Stick your tongue out.

I’m a curious person. While curiosity hasn’t killed this cat, it did get me to explore the ancient Ayurvedic art of tongue scraping. Why? Well, I wasn’t sure until I did a bit more research. Read on.

In Ayurveda, proper digestion is considered to be the foundation of health. Given that digestion begins with taste, it's important to remove any toxins that may obstruct optimal digestive functioning. Tongue scraping also activates saliva production and promotes agni (the body’s digestive fire) to facilitate digestion.

Turns out that tongue scraping is an oral hygiene practice that  also removes bacteria, food debris, fungi (EW!), toxins, and dead cells from the surface of your tongue. The thing is is that when you sleep, your digestive system works to remove toxins and one of the ways that happens is by depositing them onto the surface of your tongue. If we don’t scrape away these toxins, they can get reabsorbed by the body and can lead to all sorts of unwanted conditions like respiratory difficulties, digestive problems, and a compromised immune system. No thanks!

Of course brushing and flossing are super important to keep your mouth clean, turns out that a tongue scraper is most effective at removing toxins and bacteria - where nearly half of your oral bacteria live on and in the deep crevices of our tongue. The scraping action of a tongue scraper collects these toxic tongue coatings (which can range in color from clear, white, yellow, or even green - I know, GROSS!) and removes them from the body. Thank goodness!

If overall health and wellbeing isn’t motivating enough, here are a few more reasons to try tongue scraping:

Got bad breath?

Given that most bad breath comes from the bacteria at the back of the tongue (an area that's difficult to reach with a toothbrush), well, need I say more?

Taste the flavor!

Proper digestion begins with taste and salivation. By removing the toxic mucus on your tongue your taste buds will be much more clear allowing for greater enjoyment of food flavors, and also to help your body digest food.

Boost your immunity.

Your tongue is part of your body’s first line of defense. Scraping your tongue prevents toxins from being reabsorbed into your body and boosts overall immune function.

Dental health.

Tongue scraping promotes general tooth and gum health and removes bacteria and toxins responsible for plaque build-up, tooth decay,  and gum infections.