Oil Pulling

OIL PULLING

What is Oil Pulling? 

For those that do not know, it is the practice of swishing in your mouth for minimum 20 minutes, sesame oil, or raw organic cold pressed coconut oil in your mouth. Why would you do this? Well, its believed to be an a Ayurvedic remedy for oral health and detoxification.  It is said that it aids in removing harmful bacteria, fungus, and other organisms out of the mouth, teeth, gums and even throat. It is best done, in the morning on an empty stomach soon as you wake up… If you are going to do this, ensure you swish it and pull it through your teeth for at minimum 20 minutes, spit into the toilet so you don’t fill your sink with pathogens, rinse with warm water and sea salt, then brush your teeth lightly.
 

I haven’t done this lately, until last night, and I must say, after doing it, it was like a weight was lifted.. I encourage you to experiment with this and try and see if it helps with your health..  Here are some of the listed potential benefits Oil pulling may have in store for you…

• Migraine headache relief
• Correcting hormone imbalances
• Reducing inflammation of arthritis
• May help with gastro-enteritis
• Aids in the reduction of eczema
• May reduce symptoms of bronchitis
• Helps support normal kidney function
• May help reduce sinus congestion
• Some people report improved vision
• Helps reduce insomnia
• Reduced hangover after alcohol consumption
• Aids in reducing pain
• Reduces the symptoms of allergies
• Helps detoxify the body of harmful metals and organisms

Rock Salt

What is Rock Salt

Rock Salt (Sendha namak ) is the pure rock salt of India and is a little costlier than the normal salt because it is found in very less quantities in the Indian sub-continent. In Hindi Rock Salt is referred as Sendha Namak. The commercial salt available is iodized whereas the rock salt is pure from nature, is more granular, has less salty taste as you would have already noticed and is not chemically processed. It is rich in lot of minerals and if used in regular cooking as a substitute of common salt, it can control all the health problems posed by common salt like high blood pressure, puffiness in the body or the eyes are cooling for the body, helpful in digestion, relieve gas and soothe heartburn and helps in weight loss. Not only health but many beauty benefits can also be acquired from rock salt.

How is it formed 

It is formed by the evaporation of salty water from large water bodies such as inland marginal seas, enclosed bays and estuaries in semi-arid regions where it is found in enormous deposits. In the Indian subcontinent, it is found in the Himalayan region where it known as the Himalayan crystal salt.

Health benefits of Rock Salt (Sendha Namak) 

As pointed out earlier, rock salt is the purest form of salt which is devoid of environmental pollutants and chemical components. It contains 84 out of the 92 trace elements required by the body including calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, magnesium, copper and so on. Thus, it is available in drug stores and pharmacies in the form of powder, pill supplement or even as a liquid extract in health beverages. Some of its health benefits are as follows.

1. Rock salt has an alkalizing effect on the body, as it has not been exposed to high heat and stripped of its minerals, nor does it have any harmful man-made ingredients artificially added to it. Thus it can help you to prevent and reverse high levels of acidity.

2. It aids in digestion and is prescribed for laxative and digestive disorders. It improves appetite, removes gas and soothes heartburn.

3. It facilitates the cellular absorption of minerals. It plays an important role in replenishing the body’s electrolytes and maintaining the pH balance. By stimulating blood circulation and mineral balance it removes toxic minerals and refined salt deposits.

4. It stabilizes blood pressure by maintaining a balance of high and low blood pressures.

5. It aids in weight loss by equalizing minerals which inhibit cravings and eliminate fat dead cells. It helps the body to create digestive juices so that the foods you eat are digested faster.Can be used as a foot soak, foot scrub or a hand scrub too. Removes dead skin & doesn’t have a drying action.

6. Rock salt is used as a home remedy for curing many disorders and ailments such as rheumatic pain and herpes, inflammation and irritation from insect bites.

7. Consumption of rock salt along with lemon juice can help in eliminating stomach worms and controlling vomiting. It also provides relief against influenza.

8. It is beneficial for people suffering from respiratory problems and sinus. Gargling with rock salt helps relieves throat pain, throat swelling, dry cough and tonsils. Rock salt is dissolved in water to prepare brine which is used in facial steams for patients suffering from asthma, bronchitis or other nose and ear discomforts.

9. Rock salt is very effective in reducing inflammation in the respiratory system. Thus the production of phlegm is slowed down so that you can breathe easier again. Many people sprinkle Rock salt on the tongue. It helps them in breathing. It has almost the same effect as of a nasal inhaler. But the best thing about Rock salt is that it has no side effects when taken in moderate quantities.

10. Having brine made with rock salt with a glass of spring water can provide relief in case of arthritis, rheumatism, kidney and bladder stones. Poultice made from this brine can be used to treat wounds, acne or pain due to gout or arthritis.

11. Rock salt can be used as a teeth whitener or mouth freshener. Gargling with rock salt provides relief against sore throat.

12. It can be used as a bath or body salt. You can mix a table spoon of rock salt in your bath water to have a relaxing bath. Bathing in rock salt water combats water retention, soothes sore muscles, regulates sleep, detoxifies your body and lowers your blood pressure. It also eases stress and body pains.

