Homemade Toothpaste...

[Valley Oak]

I just made some more toothpaste at home and I experimented with the following ingredients:

1 cup baking soda.
1 tablespoon peppermint extract.
1 tablespoon stevia (sweetener).
2 ounces coconut oil.
2 ounces water.

I whipped it by hand with a fork. It looks and feels somewhat like commercial toothpaste but the flavor is radically different. It is healthier for you and I used all 100% certified organic ingredients, which I bought at Community Market or Oliver's.

My only question is if there is any aluminum in the baking soda? If so, is it harmful? And is there an adequate substitute for the baking soda?

[oceanaocean]

Arm and Hammer has no Aluminum or any additives. Just goggle their web site for info. I just checked the same question the other day. You can buy baking soda in bulk too at most local stores. But Arm and Hammer is the best price (maybe)....

...My only question is if there is any aluminum in the baking soda? If so, is it harmful? And is there an adequate substitute for the baking soda?

[CSummer]

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and shouldn't have any aluminum in it (unless it's contaminated). Some baking powder has an aluminum compound in it so is to be avoided. (There's also aluminum-free baking powder.) Thanks for the recipe!

[wisewomn]

I recently bought a 13.5 lb. bag of A & H baking soda at Costco. Can't remember the price but it was a good deal.

Arm and Hammer has no Aluminum or any additives. Just goggle their web site for info. I just checked the same question the other day. You can buy baking soda in bulk too at most local stores. But Arm and Hammer is the best price (maybe)....

[Glia]

thank you for posting this recipe! Wondering if lavender oil or tea tree oil could be used instead of the peppermint.

Baking soda is the common name for sodium bicarbonate. There should be nothing but sodium bicarbonate in the box of baking soda!

You may be thinking of baking *powder* which is a mix of several chemicals. There are newer formulations that do not have aluminum.

My only question is if there is any aluminum in the baking soda? If so, is it harmful? And is there an adequate substitute for the baking soda?

[Valley Oak]

I'm sure there are dozens of different flavors that you can use as long as it is a 'food grade' product, which is what I bought at Community Market. If you tell them what you want it for (they are a pretty knowledgeable group of folks), they can tell you right away about many different oils, flavors, extracts, etc, that you can add to your toothpaste mixture. That is what I did, I asked one of their employees and she directed me to a shelf full of edible flavorings, all of them organic. There are other stores, such as Oliver's Market, that will also have similar products that you can use.

Regarding the aluminum question, my weak spot is the sciences. I've never had a chem class in my life and I have had only 3 science courses in college (astronomy & 2 bio courses). The assumption I made was that other chemical products were used in the process of making the baking soda and that a small amount of aluminum somehow might have intervened, even if only indirectly, in that process. But because it is 100% sodium bicarbonate then that is not possible. Do you know where they get the sodium bicarbonate from? Is it extracted directly from a natural source or is it produced somehow in a processing plant?

Wondering if lavender oil or tea tree oil could be used instead of the peppermint.

Baking soda is the common name for sodium bicarbonate. There should be nothing but sodium bicarbonate in the box of baking soda!