Popular trend: Oil pulling

ORLANDO, Fla. – Oil pulling is everywhere. From magazine articles to TV, to social media, people are talking about it.

Holistic health practitioner CJ says more people are trying it but it's far from new.

"I started doing this two  or three years ago. It's been around for thousands of years, oil pulling," CJ said.

Volunteers were asked to try sesame, sunflower and coconut oils for oil pulling to see what they thought. 

The rules are simple:

  • Swish with a table spoon of oil every morning
  • 15 minutes before breakfast
  • For two weeks straight


What you may not know is that you can add essential oils to your oil pulling session to help with other issues.

To boost immunity, add two to three drops of oregano oil to your table spoon of oil and swish.

Or if you suffer from headaches, CJ recommends adding frankincense and peppermint.

For allergies, add a drop of lemon, lavender and peppermint to your oil pulling session.

CJ explains how each oil helps with allergies.

"The lavender acts as a natural antihistamine. Lemon acts as a natural detoxifier helps reduce the production of mucus in the body and the peppermint opens up the airwaves," CJ said.

So how did our volunteers fare?

Holly Faries tested sesame oil.

"It wasn't too bad. It was better than I thought it was going to be," Faries said.

When asked if she noticed any changes, Faries said, "I'm not a good flosser, sorry to say, and when I do sometimes my gums bleed and they haven't! So I thought that was pretty impressive."

Jeanette Figueroa used coconut oil.

"It didn't taste as bad as I thought it was going to taste and I was actually able to do it for the 15 minutes each time," Figueroa said.

Shannon Mas swished with sunflower oil.

"I thought I could do five," Mas said. "And I did 20 minutes with no problem."

Mas said she did notice a whiter smile.

"One of my girlfriends asked what have I done I said 'I am doing the sunflower oil.' She said, 'Seriously they look whiter than they were,'" Mas said. "It's very simple and very cheap a lot cheaper than buying teeth bleach and all the gum things and just in the two weeks I have seen a huge difference."

While the women in this test swished for 15 minutes, for the best results, CJ recommends swishing 45 minutes to an hour. But you definitely don't want to swallow the oil as it could upset your stomach.  Also, when you spit it out, don't use your sink. The oil could clog your pipes, so use a trash can.