13. Rock salt also has shown to be effective in treating various types of depression. The salt helps to preserve two essential hormones in the body that help you to better deal with stress. These hormones are serotonin and melatonin, which help you to feel good, and relax and sleep better at night.

14. One of the most amazing benefits of rock salt is that it overcomes muscle cramps. Potassium is essential for helping the muscles to function properly. Rock salt not only contains small amounts of potassium, but it also helps the body to absorb it better as compared to other foods. Thus it is very effective in helping to prevent muscle pains, spasms and cramps. Those experiencing muscle cramps can mix a spoon of rock salt in water and sip it to get relief within a few minutes.

15. By providing all the essential trace elements, it greatly improves the immune system. It also improves the respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems to a significant extent.

16. It helps in maintaining the flow of salivary and digestive juices. You can add a pinch of rock salt with few shredded mint leaves to your lassi to make a refreshing beverage.

17. Rock salt can be stored in a copper vessel till it becomes red.

18. It strengthens the bones and connective tissue.

19. Rock salt can help in reducing high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and help to regulate an irregular heartbeat. Thus Rock salt can help to prevent atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes.

20. Rock salt can help to reduce the need for insulin by helping to maintain proper sugar levels in the body. Thus the salt is an essential part of the diet if you are diabetic, or at risk for the disease.

21. Just over 1/4 of the amount of salt that is in the body is stored in the bones, where it helps to keep them strong. When the body lacks salt and water it begins to draw the sodium from the bones, which then eventually can lead to osteoporosis. Thus by drinking plenty of water and consuming salt in moderation you can prevent osteoporosis.

22. Rock Salt can be used as a teeth whitener or a mouth freshener. It can be used with Mustard Oil for best effects. It also clears a sour throat if used for gargling.

Apart from its numerous health benefits, there are also many rock salt uses for your skin in many ways, thanks to its cleansing and detoxifying properties. Some of its benefits for skin are as follows.

23. Rock salt can be used as a body scrub. Rubbing rock salt increases blood flow on the skin & imparts shine.

24. Drop a table spoon of rock salt in your bath every time and enjoy a relaxing bath. It also detoxifies your body externally as well as internally. Eases stress and body pains.

25. Accumulation of dead skin cells is responsible for causing a rough, dull and aged appearance of your skin. Rock salt exfoliates the dead skin cells and protects the natural layer of your skin, thus resulting in a youthful and glowing skin.

26. It also strengthens the skin tissue to rejuvenate your skin, thus making it look younger and firm.  Massaging your skin with a salt scrub exfoliates and refines your skin, leaving it clean and refreshed and eliminating dead skin cells that cause your skin to look dull.

27. Being rich in minerals, rock salt can be used as a body scrub as a perfect substitute of spa standard products made at home.

28. It has excellent cleansing properties. The salt grains can cleanse your skin pores better than any soap or cleanser and makes your skin breathe easily. You can mix a table spoon of rock salt with your cleanser or face wash and rub your face with it for a glowing skin.

29. Soaking your body in rock salt water enables the minerals and nutrients in the salt to be delivered to your cells in the form of ions to facilitate their absorption by your body. This causes an improvement in the appearance of your skin by increasing circulation.

30. Since it does not have a drying effect on the skin, it can be used as foot soak, foot scrub or a hand scrub.

31. Rock salt is effective in removing yellowness under your nails, thus making them shine beautifully.

32. Rock salt mixed with the juices of lemon and ginger when taken in the morning and evening on a daily basis can help in curing skin enlargement.

33. Use of rock salt while bathing can help you to relieve dry and itchy skin as well as serious skin ailments such as eczema and psoriasis. The bath naturally opens up the pores, improves circulation in the skin and hydrates the tissues so that your skin can heal.

34. Removes the yellowness under the nails and makes your nails shine beautifully.
Use it to cleanse your skin at night. Mix a table spoon of rock salt with your cleanser or face wash and rub it gently into the skin. Make sure to remove make up before this routine.

Though it might appear unlikely, rock salt can actually be beneficial for your hair in many ways. Due to its cleansing and exfoliating properties, it is often used as an ingredient in shampoos and hair treatments. Some of its benefits for hair are given below:

35. Due to its excellent cleansing properties, rock salt helps in removing dead skin cells and dirt from your hair without stripping off its natural healthy oil. All you need to do is mix a cup of salt in your shampoo. Wash your hair with this mixture and rinse off your hair with cold water to remove the residue. Make sure not to do the usual lather.

36. You can mix equal parts of your conditioner and rock salt and apply it on your hair. Wash off after 20-30 minutes. This will add volume to your hair.

Cold Pressed Oils - Chekku Ennai

Cold-pressing is the traditional method of extracting oil from seeds/fruits. Cold pressed especially uses WOODEN EXTRACTOR which was used by our fore fathers, and not extracted industrially by heating methods. The raw material (sesame/ peanut/ coconut/ sunflower seeds) is typically ground into a paste, and this is pressed with a heavy stone mill, turned by bullocks, until it expels the oil. This first-pressed oil, is sold unrefined, and without any additives.

