Health and Beauty Uses for Baking Soda
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Not Just for Your Kitchen
You may know it as the orange box that lurks in the back of your fridge to take out bad smells. Or as a pantry staple that helps your baked goods rise. But baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, deserves a spot in your medicine cabinet, too. Here’s how it helps keep your body healthy and clean.
Green Teeth Cleaner
Baking soda works great to physically remove plaque, the sticky film of bacteria in your mouth. Over time, a plaque buildup hardens into tartar and can lead to gum disease. Dip a wet toothbrush into the powder and brush as usual. It doesn’t have the fluoride you need to protect against tooth decay and cavities. Many public water supplies have added fluoride. Even so, brush with regular toothpaste as well to be safe.
Inexpensive Mouthwash
That garlic aioli pasta was delish. But now your breath is keeping even your dog away. Swish a teaspoon of baking soda in a half glass of water and rinse your mouth. It doesn’t merely mask the smell with a minty scent like most mouthwashes do. Baking soda actually banishes the odor altogether.
Body Deodorant
Most things that stink have acidic or basic odor molecules. Baking soda brings them to a more neutral, odor-free state. No wonder sewage plants and feedlots use the stuff. It also works on your body odor. Dust a little under your arms in the morning. If you don’t care for the powdery residue on your clothes, use stick deodorants that have baking soda. Look for ones that list sodium bicarbonate as a main ingredient.
Helps Your Kidneys
These organs remove waste and extra water from your body. If you have chronic kidney disease from diabetes, high blood pressure, or other causes, acid can build up in your body. Sodium bicarbonate can bring the acid levels down and may help slow bone loss and build muscles. It’s important to work closely with your doctor if you want to try this. Scientists are still figuring out exactly when and how this works.
Helps Fight Cancer
Emergency rooms and hospitals stock sodium bicarbonate as a treatment for cardiac arrests, poisoning, and other cases. It also helps to counteract the acidic properties of chemotherapy medication for cancer. Some studies show that lower acid levels may slow certain tumors from growing and spreading.
Soothes Your Skin
Bitten by a mosquito? Brushed up against poison ivy? Baking soda to the rescue. It can relieve minor irritation, pain, itching, and redness. Mix up a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water. Smear it on your skin and leave for 20 minutes before you wash it off. Or soak in a bath with a half-cup of baking soda added to the water.
Eases Pain
Sodium bicarbonate may boost the pain-killing powers of lidocaine used in epidurals. Researchers are studying whether it might help ease pain from cancer. If you’re hurting from sunburn, soak a washcloth in a solution of about 4 tablespoons of baking soda per quart of water. Gently dab it on the affected areas to soothe your skin. It can help for other minor burns as well, including windburn.
Tamp Down Acid Reflux
Sodium bicarbonate helps fight the extra acid that might rise from your stomach up to your throat and even your mouth after you eat. You can buy it over-the-counter as a chewable tablet. Or drink your own homemade antacid by mixing a half-teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 cup of water. Talk to a doctor before you give it to kids under 6, or if you start to use it regularly along with other medication.
Facial Scrub
Baking soda is mildly abrasive. Use it as a gentle face cleanser. First, wash your face with a mild, non-abrasive cleanser and rinse with water. Then, make a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water. Rub it in carefully in circles for a deep clean. Rinse with water.
Clarify Your Hair
Mix a teaspoon of baking soda with your favorite shampoo to remove buildup from sprays, gels, conditioners, and other products. Your hair won’t just be cleaner, it may become easier to style, too.
Soften Your Skin
Add a half-cup of baking soda to your bathwater. It will neutralize acids, wash away sweat and oil, and leave your skin silky smooth. Bonus: After you dry off, you can use a bit more of the stuff to scour the tub clean!
Clean Your Child’s Toys
You can use baking soda instead of harsh chemicals to get grime off your baby’s tray, highchair, and toys. Remember that it doesn’t kill germs. But you can pair it with vinegar, which works as a disinfectant. Be sure to rinse well.
Freshen Dentures
Dissolve 2 teaspoons of baking soda into a cup of warm water. Then just soak your dentures to loosen food, get rid of odors, and freshen any lingering bad taste. It also works for retainers and mouth guards. For a more thorough job, clean them with some bicarbonate and a toothbrush.
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How Healthy Is Your Favorite Frozen Dessert?
Ice Cream
We’ve been screaming for it since 1851, when the American ice cream industry began. (Early versions of the frozen treat first appeared in the 1500s). In a poll, 90% said they’d bought some in the past 6 months. U.S. standards are strict: Ice cream must weigh at least 4.5 pounds per gallon, have at least 20% milk solids -- protein, carbs, and minerals --- and have at least 10% milkfat.
Watch Your Substitutions
Ice cream isn’t exactly great for your bottom, er, line. A half-cup serving of plain vanilla packs about 207 calories, 11 grams of fat, and 21 grams of sugar, with almost 24 grams of carbs. If you want to ditch one of these, lots of choices line the frozen dairy case. But for every ingredient you want to shun, others sub for them to make up the fat, texture, or sweetness. Read nutrition labels to see just what you’re getting.
