OIL PULLING

This may be an odd question, but I just started oil pulling and I was wondering if I'm absorbing any of those calories from the coconut oil. I don't swallow any of the oil but it does swish in my mouth for 20 minutes. Thanks! :wink:
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Replies

  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156
    This may be an odd question, but I just started oil pulling and I was wondering if I'm absorbing any of those calories from the coconut oil. I don't swallow any of the oil but it does swish in my mouth for 20 minutes. Thanks! :wink:

    Calorie counting can go to ridiculous extremes and become an obsession. CHECK OUT THE REAL CAUSE OF YOUR WEIGHT PROBLEMS:
    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Junk food, video games and a lack of exercise all have received their fair share of blame for the spiraling epidemic of obesity in the U.S. But according to a University of Illinois researcher, public health enemy No. 1 for our supersized nation may very well be the one staple of modern life most Americans can't seem to live without one (or more) of: the automobile.

    Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science and the director of the simulation and optimization laboratory at Illinois, says that the surge in passenger vehicle usage in the U.S. between the 1950s and today may be associated with surging levels of obesity.

    "You can think of obesity as an energy imbalance," Jacobson said. "People consume food, which is a form of energy, and then they expend it in their activities. But if you look over the last 60-plus years, the automobile has become our primary mode of transportation – so much so, in fact, we have literally designed our way of life around it. It is that energy imbalance that ultimately may lead to obesity."

    To analyze the relationship between obesity and vehicle use, Jacobson and students Douglas M. King and Rong Yuan looked at annual vehicle miles traveled per licensed driver as a surrogate measure for a person's total sedentary time.

    Previously, Jacobson studied the effects of extra driver and passenger weight due to growing obesity trends in the U.S. causing excessive fuel consumption.

    Jacobson said this new study reverse-engineers the relationship between weight and driving.

    "What we did before was based on physics: You add more weight to a vehicle, it consumes more gasoline, and we burn more gasoline on an aggregate level," he said. "This then raises the question, 'Is the reverse true?' If we drive more, are we going to become heavier as a nation?"

    After analyzing data from national statistics measured between 1985 and 2007, Jacobson discovered vehicle use correlated "in the 99-percent range" with national annual obesity rates.

    "If we drive more, we become heavier as a nation, and the cumulative lack of activity may eventually lead to, at the aggregate level, obesity," he said.

    Jacobson chose annual vehicle miles traveled as a proxy for a person's sedentary time because inactivity is most obvious when you are sitting in a car.

    "When you are sitting in a car, you are doing nothing, so your body is burning the least amount of energy possible," he said. "And if you are eating food in your car, it becomes even worse."

    The sedentary lifestyle that automobile use enables coupled with the prevalent role it plays in increasing the sprawl of our cities, towns and suburbs is the "societal price we pay for always being in a rush to get places," Jacobson said.

    "For the last 60-plus years, we've literally built our society around the automobile and getting from point A to point B as quickly as we can. Because we choose to drive rather than walk or cycle, the result is an inactive, sedentary lifestyle. Not coincidentally, obesity also became a public health issue during this period."

    Before the automobile became such a prevalent mode of transportation for the vast majority of Americans, "it took much more energy just to live," Jacobson said.

    "The way our communities were built, the way we bought and prepared our food, even the heating and cooling systems in our living environments – just about everything took more physical energy. Over time, that has been eliminated."

    Similarly, in developing nations that are just beginning to incorporate passenger vehicles into their way of life, obesity is on the rise.

    "In places like China and India, where the automobile is increasingly competing with cycling and walking as a mode of transportation, they are observing more obesity," Jacobson said.

    Jacobson, who also holds appointments as a professor of industrial and enterprise systems engineering, of civil and environmental engineering, and of pediatrics in the College of Medicine at Illinois, says researchers and policymakers have not focused as aggressively as they should have on the automobile as a potential culprit of obesity.

    "As a society, what we should be doing is encouraging activity in our daily routines," Jacobson said. "Ironically, the obstacle to that is the automobile. So what we really need to think about is how we use cars. What we really have to do is look at the system of issues that affect obesity, and come up with a national policy that covers all of these issues to address obesity. If we try to solve these societal problems in a vacuum, we will continue to get poor outcomes and make limited progress in addressing these issues."

    To push the limits of their analysis, Jacobson and his team hypothesized how obesity could be eliminated completely through driving less.

    "To completely eliminate obesity, every driver would have to reduce their driving by about 12 miles per day, which is around a third of the average daily miles traveled in the United States," Jacobson said. "But here's the catch: We have to still do everything we are currently doing."

    How do we continue to do what we have been doing and still eliminate obesity?