NUTRIENTS INTACT

“Cold-pressed oils have all their nutrients intact, retaining the natural properties of the oil-seeds, unlike refined oil,” says Chandra Padmanabhan, cookbook writer. Nimmi Ittycheria John, nutritionist and diet consultant, says “refining degrades nutritional value, and more significantly, introduces harmful trans fats in an attempt to improve shelf life for commercial reasons”.

But, refined oils, produced on a large scale (the output for a commercial oil mill runs into tonnes, as opposed to a small chekku, whose daily output can be gathered in two tins!) and backed by vigorous media campaigns, had almost done away with traditionally extracted oils. Except, now, as with all things organic and natural, it’s increasingly becoming popular in urban homes.

“There is a lot of awareness now, on cold-pressed oils. I have customers coming from Vellore, to buy it. The supply though is limited; because, in a day, we can only extract two tins of oil from our chekku” says M. N. Rajendran, owner, Annai Organic Foods. The low yield is because the oilseeds are not heated to increase the yield, and the oil that is expelled is cold and pure. Insisting on the importance of cold oils, Rajendran says that the oil extracted by large-scale mechanical presses comes out warm. “But cooking oil isn’t supposed to be pre-heated, isn’t it,” he asks.

“We Indians sadly only woke up to our age-old methods of oil extraction when the olive oil lobby began trumpeting terms such as ‘cold-pressed’ and ‘extra virgin,’” says Nimmi. Besides, sesame oil is in no way inferior to olive oil, says Chandra. “Both are mono-unsaturated oils, and cold-pressed sesame oil has similar health benefits. So there’s no pressing need to substitute imported olive oil in our recipes and compromise on the taste of South Indian food,” she reasons. “Cold-pressed sesame oil smells and tastes especially good,” says Rajendran. “When commercially manufactured, molasses is added to the oil, to mask its natural bitterness; but in a chekku, we add palm sugar or jaggery, which heightens its flavour.” And oil from a chekku keeps for a year, says Rajendran, as long as it’s stored in clay utensils.

ANCIENT WISDOM

Understanding the importance of including more than one variety of cold-pressed oil in the diet, South Indian menus have always incorporated three — groundnut oil (with its high heating point) for frying, coconut oil for dressing, and sesame oil for curries and gravies. “All the three have their own benefits,” says Nimmi. “As much as coconut oil has received bad press being high in saturated fatty acids, which are considered potential artery cloggers, ironically it has medium chain fatty acids that are seen as heart protectors. However, to err on the side of caution, I'd advocate using these different oils (in moderation) like they were traditionally used in different dishes to get the benefit of each oil, especially in combination with other ingredients. For example, in a Kerala fish curry, the combination of kokum, fenugreek, Kashmiri chilli and oily fish might just complement a spoon of cold-pressed coconut oil drizzled on top while serving. These areas are greatly under-researched,” she says. But whichever oil you use, use it sparingly, warns Chandra. “One gram of oil has 9 calories; 1 teaspoon, therefore, has 45 calories, the equivalent of half a chapatti. Remember, the unburned calories will sit around as fat!”

Cold Pressed Sesame Oil: 

Sesame oil, also known as gingelly or til oil, is obtained from sesame seeds. It plays a prominent role in Asian cuisine and also alternative medicine. Oil is expressed from sesame seeds either by simply crushing or toasting over heat. The first method provides cold-pressed sesame oil. While cold-pressed sesame oil is pale yellow, hot-processed sesame oils have darker shades and markedly different flavor. Apart from the mild, nutty flavor of cold-pressed sesame oil, it contains a higher proportion of fatty acids than sesame oil obtained from heated seeds. In addition, the sesamolin content of cold-pressed sesame oil protects it from oxidation and, therefore, increases its shelf-life.

Nutrients

Cold-pressed sesame oil is a good source of vitamin E, containing 11.8 mg of the vitamin for every 100 g of the oil. Vitamin E gives sesame oil its antioxidant property. It also has a high concentration of fatty acids, including polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids and monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acids. Other constituents of cold-pressed sesame oil include zinc, copper, magnesium, calcium and iron as well as vitamin B-6. Zinc contributes to healthy bones; copper is good for the management of rheumatoid arthritis; calcium is essential for the prevention of osteoporosis, migraine and colon cancer; and magnesium contributes to respiratory health.

Cardiovascular Benefits

The high concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids in cold-pressed sesame oil makes it useful in the control of hypertension. These fatty acids are not the only constituents of the oil helpful in reducing blood pressure. One of the natural preservatives present in the cold-pressed sesame oil, sesamin, is a lignan shown to lower blood pressure. Furthermore, sesamin inhibits the production and absorption of cholesterol and, therefore, contributes to overall cardiac health.

Cold-pressed sesame oil is known in Ayurvedic practice as the healing oil. When applied topically to the skin or hair, its antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties provide protective, nourishing and detoxifying effects on stressed and damaged skin.