wonderful whenever you need a pick-me-up. No longer will I grab some chocolate, my new habit is to grab the peppermint and roll some on my temples.  You can’t get rid of a bad habit right off the bat, but you can replace it with a better one! Jasmine – sugar hijacks your biochemistry and messes up your body’s ability to regulate its dopamine. It makes you feel like you need the sugar to get a hit or high. It’s an illusion. Just like the smoker that starts smoking and establishes a craving for nicotine which nicotine then addresses i.e. the nicotine doesn’t make you feel better than a normal non-smoker feels all the time, it just brings you up to normal by feeding a craving that you’ve created by starting smoking in the first place.  Mad isn’t it? Sugar is the same.  Jasmine helps us to rebalance our dopamine function. Rose – a reminder that this isn’t about depriving myself of anything but actually loving and caring for myself on a much deeper level,  but freeing myself of something that brings me no real joy or benefit.   Over to YOU Could you give up sugar? How does the thought of that make you feel? Is there something else in your life that you know isn’t really serving you but you find yourself constantly pulled back to?      ...

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About Me

Yoga instructor currently living and teaching in Reading, UK.
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Contents

  • Guide to Top Essential Oil Companies + Price Comparison
  • Do Essential Oils Actually Work?
  • Is DoTERRA Expensive?
  • March – Spring Reset
  • DIY Natural Dental Care
  • January – Recovery
  • February – Drink Up!
  • Go Deep, Not Wide
  • A Very Oily Christmas
  • Conscious Language: You DO have time!
  • Conscious Language: You CAN afford it
  • Never Got Anything To Wear?
  • You’re The Author Of Your Own Story
  • Get Out Of Your Rut And Into Your Life
  • Essential Oils for Sadness and Grief
  • Supercharge Your Intentions
  • Simple Self-Care for the Super Busy
  • Diary Of An Oil Junkie
  • Top Tips for a NINJA immune system
  • Sacred Sundays
  • How to Forest Bathe…From Your Living Room
  • One Small Victory – DIY Hand Sanitiser Recipe
  • Once in a Blue Moon
  • Move Your DNA
  • 5 Things I Learned From Tidying Up
  • What’s Your Flavour of Self-Sabotage?
  • Be More With Less – Project 333
  • The #1 Secret to Meditate Like a Pro
  • Kitchen Sadhana
  • How to Make Your Own Green Powder
  • Mind The Gap: Reality Versus What’s Possible
  • Wild Nettle Soup
  • Easy Ayurvedic Detox
  • Happy Earth Day
  • Five Simple Rituals to Detox This Spring
  • The Shockingly Simple and Ridiculously Effective Health Hack You’re Probably Missing Out On
  • Yoga Isn’t About Touching Your Toes – It’s About What You Learn On The Way Down
  • The Power of Doing Nothing
  • What’s The Cost Of Our Choices?
  • Your Body Never Lies
  • Just One Word
  • Life is An Experiment – My Body is the Laboratory
  • Sitting Is The New Smoking
  • It’s In Your Hands
  • Gratitude Helps
  • Being and Doing
  • The Compound Effect – Is It Working For You Or Against You?
  • Why Snacking Might Be Wrecking Your Health
  • How Coaching Freed Me From My Own Bull***t
  • Be True To You – Know Your Values
  • How Easy Can it Be?
  • Are You Investing Wisely?

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