The Amazing Baking Soda

It may seem incredible, but an ordinary and cheap baking ingredient in your kitchen—popularly known as baking soda, or pure sodium bicarbonate—has endless uses that redound to good health and good quality of life.

Many of these uses are indeed familiar around the house. You may have used it to clean your plates, pots, and pans, and other kitchen utensils—by just adding vinegar or lemon juice. You may have used it to clean and unclog your kitchen sink or your toilet bowl, by just adding vinegar and hot water.

When you were young, your parents may have used and applied it on the ulcerous wound on your leg that resulted from careless jumping around the house and yard. Its anti-bacterial property can indeed dry up and cure wounds.

Lately, you may also have read that baking soda can be used as a shampoo—not only to remove dandruff, but also to prevent hair loss, stimulate hair growth, and revitalize the hair, making it shiny and healthy looking.

But wait, there’s more. Baking soda can also be used as toothpaste to brighten your yellow teeth, or as a deodorant to wash your armpit. Women can use it as a vaginal wash (put two tablespoons of baking soda in a mug of ordinary water to make a vaginal wash) and thus derive a lot of benefits, such as balanced pH in the vaginal area, relief from yeast infection, and relief from vaginal discharges and itching. Since baking soda is alkaline, it neutralizes the acid in the private area and removes its foul odor.  It can also relieve painful sex. So they say. A simple Google search will display a lot of baking soda uses, BUT—take care to pick out only those from reliable and credible sources.

Health and baking soda

YouTube is also awash with information on baking soda uses. A Google search will also display quite a number of health sites confirming that baking soda alkalizes the body and balances the body’s ph. Apparently, drinking baking soda water after every main meal can aid in digestion and in the elimination of toxic substances from the food we take.

Drinking baking soda water can also relieve urinary tract infection. To make baking soda water, simply add one-half teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water. It is also quite beneficial to drink this every night before bedtime.  During your sleep, it helps your body eliminate the toxins acquired during the day. Every morning when you wake up, you can drink warm baking soda water on an empty stomach. It helps stabilize your digestive tract and cleanse your stomach, making it suitable to accept breakfast food.

Adding two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to a glassful of baking soda water increases its potency. It becomes an effective fat burner and, in time, it removes your belly fat to eventually give you a flat stomach.

Baking soda and your garden

If you love gardening, baking soda can come in handy to help solve some of your garden problems. If you need to control the fungi that kill your plants, mix four teaspoons of baking soda powder with about 4 liters of water and use the mixture as a spray to kill the fungi. It can also be used on cabbages and broccoli to kill worms. The same mixture can be used to water the flowering plants so they can have a better bloom. This mixture can also help control ants and snail, add a little vinegar into the mixture and pour it into an anthill. Snails that come into contact with this mixture also die.

As always, there should be a word of caution. Do not overuse baking soda. Do not brush your teeth with it too often because it can destroy the enamel of your teeth. Brush your teeth with it once a week. Also, use it as a shampoo only once a week. One site argues against using too much or too often as it could also raise blood pressure—baking soda, it cautions, has salt content.

Hence, as in all other health supplements and alternative medicines, caution must always be practiced.

The bottom line is—baking soda has many beneficial uses. Be sure to always have baking soda in your kitchen for its innumerable handy uses. Put it in a tight-lid container to prolong its life. As we all can see, baking soda is useful in many, many things—cooking, laundry, gardening, skin solutions, kitchen cleanup, bathroom cleanup, dental care, and many others. Take your pick. But most of all, it can also cure or prevent diseases. For one so ordinary and cheap, baking soda is indeed—amazing.