Essential Oils ~ To Ingest or To Not Ingest

That is the question!

There is so much information, it's almost an over load. What oil is good for what and all the recipes and opinions available. Cool stuff. What I do find hard to pin down is exactly the best way to use: how to apply the oils. Information seems so vague. Adamantly against ingesting, diffusing only, topical application - Ok then, where, when and how?
I need to know why!

Part 1 ~ Ingesting ~
When I started out learning about essential oils, and keeping true to my nature, I threw caution to the wind. Ignorance is bliss apparently. I used the thought that if you eat lemons lemon oil must be good for you too!

Yes: 1 drop no more than twice a day (I didn't know that at first and really was a heavy user). "Never fear," I was told by a sweet girl sold on the MLM company that this is why there is a nutritional label on the bottle, "This proves we can safely ingest." Maybe they know you'll use more if you ingest! money money money

No: you stupid unprofessional usurper. Consult the elite all knowledgeable ones who won't tell you why not. In their defense I don't think there is much research out there what actually could happen, long term, that is.

Naturally, once again being true to myself, I went with Yes. I say yes to experiments of most kinds (Please read my disclaimer below). My oils to ingest were grapefruit, digestive blends and other various oils already familiar to the pallet.
My digestion actually improved greatly and I really felt like grapefruit was helping me maintain my weight. I really got addicted to the taste: a quart jar of ice water and a few drops grapefruit, aaaahhh!

Then after a few months I began to have a strange feeling in my throat and mouth. I decided to quit ingesting for a while. It went away. Then back to searching again - this time I found the no more than 1 drop 2 times a day instruction. License to ingest, goody! I missed my grapefruit water! I also have been brushing my teeth with 1 drop of straight melaluca oil every night - gotta say it feels good but in the middle of the night I have, again, this weird dry stripped feeling in my mouth and throat.
I've been asking around and sure enough I'm not the only one!

In our homeschool this month we happened to be studying the digestive system. That has really got me to thinking about the importance of saliva and the roll it has to play in you system and how ingesting oils may be negatively effecting the balance. Maybe this is something to beware of.

Bottom line:

If we need to occasionally ingest oils - for example peppermint when extreme cases of indigestion occur (and other reasons we could talk about later). This is what we do:

 ~ Highly dilute 1 drop of essential oil with 1 tbsp honey or coconut oil (something like that) . This will transport that awesome amazing oil right through the delicate and intricate alimentary canal. 
Remember Ingesting is not the most efficient way to absorb essential oils. Do your research and be wary.