    "It's effectively impossible," Jacobson said. "But if every licensed driver reduced their travel by one mile per day, in six years the adult obesity rate would be 2.16 percent lower. In other words, almost 5 million fewer adults would be classified as obese based on the 2007 adult population. At the aggregate, if we drive less, not only will our carbon footprint be smaller, we will also lose more weight as a nation."

    Ultimately, Jacobson said, we are going to have to rethink the way we use our automobiles if we want to address obesity.

    "We have had 60-plus years of infrastructure that has facilitated the obesity epidemic," he said. "How do you turn that around overnight? You don't. But you can make some changes. I am not convinced that tactical interventions like taking soda machines out of schools and adding 15 minutes of recess time will have an enduring impact. I do believe we need to re-think how we live as a society and effect policy changes that strategically focus on the root problems, not just the symptoms."

    The results of Jacobson's research were published in an article titled "A Note on the Relationship Between Obesity And Driving" in the journal Transport Policy.
  • bkk40in2011
    bkk40in2011 Posts: 72
    Good question! I do that too and never thought about the calories. I will check back in to see if you got an answer.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,972 Member
    Possible some calories. Spitting out doesn't get all of the oil out of your mouth.

    If you're doing it for oral hygiene reasons, more research is needed to see if it's actually effective.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • Also I spit it out, then rinse my mouth and brush my teeth. I've only done it for three days, but I can definitely tell a difference in how my teeth feel and look.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    It's a tablespoon of oil, right?

    So.. somewhere between 1 calorie and 120 calories... depending on how much is actually ingested...
  • These_goto_11
    These_goto_11 Posts: 81 Member
    What is Oil Pulling? Thanx!
  • http://www.foodmatters.tv/articles-1/oil-pulling-the-habit-that-can-transform-your-health

    I suppose I use a bit less than a tablespoon. My body is just picky and I'm curious if I should cut back on that extra slice of turkey on my sandwich. Haha I'm sure it's fine though.
  • aledba
    aledba Posts: 564 Member
    This may be an odd question, but I just started oil pulling and I was wondering if I'm absorbing any of those calories from the coconut oil. I don't swallow any of the oil but it does swish in my mouth for 20 minutes. Thanks! :wink:

    Calorie counting can go to ridiculous extremes and become an obsession. CHECK OUT THE REAL CAUSE OF YOUR WEIGHT PROBLEMS:
    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Junk food, video games and a lack of exercise all have received their fair share of blame for the spiraling epidemic of obesity in the U.S. But according to a University of Illinois researcher, public health enemy No. 1 for our supersized nation may very well be the one staple of modern life most Americans can't seem to live without one (or more) of: the automobile.

    Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science and the director of the simulation and optimization laboratory at Illinois, says that the surge in passenger vehicle usage in the U.S. between the 1950s and today may be associated with surging levels of obesity.

    "You can think of obesity as an energy imbalance," Jacobson said. "People consume food, which is a form of energy, and then they expend it in their activities. But if you look over the last 60-plus years, the automobile has become our primary mode of transportation – so much so, in fact, we have literally designed our way of life around it. It is that energy imbalance that ultimately may lead to obesity."

    To analyze the relationship between obesity and vehicle use, Jacobson and students Douglas M. King and Rong Yuan looked at annual vehicle miles traveled per licensed driver as a surrogate measure for a person's total sedentary time.

    Previously, Jacobson studied the effects of extra driver and passenger weight due to growing obesity trends in the U.S. causing excessive fuel consumption.

    Jacobson said this new study reverse-engineers the relationship between weight and driving.

    "What we did before was based on physics: You add more weight to a vehicle, it consumes more gasoline, and we burn more gasoline on an aggregate level," he said. "This then raises the question, 'Is the reverse true?' If we drive more, are we going to become heavier as a nation?"

    After analyzing data from national statistics measured between 1985 and 2007, Jacobson discovered vehicle use correlated "in the 99-percent range" with national annual obesity rates.

    "If we drive more, we become heavier as a nation, and the cumulative lack of activity may eventually lead to, at the aggregate level, obesity," he said.

    Jacobson chose annual vehicle miles traveled as a proxy for a person's sedentary time because inactivity is most obvious when you are sitting in a car.

    "When you are sitting in a car, you are doing nothing, so your body is burning the least amount of energy possible," he said. "And if you are eating food in your car, it becomes even worse."

    The sedentary lifestyle that automobile use enables coupled with the prevalent role it plays in increasing the sprawl of our cities, towns and suburbs is the "societal price we pay for always being in a rush to get places," Jacobson said.

    "For the last 60-plus years, we've literally built our society around the automobile and getting from point A to point B as quickly as we can. Because we choose to drive rather than walk or cycle, the result is an inactive, sedentary lifestyle. Not coincidentally, obesity also became a public health issue during this period."

