Green Mandarin Essential Oil is a wonderful oil! It’s uplifting, cheerful, and tastes great in water!

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Green Mandarin Essential Oil

In our family, we love to diffuse essential oils, especially the citrus ones. They smell wonderful, have loads of health benefits, and are energizing. So we often diffuse it in the morning or just after lunch.

Green Mandarin is good for creating a soothing and uplifting environment when diffused. And it blends well with Basil, Sandalwood, Lavender, or Spearmint to name a few.

Green Mandarin EO has a beautiful citrusy, yet slightly sweet and floral aroma that you’ll love.

You may also enjoy learning how to make your own DIY recipes with essential oils here. 

Health Benefits

Not only known for its citrusy scent, green mandarin essential oil is also for its soothing properties for the nervous system. It can be supportive of healthy digestive function. Plus it supports immunity, cardiovascular health, and can help your teeth look healthy.* So one drop in water is really nice!

Green mandarin is also a good essential oil to blend with CBD oil if you need your mood uplifted. For more information this article, All You Need to Know About Essential Oils and CBD Oil, will be helpful to you.

You may also find my articles Essential Oils for Beginners or Best Essential Oils for Calming Anxious Feelings to be helpful resources.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Charcoal has so many fantastic uses and benefits in your home and when you travel. Have a look!

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Beginning My Fling with Charcoal

My fling with activated charcoal (also known as activated carbon) started a few years ago when we lived in China. Someone in my family was almost always feeling sick the first few months we lived there. The diet, toxins, spice level, and new germs were too much for us.

Enter charcoal. I remember being at a restaurant run by foreigners in our city and mentioning to our American waitress how happy we were to be eating familiar food that wouldn’t make us sick. She had lived in China longer than we had, and said she just used charcoal. And she said she always felt better after taking it.

Well the search was on! Where was this charcoal I had never heard of? I needed it… like yesterday! She said she had not been able to find it in China, but she brought it back from the States with her. Or she bought it in Thailand.

As fate would have it, we went to Thailand a few months later. I stocked up! You would have thought I won the lottery. I had never even taken it before but was excited for what benefits it would hold for our upset stomachs.

We were not disappointed! As soon as one of us started feeling the least bit queasy, I would pull out the charcoal. I really believe it helped each one of us multiple times as our bodies would often be hit with random bouts of nausea, gas, and the beginnings of diarrhea. Then the symptoms would quickly go away most of the time.

Benefits of Charcoal Go Beyond Upset Stomach

My family has mostly used carbon for upset stomachs the last few years, but the more I use it for other things, the more I like it. Here are some other ways to use it.

Toothpaste

I make my own toothpaste, and my holistic dentist told me to add charcoal powder to my toothpaste to help whiten my teeth. So I did. It helped my teeth get a couple of shades lighter at least.

Water Purification

Charcoal, or carbon, also purifies water. My family bought a Berkey water filter system about a year ago, and it tastes so good! Neighborhood kids, who I have seen with national water bottle brands a lot, even comment on how good our water tastes. And my kids don’t like water in bottles anymore because they have become water snobs, only liking our Berkey water. Anyway, carbon is the filter method Berkey uses. It takes out chemicals and the bad taste of tap water. You can read more about our Berkey water filter here!

Emergency Toxin Removal

Activated charcoal can be used as an antidote for an accidental or purposeful drug overdose. Thankfully I have never needed this one, but it’s good for people to know, especially moms.

You can get more ideas about how to make your own detoxing healthy remedies here.

Skin and Body

As most of my regular readers know, my family loves the outdoors. We keep charcoal in our hiking backpack in case of a snake or spider bite. There are lots of rattlesnakes where we live, and charcoal can help with venom from a snake bite. Also it can help when it’s applied to a black widow or brown recluse bite. “To treat bites from snakes and spiders, cover a larger area (with charcoal and coconut oil), more than just a small bandage, as the bacteria and viruses that lead to tissue damage need to be mitigated quickly,” according to Dr. Axe.

