Mint to Be Merry: A Holiday Flavor Delight

You can enjoy the festive flavor and aroma of mint any time. Traditionally, the December holidays especially highlight this frosty herb. Sweet treats – including candy canes, mint chocolate bark, and mint added to cookies, brownies, and hot chocolate –may brighten holiday cheer with this cool herb’s unmistakable taste.

If you are minimizing sweet treats, salads and soups can also benefit from mint, as can other vegetable and whole grain dishes. In fact, if you have a supply of fresh or dried mint, you can experiment with adding a pinch of these leaves to many everyday meals and see how you like the outcome. Mint may work in some recipes as a substitute for added salt and sugar. You can also add mint leaves to hot or cold water, tuning up enjoyment of simple hydration.

If you use mint extract, which is commonly the essential oil of peppermint and/or spearmint, you need only a tiny amount of this potent flavoring for most recipes. Be careful not to overdo it if using extract instead of leaves.

While your family and guests may be mint fans simply because of its delicious, distinctive taste, health benefits may be another reason to explore enjoying minty food and drink. While some studies indicate mint has beneficial health effects, many of these studies are small and preliminary. Researchers have a difficult task to compare mint to a placebo in any study, as mint has such a distinctive taste and aroma.

With those thoughts in mind, we can consider some the possible health benefits from available studies of mint. These potential benefits mainly fall into the categories of improving digestion, soothing respiratory symptoms, and aromatherapy.

Improving digestion: IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) causes digestive system suffering for 10% to 15% of Americans. Symptoms include gas, bloating, stomach pain, and bowel issues. Different studies have reached different conclusions on the usefulness of mint in alleviating IBS. Mint may help relax digestive system muscles to reduce IBS symptoms, although not all research has found this result in taking mint oil capsules.

Again, studies looking at mint oil’s ability to relieve simple indigestion have mixed findings. These studies often use capsules of mint oil, rather than simple fresh or dried mint leaves.

Respiratory symptoms: You might have taken or breathed an over-the-counter cold medication that contained menthol, one of the best-known chemicals in mint. The scent of menthol may make patients feel they are breathing more easily, even though there is not evidence that menthol itself is a decongestant. Nonetheless, the feeling of breathing easier may be a relief for nasty cold symptoms for some.

Aromatherapy: Candy mints, and mint added to drinks, mouthwash, and toothpaste are frequently used to reduce bad breath. Simply breathing the aroma of mint, in one study, increased alertness and decreased frustration and anxiety while driving.

When considering using mint for health, it’s important to be aware of some potential side effects of this herb, especially when used in concentrated form. For example, applying mint oil on the skin may cause redness and irritation. As always, consult with your health care providers before you or your child use supplements, over-the-counter products, or similar products.

If you’re in San Diego, you can easily get healthy food infused with the delights of fresh and dried herbs and spices. Plant Based Meals is a meal prep company offering delicious whole-food, plant-based choices every week (including a special menu for the holidays). Your food is delivered fresh, never frozen, for outstanding taste and maximum nutrition. Their tempting selection of meals changes weekly. Eating whole food, plant-based has never been more convenient.

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Post written by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose

Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. She is a nutrition educator,

author, and speaker.

This is an educational article and does not provide medical advice. Results cannot be

guaranteed, and may vary from person to person. Consult your health care provider with

questions and concerns for you and those you care for.