[31 Days] Day 4: Why Young Living?

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When friends ask how I use essential oils, I am always careful to mention that I only use Young Living Essential Oils. Their next question is often, “Why them?”

For me, it’s because of something called Seed to Seal.

 

In the process of getting essential oils from the plants to the bottles, Young Living controls every aspect. They start with seeds that have never been touched by chemicals and grow them in fields that have also never been touched by pesticides or chemical treatments of any kind. After harvesting the plants at the best possible time, which they do themselves, they distill each type of oil and collect the first distillation.

Let’s stop right there. You know how there are different grades of olive oil? Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the very first distillation from the olives. Then, the same batch of olives are distilled again and again leaving  virgin olive oils, pure olive oils, and then refined oils. Each distillation of the same batch of olives produces a lesser grade olive oil. And the further you get down the line, the quality of the oil diminishes and the likelihood of chemicals, excessive heat, and other potency-affecting elements being involved go up.

Now, back to the Seed to Seal process of Young Living.

Young Living collects the first distillation, AND ONLY THE FIRST. Other companies will combine multiple distillations and bottle that oil. It doesn’t necessarily leave bad oil, but it’s not the best oil, in my opinion. Other companies will combine distillations, then add synthetics to be able to produce more “oil” at a cheaper price.

There are so many instances in life where “You get what you pay for” is true. For me, it’s a deal breaker when it comes to essential oils.

Speaking of added synthetics, the FDA (which doesn’t do a whole lot of regulating when it comes to EOs) says that a company can bottle as little as 10% pure distilled (even second, third, fourth…distillation) essential oils with up to 90% synthetics and label it as 100% Pure Essential Oil.

Um, gross. That doesn’t even compute in my head. Just another reason I don’t trust the FDA. But that’s a whole ‘nother post for a whole ‘nother day.

Next up is testing. Young Living conducts testing (both in-house and by third-party facilities) on each batch of oils and will throw out an entire batch if something isn’t exactly right. They will not bottle a less-than-perfect oil. Often, with oils that aren’t of the quality to bottle and sell, Young Living will turn around and use those oils on their plants as “pesticides!” That’s amazing to me! It’s good stewardship and it’s a natural way to treat the growing plants!

After the rigorous testing is complete, the “chosen” oil gets bottled, sealed, and labeled by Young Living. There are other companies out there that will buy bottled (by who knows!) oil, label them, and sell them! No testing, no true guarantee of quality, no nothing. Not cool. Not Young Living.

Young Living owns fields all over the world where they grow crops for distillation. Sometimes, oils will go out of stock because a harvest of a certain crop will be bad and we have to wait for more of that crop to be grown and harvested before any oil can be distilled. To me, that speaks volumes! It means Young Living will deal with oils being out of stock (which is an ordeal) before they will dare add synthetics or lesser quality oil to a bottle just to get it sold.

These are a few reasons I will only use Young Living oils. The whole point of using essential oils for my family is to reduce the amount of synthetics we are putting in our bodies. I’m not going to turn around and use synthetic essential oils!

Without hesitation, I can only recommend Young Living Essential Oils, and I recommend them enthusiastically! 🙂

DISCLAIMER: The things I share with you are not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness or be a substitute for any medicine. It is true that I have found less need for OTC medicines, but you have to make choices that are right for your family. Another choice I’ve made is to exclusively use Young Living Essential Oils. I believe they are 100% pure without any synthetic additives. That’s huge to me! I have read a lot of material on different essential oil companies and Young Living is what I have chosen. If you choose to use essential oils, I encourage you to do some research and choose the brand that you believe in.

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