    Before the automobile became such a prevalent mode of transportation for the vast majority of Americans, "it took much more energy just to live," Jacobson said.

    "The way our communities were built, the way we bought and prepared our food, even the heating and cooling systems in our living environments – just about everything took more physical energy. Over time, that has been eliminated."

    Similarly, in developing nations that are just beginning to incorporate passenger vehicles into their way of life, obesity is on the rise.

    "In places like China and India, where the automobile is increasingly competing with cycling and walking as a mode of transportation, they are observing more obesity," Jacobson said.

    Jacobson, who also holds appointments as a professor of industrial and enterprise systems engineering, of civil and environmental engineering, and of pediatrics in the College of Medicine at Illinois, says researchers and policymakers have not focused as aggressively as they should have on the automobile as a potential culprit of obesity.

    "As a society, what we should be doing is encouraging activity in our daily routines," Jacobson said. "Ironically, the obstacle to that is the automobile. So what we really need to think about is how we use cars. What we really have to do is look at the system of issues that affect obesity, and come up with a national policy that covers all of these issues to address obesity. If we try to solve these societal problems in a vacuum, we will continue to get poor outcomes and make limited progress in addressing these issues."

    To push the limits of their analysis, Jacobson and his team hypothesized how obesity could be eliminated completely through driving less.

    "To completely eliminate obesity, every driver would have to reduce their driving by about 12 miles per day, which is around a third of the average daily miles traveled in the United States," Jacobson said. "But here's the catch: We have to still do everything we are currently doing."

    How do we continue to do what we have been doing and still eliminate obesity?

    "It's effectively impossible," Jacobson said. "But if every licensed driver reduced their travel by one mile per day, in six years the adult obesity rate would be 2.16 percent lower. In other words, almost 5 million fewer adults would be classified as obese based on the 2007 adult population. At the aggregate, if we drive less, not only will our carbon footprint be smaller, we will also lose more weight as a nation."

    Ultimately, Jacobson said, we are going to have to rethink the way we use our automobiles if we want to address obesity.

    "We have had 60-plus years of infrastructure that has facilitated the obesity epidemic," he said. "How do you turn that around overnight? You don't. But you can make some changes. I am not convinced that tactical interventions like taking soda machines out of schools and adding 15 minutes of recess time will have an enduring impact. I do believe we need to re-think how we live as a society and effect policy changes that strategically focus on the root problems, not just the symptoms."

    The results of Jacobson's research were published in an article titled "A Note on the Relationship Between Obesity And Driving" in the journal Transport Policy.

    Great info, but waaaaay off topic there. Not everyone here has a weight problem. Maybe you weren't aware. To answer OP's question, if you're spitting it out, you shouldn't be absorbing many calories.
  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156

    Great info, but waaaaay off topic there. Not everyone here has a weight problem. Maybe you weren't aware. To answer OP's question, if you're spitting it out, you shouldn't be absorbing many calories.
    [/quote]

    Any coconut oil you swallow is good for you and calories should not be an issue. I have been pulling nearly a year and I purposely swallow a bit while it is still fresh because it is so healthy. Not all calories are alike; some are so good for you that you don't want to miss them.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    It would appear to lack support of it's effectiveness unless you're comparing it to a lack of dental care entirely.

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/oil-pulling-your-leg/
  • tiptoethruthetulips
    tiptoethruthetulips Posts: 3,371 Member
    If the oil pulling does what it says it does, then you certainly wouldn't want to be swallowing the oil.
  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
    Depends....do you spit or swallow.....





    Giggity :drinker:
  • Dogwalkingirl
    Dogwalkingirl Posts: 320 Member
    Shes a spitter! Boring! Ooops did I say that?
  • Fishshtick
    Fishshtick Posts: 120 Member
    Good rule of thumb...if some food is claimed to provide a 'detox' by sticking it in one end of your body or the other, it is almost definitely a silly pseudo-science fad. There are a few ingestibles that can actually detoxify a few substances, but those have simple and clear mechanisms. For example, I believe ethanol competitively binds against methanol or ethylene glycol if either of those more toxic chemicals are consumed and can thus save a person from severe nerve damage. Iodine tablets can provide some competitive protection against radioactive cesium in the event of a radiation spill. Activated charcoal can help absorb some dangerous toxins if used in a stomach flush soon enough after ingestion.

    Leave detoxification to real doctors. Swishing some oil around in your mouth for 10 to 20 minutes won't do much more than give you some cheek exercise and about as much cleaning of your teeth as swishing water for the same amount of time.
  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156
    After nearly a year of oil pulling and no using toothpaste, my recent excellent dental checkup removes any doubt about its effectiveness, but that is not the question in this thread. Providing you swallow it fresh at the beginning and not "dirty" near the end, the number of calories added to your intake will be insignificant and the benefits of the healthy saturated fat will far outweigh any harm the calories can do.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    After nearly a year of oil pulling and no using toothpaste, my recent excellent dental checkup removes any doubt about its effectiveness, but that is not the question in this thread. Providing you swallow it fresh at the beginning and not "dirty" near the end, the number of calories added to your intake will be insignificant and the benefits of the healthy saturated fat will far outweigh any harm the calories can do.