I also use charcoal for an easy facial mask which smoothes out the skin and helps with blemishes on your face.

Activated carbon has many wonderful uses, and I am still trying out new ones. I hope you find these tips helpful. If you want more specific medical information, Dr. Axe’s article is really good.

Please post your favorite uses for charcoal below, along with your results! Please share on Pinterest if you found this helpful.

MCT Oil is a healthy, beneficial, and easy ingredient to add to meals.

Disaster Pants…

I love MCT oil and use it all the time. But I have to tell you a funny story about my first day using it so hopefully you won’t have the same misfortune. And laughter is healthy, right?!?

About a year ago, I ordered my MCT oil from Thrive Market, and it had just arrived in the mail. I was eager to try it (as I am all of my new health ingredients) because I had never used it before. We had been in China, and I had never heard of it years ago before we left the US.

So the first morning I busted open this giant bottle of MCT oil (which lasts forever!) and put a little bit in my coffee. It tasted fine, maybe a tad bit oiler than normal, but there was no flavor. I decided right then and there it was my new favorite thing, and I could add it to anything. Leaving it out on our counter to remind me to use it again later in the day, I didn’t yet know what I would use it for. But I was excited to try it in something else.

Lunchtime rolled around, and I made a salad. I decided to put a little bit of MCT oil with apple cider vinegar on my salad. Worst decision ever.

Never in my life have I had such an urgency to use the toilet! I almost didn’t make it! Oh my goodness! What was happening??! I had lived through some brutal stomach issues in China, but they paled in comparison to what was going on that day. (I know you don’t want to ever try MCT oil now!! LOL. Stick with me, though.)

I thought I was done after 3 trips to the toilet, and I had to go to Costco that afternoon. A friend was flying in from out of state, and I needed to get groceries so I could cook for her and enjoy our visit without having to shop.

So my daughter and I went to Costco, thinking I was in the clear. Ummm, no. I had managed to shop and pay without a problem, but in the parking lot on the way to the car, I realized I was about to have the Big D again! So I had to push my cart and all of my groceries BACK INTO COSTCO so I could run to the bathroom. I could not even put the groceries into my car! So embarrassing. But I made it, and thankfully disaster pants didn’t prevail that day, although it tried.

When I got back to the car, groceries finally unloaded, I Googled MCT oil to see if diarrhea was a side effect. Yes, yes indeed, it was! I was just relieved I wasn’t getting sick, especially with my friend flying in to visit that very night. And ever since they we have used the term “disaster pants” because that’s what my Google search turned up. I still laugh just thinking about it!

…And Yet We Still Use MCT Oil

The story above had a happy ending and all was well. I just needed to educate myself better before jumping in with both feet. And I figured out that MCT oil is fine in small quantities, but not to overdo it. Finally, I learned to start with a small amount and work my way up to more.

Now my family uses MCT oil in stews, soups, meat dishes, etc. And we’ve never had a problem. Of course I didn’t tell them for months I had been using it since they all knew about how much trouble it had caused my stomach!

On another note with how it can help our stomachs… when I was caring for my dying mother, she often would have constipation due to the chemo and radiation, so I would intentionally make dishes that I could hide it in so it would help her use the bathroom. It did help, and she never had diarrhea because of it since I used small quantities.

Benefits of MCT Oil

According to Dr. Axe, there are many benefits of MCT oil. You can read more on his blog if you want more detailed information. But for those of you, who like me, just want the benefits, have a look below. MCT oil:

1. Can Help with Weight Loss or Maintenance
2. Helps Protect Heart Health
3. Improves Energy Levels and Mood
4. Supports Digestion and Nutrient Absorption
5. Has Antibacterial, Antiviral and Antifungal Properties
6. Can Withstand High-Heat Cooking.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please post any funny stories you have about MCT oil below.