Freshsein
Did you know that lemons have been grown in United States in Florida, since 16th century after Christopher Columbus brought them to the “New World”. Lemons and limes too, have long been appreciated for their high content of vitamin C, which protects against the development of many diseases.
They were extremely expensive in the 1800s as during the California Gold Rush lemons were in such high demand that people often paid as much as $1 per lemon, which would still be considered pricey today.
Not only the abundance of vitamin C, but also the additional antioxidants known as flavonoids which are highly beneficial for heart disease, cancer, and inflammation are sufficient reasons to always keep some lemons at hand. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports:
“The anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Citrus flavonoids can play a key role in their activity against several degenerative diseases and particularly brain diseases.”
There are many simple ways to include lemons in your diet – they can be added into your vegetable juice, squeezed over vegetables, used in salad dressings or to make lemon water for starters. Apart from this, it’s amazing just how many uses lemons have outside the kitchen.
When it comes to using lemons around the house, you’ll find them absolutely perfect for cleaning, skin care, health, beauty, laundry, and much more. Over 60 uses of lemon were put together by Business Insider and these are listed below.
Cooking
- To avoid clumpy rice: You should add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to your rice while it is cooking in order to prevent clumping.
- Lemon Ice cubes: Put the lemon juice in an ice tray so to make lemon cubes.
- Lemon helps to stop your veggies and fruits from browning: Soak veggies and fruits such as potatoes, pears, chopped apples, and bananas in lemon water in order to prevent them from browning.
- As an alternative to sour cream: Add lemon juice to your whipped cream and let it stand for half an hour. You can use this as a sour cream substitute.
- Get you limp lettuce revived: Add half a lemon juice in a bowl of cold water and soak your limp lettuce in order to revive them. Refrigerate the lettuce and after 1 hour it will be crisp again.
Health
- Get rid of coughs: Mix hot lemon water with natural raw honey in order to get rid of your cough. This drink will immediately relieve your cough.
- Treat your sore throat: You should gargle lemon water in the morning and at night before going to bed in order to get instant relief from a sore throat.
- Soothe skin rashes with lemon: Lemon juice can help you to soothe the itching that comes with rashes. You should dip a cotton ball and apply the juice to the rash in order to get a relief.
- Soothe insect bites: Apply lemon juice with a cotton to the affected area and you will reduce the swelling and itchiness caused by insect bites.
- Get rid of warts: Put lemon juice on your warts in order to eliminate them.
Beauty
- Get rid of freckles and age spots: Soak cotton swabs in lemon juice and you will eliminate freckles and fade age spots.
- Lemon is an ingredient for a natural exfoliator: Mix lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and sugar to make a natural exfoliating facial and body scrub.
- Treat acne with lemon: Just apply a lemon juice on your face and let it act for 10 minutes. Then, rinse with lukewarm water.
- Lemon is a natural hair lightener: Mix lemon juice and coconut oil in order to moisturize and lighten your hair. The lemon juice will lighten your hair while the coconut oil will moisturize it.
- Helps to combat dandruff: Apply 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to your scalp and gently massage so you can eliminate dandruff. Then rinse it off using lemon water. Repeat this procedure until you notice significant improvements.
Cleaning
- Use lemon as a multi- purpose cleaner: Mix lemon juice, baking soda, vinegar, water, and lemon essential oil and use this mixture as a bathroom and kitchen cleaning agent.
- Use lemon to clean your windows: Mix lemon juice, cornstarch, vinegar, and water and use this as a natural window cleaner which will effectively clean grease.
- Excellent furniture polish: Mix lemon juice, olive oil, and lemon essential oil in order to prepare furniture polish. Use a soft cloth and apply this mixture to your furniture.
- Clean your hardwood floors: Mix lemon juice and vinegar to prepare cleaning agent for your hardwood floors.
- Effective toilet cleaner: Add ½ cup of lemon juice to your toilet in order to get rid of stains. Let the lemon juice act for a few minutes before you scrub. Add some borax if the stain is difficult to remove.
Laundry
- Get rid of spot stains: Pour some lemon juice with salt to the stain, rub and rinse thoroughly.
- Remove grease stains: Mix lemon juice and vinegar in order to remove grease stains. Apply the mixture on the stain and let it act for some time. Then, wash thoroughly.
- Lemon is gentle bleach: Prepare a mixture of lemon juice and hot water and soak your white linens in it. Then, you can rinse and wash as you usually do.
- Get those tennis shoes whitened: You should spray lemon juice to your white tennis shoes in order to whiten them. Leave them in the sun to dry, and you will notice a significant difference.
- Effective against mildew stains: Mix lemon juice and salt and apply this mixture on the stain. Leave it in the sun to dry.
Other uses of lemon
- Use lemon to repel pesky dogs and cats: You should sprinkle lemon peels and grounded coffee beans to your backyard in order to ward off cats and dogs who dislike the smell.
- Remove stains naturally from your pet’s fur: Mix lemon juice and baking soda and apply this mixture to your pet’s fur to remove stains naturally. Let it act for 10 minutes then wash off. Be careful the paste doesn’t get to your pet’s eyes.
- Lemon is an effective insect repellent: Sprinkle lemon peels on the floor in order to repel insects. You can also repel cockroaches by mopping your floor with lemon juice. Spray concentrated lemon juice to areas where ants tend to find their way in your home.