    Please tell me you floss.
    For the love of God, please tell me you use floss at least.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    This has got to be one of the dumber things I've heard people do for "health".



    Leeches anyone? Pm me for prices.
  • KayJaMikel
    KayJaMikel Posts: 341 Member
    Oh, I hate to seem judgmental, but even the thought of this makes me gag. I'll use my toothbrush, thanks though. I'm literally getting little chill bumps thinking about it.
  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156
    After nearly a year of oil pulling and no using toothpaste, my recent excellent dental checkup removes any doubt about its effectiveness, but that is not the question in this thread. Providing you swallow it fresh at the beginning and not "dirty" near the end, the number of calories added to your intake will be insignificant and the benefits of the healthy saturated fat will far outweigh any harm the calories can do.

    Please tell me you floss.
    For the love of God, please tell me you use floss at least.

    WHAT, You mean you actually don't know that toothpaste damages teeth? For the love of God, I thought everyone knew that.
  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156
    Oh, I hate to seem judgmental, but even the thought of this makes me gag. I'll use my toothbrush, thanks though. I'm literally getting little chill bumps thinking about it.

    That is exactly what impedes progress and causes more obesity, gagging at the thought of something different. I suppose you gag at the thought of getting rid of your car too? When you sit strapped inside your tin box and light gasoline you give me chills just thinking about it and I, too, want to gag.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    After nearly a year of oil pulling and no using toothpaste, my recent excellent dental checkup removes any doubt about its effectiveness, but that is not the question in this thread. Providing you swallow it fresh at the beginning and not "dirty" near the end, the number of calories added to your intake will be insignificant and the benefits of the healthy saturated fat will far outweigh any harm the calories can do.

    Please tell me you floss.
    For the love of God, please tell me you use floss at least.

    WHAT, You mean you actually don't know that toothpaste damages teeth? For the love of God, I thought everyone knew that.

    I wasn't talking about toothpaste.
    I was talking about using minty string to dig out the chunks of food that you're missing from not brushing.

    Regardless, I'll continue to brush and take my chances with the "damage" that comes from toothpaste. :laugh: My dentist and perfect x-rays show that what I'm doing is working, and my teeth are happy.
  • Velum_cado
    Velum_cado Posts: 1,608 Member
    Hahaha >.<
  • Joehenny
    Joehenny Posts: 1,222 Member
    Why would you not just use mouth wash?!
  • Haha! People are really getting a kick out of this I suppose. Coconut oil basically deep cleans, whitens and strengthens your teeth. And yes you can completely substitute it for toothpaste. Which is actually better for you. Did you know the same amount of fluoride is in 8 oz of water as is the same amount of fluoride in toothpaste that if swallowed you're supposed to call poison control?
  • KayJaMikel
    KayJaMikel Posts: 341 Member
    Oh, I hate to seem judgmental, but even the thought of this makes me gag. I'll use my toothbrush, thanks though. I'm literally getting little chill bumps thinking about it.

    That is exactly what impedes progress and causes more obesity, gagging at the thought of something different. I suppose you gag at the thought of getting rid of your car too? When you sit strapped inside your tin box and light gasoline you give me chills just thinking about it and I, too, want to gag.

    Yeah, um, no, getting rid of my car does not cause me to gag. Swishing oil for 20 plus minutes in my mouth, yep, makes me gag. I am sorry. Thinking of swallowing said oil gives me the goose bumps too, just as it would if somebody said they swallowed their mouth full of gack that they got from using their toothbrush and toothpaste. Whatever though, to each their own.
  • glenmchale
    glenmchale Posts: 1,307 Member
    It would appear to lack support of it's effectiveness unless you're comparing it to a lack of dental care entirely.

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/oil-pulling-your-leg/

    ^^^^^^^^^ THIS!!!
  • BigTireFlipper
    BigTireFlipper Posts: 116 Member
  • amwbox
    amwbox Posts: 576 Member
    Oil pulling is kinda like selling snake oil. Totally ineffective but science finds it hilarious.
  • Strokingdiction
    Strokingdiction Posts: 1,164 Member
    I always think of the premature creases that will form around the mouth from aggressively puckering the lips for 20-40 minutes a day.
  • msbunnie68
    msbunnie68 Posts: 1,894 Member
    I would imagine that any calories ingested by swallowing as you pull would be offset by the calories burnt doing the pulling.