Fit Fare

I love it when alternative health care techniques and products become mainstream. Have you noticed organics at the regular grocery store, smoothies at the local sandwich shop and healthy snacks at the airport? It’s an exciting time to be a health nut!

Sometimes, however, the mainstream products miss the mark of their alternative partners. Take, for example, the toothbrush I recently bought at Costco. It’s a regular brush with a tongue scraper on the back of the bristles, which sounds like a fabulous idea. You could have a clean mouth with less bathroom clutter!

However, in practice, the toothbrush was horrible. The back of the brush was rough in order to clean your tongue, but it also meant that it scraped your cheek when you were brushing your teeth. Ouch! Guess I’ll stick to my separate toothbrush and tongue scraper after all.

I was intrigued by the combo because I’m a huge fan of tongue scrapers. Not only are they helpful for bad breath and mouth health, they also produce some subtle changes with major benefits. For example, have you ever noticed how you’ll eat sushi one night and the next day you’ll crave it again? Well, some people believe that it’s because you still have some sushi residue in your mouth, reigniting your desire for sushi when it hits your tastebuds. The tongue scraper removes all of that residue and releases you from those strong and seemingly random cravings.

The tongue scraper is a tool used in Ayurveda. According to the tradition, people who use a tongue scraper are better at communicating and speak more precisely.

When using a tongue scraper, be gentle. You don’t want to end up without tastebuds! Lightly run the scraper from the back of your tongue down to the tip in one smooth movement. Avoid the temptation to run it up and back like a brush.

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com