The Things You Can Do with Lemon Peels and Juice

Lemons were brought to Florida in the United States by Christopher Columbus in the 16th century.

 

Ever since then they have been grown. This citrus fruit is rich in vitamin C which is useful in the treatment of scurvy a condition suffered by sailors at that time who were malnourished at sea and lacked sufficient supply of this vitamin.

There was a time when a single lemon went for as high as $1.

Now lemons are affordable and readily available in your local grocery store or fruit market.

Apart from vitamin C, lemons also have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

The antioxidant simply known as flavonoids is very useful in combating cancer, inflammation and heart disease.

Lemons and indeed lemon juice can be added to our daily diet as they make good salad dressing, they also can be used along other fruits and veggies to make a healthy drink. You can squeeze this citrus fruit on your favourite vegetables as well.

Here are 5 ways you can use lemon.

1. Use Lemon For Cooking

To avoid clumpy rice: Just add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to your rice while it is cooking to stop it from clumping.

Lemon Ice cubes: You can put the lemon juice in your ice tray to make lemon cubes.

Lemon helps to stop your veggies and fruits from browning: You can soak your favourite fruits and veggies such as bananas, chopped apples, potatoes and pears in lemon water to prevent them from browning.

As an alternative to sour cream: just add lemon juice to your whipped cream and leave it for 30 minutes and it will be ready as a sour cream substitute.

Get you limp lettuce revived:  In a bowl of cold water just add half a lemon juice and soak your limp lettuce to get them revived in no time. You should refrigerate your lettuce and after about one hour in will be crisp again.

2. Lemon is great for your health

Get rid of coughs: To get rid of your cough, you can mix hot lemon water with some natural raw honey. When you drink this your cough will be relieved.

Treat your sore throat: Just gargle lemon water in the morning and at night before bedtime to get instant relief from sore throat.

Soothe skin rashes with lemon: Soothe the itching that comes with rashes using lemon juice. Just dip a cotton ball and apply the juice to the rash to get relief.

Soothe insect bites: Reduce the swelling and itchiness associated with insect bites, just apply lemon juice to the site of the bite with a cotton ball.

Get rid of warts: You can get rid of warts by putting lemon juice directly on them.

3. Achieve natural beauty using lemon

Get rid of freckles and age spots: Use cotton swabs soaked in lemon juice to eliminate freckles and fade age spots.

Lemon is an ingredient for a natural exfoliator: Mix sugar, honey, olive oil and lemon juice to make a natural exfoliating facial and body scrub.

Treat acne with lemon: As a natural astringent lemon juice is very effective. Just apply and leave it on your face for about 10 minutes then rinse well with clean lukewarm water.

Lemon is a natural hair lightener: Using a mixture of coconut oil and lemon will help to moisturize and lighten your hair. The oil will moisturize while the lemon juice will lighten it.

Helps to combat dandruff: To fight dandruff just massage to your scalp two tablespoons of lemon juice. Then rinse it off using lemon water carry out this procedure as often as necessary until your desired result is achieved.

4. Lemon as an active cleaning agent

Use lemon as a multi- purpose cleaner: Mix vinegar, baking soda, water, lemon essential oil and lemon and use as a kitchen and bathroom cleaning agent.

Use lemon to clean your windows: Mix vinegar, water, cornstarch and lemon juice and you will have a natural window cleaner that will clean grease and grime with ease.

Excellent furniture polish: Mix olive oil, lemon essential oil and lemon juice to get an excellent furniture polish. Apply this mixture to your furniture with a soft cloth.

Clean your hardwood floors: Mix vinegar and lemon juice to get a natural grime cleaning agent for your hardwood floors.

Effective toilet cleaner: Get rid of stains just by adding a 1/2 cup of lemon juice to your dirty toilet. Leave the lemon juice on the stain for some minutes before you scrub. If the stain is difficult to remove you can add some borax.

5. Lemon is effective for your laundry

Get rid of spot stains: Get rid of underarm stains using lemon, just pour some lemon juice with salt to the stain, rub the stain and then rinse thoroughly.

Remove grease stains: A mixture of vinegar and lemon juice is excellent against grease stains. Just leave this mixture on the stain for some time then wash and rinse thoroughly.

Lemon is gentle bleach: Soak your white linens in a mixture of hot water and lemon juice. Just rinse and then wash as you would normally would.

Get those tennis shoes whitened: Spray lemon juice to your white tennis shoes to get them bright white, leave in the sun to dry and see the difference.

Effective against mildew stains: Just apply a lemon juice and salt paste to the stain; leave out in the sun for it to dry.

Other uses of lemon

Use lemon to repel pesky dogs and cats: Just sprinkle lemon peels and grounded coffee beans to your backyard perimeter to ward off dogs and cats who dislike the smell.

Remove stains naturally from your pet’s fur: Get rid of stains to your pet’s fur, just apply a lemon juice and baking soda paste to the fur, leave for about 10 minutes then rinse off. Be cautious you don’t get the paste in your pet’s eyes.

Lemon is an effective insect repellent: Repel insects with lemon peels, just sprinkle them on the floor. You can also spray concentrated lemon juice to places where ants tend to find their way in your home. By mopping your floor with lemon juice and water you will also repel cockroaches.