“What essential oils can be safely added to foods?”

Most essential oils should not be taken orally, however you can consider something like lemon, orange, lavender or peppermint vernally safe with oral use.

Turmeric, ginger, basil, fennel, and thyme.

Dr. Liz: 361-212-5800

No. I am not a fan. Essential oils are the strongest herbal medicine form there is. They also risk being toxic to the nerves, brain, liver, kidneys, with internal consumption. Too many untrained health professionals give these recommendations with little knowledge of physiology and biochemistry, and it comes with moderately high risk taking health advice from folks like that. Stick to fresh herbs and spices. There are more medical constituents in these forms as well, so you are getting a more broad spectrum of plant medicine.

Hi there!

If you mean essential oils to cook with, the heat from cooking will destroy the majority of the beneficial compounds of the essential oils so they won't be effective. However, ingesting over-the-counter non-encapsulated essential oils is not recommended. There are very few brands of essential oil that are high enough quality and purity to ingest and even they should be encapsulated.

Most essential oils are too harsh for oral ingestion and can be harmful to you. If an essential oil is sold as a capsule/supplement, the oil should not be removed from the capsule but ingested via the capsule. This is, again, because essential oils are so strongly concentrated that they should not come into contact with your mucous membranes in the mouth or throat.

While the very high-quality and purity tested ones can be consumed orally when well diluted in a carrier oil (olive oil, coconut oil, walnut oil, etc.) different essential oils might need different dilution ratios to be safe.

The ones that say edible or oral or internal applications.

Rosemary is the only one I would eat.

I only ever suggest certified therapeutic grades such as Young Living and never anything over the counter (don't be fooled by organic labeling as that is not reliable labeling for purity). This is because Young Living oils are pure, without added fillers, additives etc and in-house and third party tested. One drop is all you need as they are potent compounds. Having said that, you can get the benefits from essentials oils by using them topically or inhaling, too. Those methods are just as effective. There are certain oils that should never be ingested... tea tree, eucalyptus, and wintergreen.