It’s no secret that smells are able to control our mood, increase efficiency, and help to fall asleep. But did you know that with its help you can influence your appetite, speed up your metabolism and even lose weight? What aromas should be inhaled during a diet, how much and how intensive it should be and how exactly should this be done?
Essential oils are complex mixtures of volatile aromatic substances belonging to the class of terpenoids. The number of components of the essential oil varies depending on its type. For example, rose essential oil contains more than 200 organic substances and there are not more than 100 in mint. But it’s not even the number of components that matters, but the fact that this whole essential oil bouquet affects the olfactory organs, which capture information about smells and transmit it through the olfactory tract to the olfactory center of the cerebral cortex. It should be said that the olfactory center of the brain has a direct effect on the limbic system that controls our emotions, memory, creativity, sexuality, and also autonomic functions (which include digestion, blood circulation).
Oil effect
The effect of the use of essential oil occurs very quickly – already 5-7 minutes after the start of inhalation of aroma. However, aromatherapists warn that essential oils for weight loss do not affect weight. It corrects the psycho-emotional condition of a person, reduce appetite, if necessary, cheer up, increase self-esteem, but nothing else. That is, the use of essential oils can complement the diet and exercise, but we are not able to do only aromatherapy instead of training.
What oils enhance the effect of diet?
Any nutritionist will tell you that diet is stress for the body. The essential oils of lavender, verbena, basil, oranges, chamomile, bergamot, myrtle, eucalyptus, ylang-ylang, jasmine, rose, mint will help to reduce it. If in the morning you wake up in a depressed state, look in the mirror with disgust and feel inferior, increase your self-esteem with a few drops of laurel oil. These oils will help you to increase the overall feeling of the body: fir, mint, lavender, mandarin, orange, lemon, immortelle, coriander, clove, verbena, rosemary.
People who are prone to overeating can sit down for lunch, breakfast or dinner with oils that suppress their appetite. Grapefruit, lemongrass and vanilla oils have such abilities; help speed up the metabolism: orange, lemon, meadowsweet, chamomile, onion, fennel, celery, dill. In the first days of the diet, many feel weakness. These aromas will help you to feel better: vanilla, cloves, angelica, ginger, wormwood, rosemary, sage. The lack of favorite buns and pastries in the diet often provokes bouts of unmotivated irritability. You can correct this mood with the help of vanilla, cypress, lavender, calendula, ruta. Strengthen the breakdown of fats will help massage problem areas using these essential oils: geranium, cypress, sage, cedar, lemon, meadowsweet, yarrow.
How to choose oil?
The first and the most important rule when choosing aromatherapy oil is pleasant smell. Any unpleasant sensation, or a cough or shortness of breath when inhaling oil, indicates its intolerance to the body.
The second – oil should not cause allergies. To verify this, you need to mix one drop of essential oil with olive, sunflower or corn oil (1/3 tsp), and then rub this mixture into the skin on the inside of the elbow bend and leave for 10-15 minutes. If during this time no signs of irritation appear, the oil can be used for baths and massages.
Third, the oil must be natural. The odor industry has recently flooded the shelves of perfume stores with synthetic fragrances that mimic natural but do not have the therapeutic effect on the body that we expect from natural essential oils. To protect yourself from fakes, you should carefully read the label. If it says “100% natural essential oil”, but it does not indicate the name of the plant from which the oil was obtained (in Latin), this is a fake.
How to use essential oils?
Essential oils can be sprayed indoors (using an aroma lamp), added to the bath, worn around the neck in aroma medallion during the day, or dripped (1-2 drops) into the shower gel while taking morning shower. Moreover, at one time you can use not one but many oils (but not more than three), having prepared an aroma composition from them. When adding essential oil to the bath (not more than 10-15 drops), you should first mix it with milk, cream or honey. In the other case the essential oil will float with a greasy slick on the bath.
Session duration
The duration of an aromatherapy session should not exceed 10-15 minutes. After this period of time, the severity of smell fades, and the smell ceases to be perceived by the brain. However, what has been assimilated during the activity of the olfactory centers retains its therapeutic effect for quite a long time.