Solving the Dairy Case
New terms abound in modern ice cream:
- “Reduced fat” ice cream must have at least 25% less total fat.
- “Light” -- or “lite” -- must have at least 50% less total fat, or 33% fewer calories.
- "Lowfat" can have up to 3 grams of total fat per half-cup serving.
"Nonfat" must have less than 0.5 grams of total fat per serving.
Gelato
Italy’s frozen specialty isn’t really “fancy ice cream.” The two treats do share most ingredients. But gelato has less air spun in, which makes it smoother and creamier. It has less butterfat too -- 3.5% to 9%, compared to ice cream’s 10-plus. It’s also served a bit warmer, which fans say lets your taste buds enjoy flavor instead of going numb. Gelato has about 139 calories and 18 grams each of sugar and carbs per half-cup serving.
Frozen Custard
What sets this Midwestern fave apart? Eggs. While ice cream must be less than 1.4% of egg yolk solids, frozen custard should feature at least that. Slower churning makes it dense and creamy and sharply cuts down on air. (Air makes up 30% to 50% of ice cream’s total volume.) The eggs bump the fat to approximately 24.5 grams per serving, though. At about 314 calories, 18 grams of sugar, and 23 grams of carbs, consider frozen custard a “special treat.”
Soft Serve
It comes straight from the freezer, so you won’t find soft serve in the store ice cream case. Lots of air gives the treat its fluff, while it’s served cold enough so those swirls stay stiff long enough -- usually -- to eat. It’s a bit warmer than ice cream, at 21 F, vs. its colder cousin’s 10.4. One cup of chocolate soft serve has about 222 calories, 13 fat grams of fat, and 21 grams of sugar. Its carb count is lower than ice cream: about 22.
Frozen Yogurt
It’s made in the same way as ice cream, but yogurt -- milk fermented with yogurt cultures -- is the star ingredient. While it has less than 3 grams of fat, froyo’s sugar content can top 17 grams. A 6-ounce serving has about 162 calories and just over 32 grams of carbs. Also, treats from dispensers don’t come in neat FDA-monitored packages. Researchers have found that some soft-serve “nonfat” frozen yogurt was actually low-fat or even full-fat.
Sherbet
Marco Polo brought an ancestor of this skim milk-based dessert to Italy from his Far East travels. Usually flavored with citrus juice, such as lime or orange, sherbets are leaner than ice cream, at 1% to 2% butterfat. But the juice can make the sugar content soar to nearly 26 grams for a half-cup serving. This gives you almost 34 carbs and 141 calories.
Nondairy Treats
In a recent poll, 45% of frozen treat buyers said they go for vegan “ice cream” versions more than they used to. But alternative “milks” -- like coconut, cashew, or soy -- still pack a lot of saturated fat. One tofu brand’s chocolate version has nearly 15 grams of fat, 20 grams of sugar, and 25 grams of carbs per 1-cup, 237-calorie serving. But nondairy frozen desserts tend not to have as many additives as light or low-fat ice cream.
Sorbet and Italian Ice
Sorbet is a bit like sherbet, minus the dairy. It’s made of fruit juice, water, and sugar. Then it’s churned like ice cream, which nails the scoop factor. The big difference from Italian ice, or granita, is texture. Italian ice is scraped, not stirred, into icy flakes. A half-cup of these frosty treats will set you back about 61 calories with zero fat and only about 11 grams of carbs. As for the 14 grams of sugar -- blame it on the juice.
Frozen Coffee Drinks
Iced coffee has long been a thing. So it wasn’t a long stretch before frozen caffeine-fueled super-sellers hit the coffee and doughnut chains. One cup of the frozen drink counts for about 166 calories, 2.3 grams of fat -- and a whopping 33 grams of sugar (but “only” 13 grams of carbs). Oh, and about 82 milligrams of caffeine -- just a mite shy of the 95 grams in a cup of brewed coffee.
Ice Pops
These fruit-flavored pieces of ice on a stick might be a slightly better bet for your sweet tooth than most frozen desserts, at about 79 calories, about 13.5 grams of sugar, and 0.24 grams of fat. (The fruitiness does bump the carb content up to around 19 grams.) Remember the double-stick kind that you can break apart? They were invented during the Great Depression, so two kids could share one for only a nickel.
Slushie
Take fine ice crystals like melting snow, drizzle with neon colors, and blend to slushy goodness. That’s the slushie, a generic name for the frozen treat you find in convenience stores and county fair midways everywhere. But watch out for the sugar bomb. While an 8-ounce slushie will only cost you about 211 calories and 0 fat grams, you’ll get a whopping 40-gram blast of sugar and about 22 grams of carbs from all that high-fructose corn syrup.
Milkshake
A milkshake is a frozen blend of milk, ice cream, and flavoring, spun thick enough to just barely sip with a straw. The classic malted version has approximately 127 calories, 12.5 grams of sugar, and 6.3 grams of fat with 14 grams of carbs. But don’t confuse the “real thing” with certain drive-thru versions -- one famous burger chain’s small vanilla shake packs 490 calories, 14 grams of total fat, and 59 grams of sugar.