Beauty Bite: Mint

Jul 31, 2014

Beauty Bite: Mint

Beat the bloat with magical mint!

Generally reserved for toothpaste, Tic Tacs, and (secretly) Thin Mint cookies, actual peppermint is living in the shadows as one of the most delicious and underutilized herbs. When it’s not cloaked in chocolate and being touted by those cookie pushing terrorists in brown vests, mint makes an enjoyable and logical addition to many a meal, or drink; and will in fact, have the exact opposite effect as the aforementioned sugary discs. As a general rule, if you’re committing to a healthy lifestyle you should probably just avoid those tiny destroyers of diets, masquerading as middle schoolers altogether. Stay away. Stay far, far away.

Though its main claim to fame is a profound effect on digestion, these little green leaves are a veritable workhorse when it comes to being multifunctional. Some benefits of these vibrant little herbs include:

- Digestion: Soothes stomachs suffering from inflammation or indigestion. Drinking a cup of mint tea is a quick way to beat the bloat after a particularly taxing day of eating

- Depression and fatigue: Conveniently enough, you may not even have to ingest mint to reap the benefits. The smell alone has the capacity to improve brain function.

- Breath freshener: Thankfully, this doesn’t always have to involve swallowing toothpaste on the fly, simply chewing mint leaves or adding them to smoothies can improve even the worst morning breath.

- Cancer fighting: The oils within mint called monoterpenes have been shown in several studies to prevent the carcinogenesis process at both the initiation and promotion/progression stages. More specifically, magical mint targets cancers of the breast, pancreas, and liver.

Before you go running to the nearest Girl Scout stand or Haagan Daas mint chip ice cream pint, here are several suggestions as to how you can incorporate this most refreshing herb into your daily life.

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