Essential oils

[Cici]

I hear a lot lately about the benefits of essential oils, but I really don't know that much about them.  Can someone give me a brief rundown?  

 

Cici

[Tom Denham]

Certainly essential oils have their fans. Bottom line here in the Whole30 forum... Essential oils have not been important enough for the Hartwigs to ever write about them that I can recall. 

[CreatingMe]

There are many uses for essential oils that help people to avoid conventional medicine. Peppermint for a headache or belly ache, wintergreen massaged on sore muscles, ginger for motion sickness. If you search the net you will find scores of websites and blogs devoted to this. I also like to diffuse them just as a chemical free air freshener, and have used them as a bug spray with good results. You can use them topically, inhale them or ingest them as a dietary supplement. Unless the oil you are using comes from a non-compliant source, I would think you could use them on a whole30.

[Outta Here Travels]

I also use EOs to help keep my family healthy and replace OTC meds. You need to be careful when buying the oils though. Most sold in health food stores haven't been stored properly and may not be pure oils. They may have unhealthy additives in them. I guess they would be OK if you're just diffusing them or even adding them to something like laundry detergent. If you want to cook with them or ingest them, they need to be from a reputable source.

I'm brand new to Whole30, but from I've read so far, I would think most would be OK to use if they are from compliant foods to begin with. I'll probably just stick to the herb oils for cooking while on the W30.

[MeadowLily]

I use a food grade peppermint oil in my tea.   Essential oil/massage therapy is relaxing.  I make my own massage and aromatherapy mists.   My favorite blend is Cedar, Spruce, Pine, Fir, Cypress, Oakmoss....it is out of this world.  I call it Out of the Woods.