Kitchen Remedies: Using Kitchen Ingredients as Everyday Remedies

Save to notebook Email article Print article More articles

By Rachel Derry
Staff Writer LIFamilies

Although we keep the ingredients in our kitchen for the sole purpose of eating or cooking with, it’s amazing the beneficial properties that can be found in some of our favorite kitchen essentials. Looking for holistic remedies for some of your everyday troubles? Here are a couple examples of putting those kitchen ingredients to good work.

Chamomile tea can work for soothing more than just your nerves. If you have inflammation and irritation on your skin, brew a strong cup of chamomile tea. Let the cup cool down/get cold, and then press it against your skin with a wash cloth. This will relieve the inflammation and discomfort.

The next time you want a fresh face to...well, face the world, head to the refrigerator instead of your endless barrage of beauty products. You can use regular Greek yogurt as a quick and reviving facemask. The live bacteria found within the yogurt remove toxins from your skin, as the acidity of it helps to balance the pH of your skin. Let the yogurt sit for a few minutes and then wash it away, leaving your skin fresh and glowing.

Forget the spoon full of sugar; it’s amazing what a spoonful of honey can do! Dab a small amount onto pimples and blemishes before you go to bed at night, and then wash it away in the morning with lukewarm water. Repeat this nightly for as long as necessary (depending on the severity). The antioxidants and enzymes work together to not only kill the blemishes at the root, but also to heal the skin so that the marks and scars are diminished as well. Looking to sooth a cough and scratchy, sore throat? That same tablespoon of honey can be taken, as is, to relieve your symptoms temporarily, like a cough drop. Have bad indigestion? Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of that honey and take the tablespoon before meals or when acid reflux is occurring to alleviate the symptoms; it is said that it can even go a long way towards helping soothe and diminish ulcers. The honey list can go on and one, but these were just an effective few!

Spend a little too much sun this weekend? Help take the sting out of that sunburn with a little bit of vinegar. Soak a cotton ball in apple cider vinegar and then apply to your sunburned skin. The vinegar pulls the heat out of your burns to provide you with some relief. I've also read that it will help turn your skin tan after the burn heals, rather than back to white (for us Irish persons), but I cannot speak from experience of whether this is true or not. Either way, smelling like a salad for a short period of time is a small price to pay to get rid of your sunburn pains!

Long Island Health, Fitness & Beauty Articles > Kitchen Remedies: Using Kitchen Ingredients as Everyday Remedies