— Diane Dankert

So a couple of things. The first one is that if you do use an oil, peppermint oil, it must be food grade. That's the most important thing. If you go to a place like Sprouts or Whole Foods market or here in the northeast where I live, or the Mid-Atlantic actually, uh, we shop at Mom's Organic Market and she has quite an extensive bulk spice area where you can buy things to try them out. My suggestion would be this. First of all, eating spearmint. Using spearmint as a garnish is a wonderful way to help soothe your stomach and aid digestion. And maybe some of you know that I recently returned from Italy, and while some herbs might be out of season, spearmint leaves were, uh, used as garnishes not only in recipes, but as garnishes and as the chef explained, that they're good for your stomach. So if you have some spearmint in your yard, you can do that. I also think that maybe looking at some peppermint teas, that that would be another way. But cooking with them, I personally have never used them. Uh, remember that they're very concentrated and if you do use them, you're gonna take about one or two drops. So let's say that the recipe calls for a teaspoon of vanilla extract and you're gonna use this peppermint instead, it would be two drops of the peppermint oil, and then you would either put plant milk or whatever to equal the one teaspoon quantity that you're looking for. But I think that, uh, eating well, adding ginger to your diet, uh, adding peppermint leaves, maybe that peppermint tea might be another way to, uh, to look at that. I will say, and off the top of my head, I don't remember the brand, but there are oil-based extracts because many people who have alcohol allergies or don't keep alcohol in their homes will use oil-based extracts. And they, there is a peppermint one and they are, but the amount used will still give you zero of fat per gram.