From Temptation To Triumph: How Essential Oils Can Help With Cravings
Cravings can seem impossible to beat, but it’s possible! Essential Oils can be an ally in your struggle. Cravings can seem like they come out of nowhere and are often the result of a lack of a particular nutrient. Cravings are also often an emotional response to stress and anxiety, the desire to cope, or they can be related to other mental health problems. Stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which heighten your senses during periods of higher stress (i.e. being around people you don’t like), also affect your response to food. Cravings are subjective experiences and everyone responds differently. You need to seek professional guidance from a doctor who specializes in nutrition. Food Cravings can be a symptom of various mental health problems, mood changes, the body experiencing acute stress, or a goad that wants to maintain your weight and health at a certain level. Cravings can also come from the false perception that you need to eat any extra calories to be thin or healthy.
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Best Essential Oils For Cravings:
Whether you are trying to curtail your alcohol consumption, or simply craving a meal full of sodium and fat, these essential oils can make a difference. The most important thing is to be in touch with what your body is telling you in terms of cravings. Some of these recommendations are meant for use by those who want to improve their emotional state:
1) For Sugar Cravings: Bergamot essential oil, which is a citrus fruit, gives you the sweet smell of orange without the calories.
2) For Salty Food Cravings: Lavender essential oil is a fragrant herb that can help to calm your senses and give you a sense of well-being along with abating cravings for salt.
3) For Buttery, Fattening Food Cravings: Ylang Ylang essential oil is a seductive, floral fragrance that calms your senses and helps to lower stress levels as well as control cravings for fattening foods.
4) For Meat Lovers: Cardamom essential oil is spicy and full of a stimulating aroma that can help balance hormones and appetite, which can prevent the insatiable craving for meat.
5) For Alcohol Cravings: Frankincense essential oil is a spice that calms emotions and helps you to feel more relaxed, while also helping control cravings for alcohol.
6) For Cigarette Cravings: Bergamot essential oil helps to calm and soothe your emotions, while also helping to abate cravings for cigarettes.
7) For Caffeine Cravings: Grapefruit essential oil has a sweet, citrusy aroma that helps to calm your senses while also helping to control your caffeine cravings.
8) For Chocolate Cravings: Clary Sage essential oil is a powerful herb that can help control chocolate cravings and elevate your mood. It’s an excellent choice overall.
9) For Refined Carbohydrate Cravings: Cypress essential oil has an earthy, woodsy aroma that can help you to feel grounded while also controlling cravings for junk food and refined carbs such as donuts and French fries.
Here Are A Few Strategies Essential Oils Can Help You With Your Cravings:
- Take a whiff of peppermint oil first thing when you wake up in the morning. Smelling this pungent herb will leave you refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
- Add a drop of lemon oil to a cloth and inhale deeply, trying not to exhale while doing so. Lemon works as an antihistamine and will be sure to clear out any nasal passages that were clogging up during allergy season or other means of sickness.
- Mix a few drops of grapefruit, rosemary, or peppermint oil with water and drink up. The aroma will help to curb your appetite for junk food and sweets.
- Mix a drop of peppermint oil with a clean cloth and wipe down areas you keep snacks in such as a pantry. The scent will also help deter you from overeating and snacking on bad foods while hopefully inspiring you to eat some fresh fruit and vegetables instead.
- Try drinking Clary Sage diluted in water a couple of times a day to help control cravings for refined carbohydrates (such as cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy, and doughnuts).
- Sprinkle a few drops of Lemongrass Oil on your food before eating to help curb cravings for salt and to stimulate the senses in general.
- Add a drop of peppermint oil to your bath water, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. The aroma will be soothing, and the water will be fresh and clean.
- Mix essential oil with honey (such as sweet orange) for a taste that is full of natural sweetness with no added sugar. You can also use peppermint or grapefruit oil in place of honey in this recipe.
Benefits Of Using Essential Oils For Dealing With Cravings:
1) They are an excellent way to calm your mind and body down.
2) Essential oils can help to eliminate sugar cravings, salt cravings, and even meat cravings.
3) Fragrance is the strongest sense tied to memory. The smell of essential oils can bring back pleasant memories from the past and help you return to those memories during the anticipation of eating bad foods.
4) Essential oils can help you control your emotions and curb depression, which can also be an underlying cause of substance abuse issues as well as food cravings. Eating should be a pleasurable experience related to taste, not something you do simply for nourishment or pleasure.
5) Essential oils can help you to overcome food addictions, which are often related to letting go of negative emotions and finding a sense of peace within yourself.
6) Essential oils can help you become more mindful about your eating habits in general, as well as help you to appreciate exercise and physical activities. Over time, this will lead to improved health and even weight loss.
7) Essential oils can help you find your motivation for sticking to an exercise plan that can lead to weight loss and overall better health.
8) Essential oils can help you focus on the positive aspects of life instead of giving in to negative emotions such as toxic relationships with food and substance abuse issues.
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FAQs:
1) Can Essential Oils be Used for Treating Food Cravings?
Yes. Essential oils can help you to curb cravings for food that have been associated with emotional distress and turmoil. The effects of essential oils on the body are often very subtle in that they don't cause severe discomfort or side effects. If you're ever struggling with a food craving, try relaxing with a drop of sandalwood or lavender oil to bring yourself into a more calm state.
2) Is It Dangerous to Use Essential Oils for Treating Cravings?
Not really. If you're using essential oils that have a strong scent, like lavender oil or sandalwood, then it may be a bit more risky. However, aromatherapy has been known to assist with pain relief and cravings for alcohol as well as other substances and we wouldn't recommend using these oils to treat food cravings unless you are under the guidance of an expert. In general, there is no real danger in using essential oils for treating cravings except for those that are too strong for the body to handle. Many times this means just adding a few drops at most and using them sparingly.
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