Hey there, viewers! Most of us love cakes, muffins, and cookies,
right? The fluffiness of these tasty sweets comes from one compound lying in your kitchen.
It’s called baking soda! People with glasses and white coats call it sodium bicarbonate. While
it makes our food taste better, have you ever wondered what baking soda does to our bodies?
Do we need this chemical in our bodies? Can it help reduce heartburn? Does it
have other health benefits? We’ll be talking about all of these AND more…
Before we begin, there’s one fact we all need to know about baking soda.
Baking soda (NaHCO3) is alkaline. This means it has a pH higher than 7. Anything below 7 is
acidic. The stomach acid our body produces to digest food can have a pH value as low
as 1. Just to give you a reference, it’s the same acidity as sulfuric acid.
This high acidity would burn the stomach if it wasn’t for the mucus produced by our body.
In the later stages, the stomach acid gets diluted by the mucus and water inside the stomach.
When the stomach acid climbs up the esophagus, which is a tube connecting the stomach and the
mouth, we get a burning sensation in the chest, sometimes even up to the throat.
This condition is also known as heartburn.
Most of us have experienced heartburn at one point or another. It’s such a pain to deal with..
Literally. It can distract you from completing your daily takes. It’s a
good thing baking sodas there to fight against it. Due to the basic nature of baking soda,
it can help treat heartburn by neutralizing stomach acid. Well first, you need to dissolve
1 teaspoon (5 grams) of baking soda in a glass of cold water, and drink the mixture slowly. There
are some downsides to this treatment we should keep in mind, so make sure you’re being careful.
So what about other benefits of baking soda? Heartburn can’t be the only thing it treats.
It’s not! Baking soda has a ton of positive effects on your body.
Trying to get in shape? It can help increase your workout endurance.
Baking soda allows you to burn calories in the gym while you put on muscle. Due to its alkaline,
this helps reduce the effect of acids and helps in many aspects of our body.
If you’re experiencing the effects of lactic acid while working out, this can reduce them.
These days, almost everyone is health-conscious. We are in a pandemic afterall. We like to go to
the gym, work out and get ripped. Many people, in their attempt to get results faster,
go for oral and injectable supplements. One of these supplements is baking soda.
Some studies show that baking soda may help increase your
stamina for high-intensity workouts and sprints.
While working out, muscles produce lactic acid, which causes a burning feeling.
It also lowers the pH inside the muscle cells and causes them to tire.
Because of the alkaline, baking soda has a higher pH. It can delay the effects of
lactic acid and help you perform for a longer period at a higher intensity.
One of the studies has shown that cyclists who took baking soda performed for a significantly
longer period than those who did not. Other studies show that taking about
130gm of baking soda between 1-2 hours before exercising may increase endurance.
Outside of endurance, it may also reduce the effects of gout
Uric acid is one of the many acids that our body produces and it may
cause gout and other joint problems. Gout is a form of arthritis caused by
uric acid crystallization. As a result, you experience swelling and pain in the joints.
It’s believed that baking soda can help reduce the effects of gout, but there’s little to no
true evidence of that. So if you want to try it, make sure you talk to your doctor first.
There are also canker sores to consider.
Cankers are painful sores inside the mouth. You’ve probably had them a couple times
before. Canker sores are triggered by a number of things. These include stress,
mouth injury, acidic fruits and veggies, and spicy foods. Unlike cold sores, cankers don’t
develop on the lips, and aren’t contagious. Some studies suggest that washing your mouth
with baking soda can be a relief to the pain canker sores cause.
To make an effective mouthwash, we can add 2 teaspoons of baking soda to one cup of warm water.
Baking soda baths help relieve bug bites, bee stings, sunburns and itchy skin. When combined
with other ingredients like cornstarch and oatmeal, it's even more powerful.
To make a baking soda bath, we can add 1 to 2 cups (220–440 grams) of baking soda to the bath.
While taking the soda bath, the affected area needs to be soaked. We can also create
a paste by adding water to the soda and applying that to a specific area.
Baking soda may treat chronic kidney failure
This is where things get way more serious. I mean, don’t get me wrong, gout and canker sores
are terrible. But trouble with your organs is a whole other ballpark you need to worry about.
Chronic kidney disease causes slow failure of the kidneys, resulting in death without
transplantation. It sounds wild to say, but baking soda can slow the progression of the disease.
Kidneys are vital for the proper functioning of our body. They help remove excess waste and
water from the blood, which balances important minerals like calcium, potassium, and sodium.
According to some studies, baking soda can help improve kidney function and slow down
the effects of chronic kidney disease. But before you use it, make sure you talk to
your doctor. After all, you are having kidney problems. Baking soda might not be the answer.
So it may help with kidney failure, but what about cancer?
According to the World Health Organization, cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
It’s right up there with heart disease.
Doctors usually prescribe chemotherapy to treat cancer.
With chemo, a patient is given a bunch of chemicals that are meant to slow down the
growth of cancer cells. This is done through hours upon hours of treatment.
The problem is that chemotherapy isn’t always effective. So what are the ways you can make
it more powerful? Believe it or not, some studies actually show that baking soda may give it a more
powerful punch. But don’t get your hopes up. If you’re feeling symptoms of cancer, you need
to talk to a doctor ASAP. It’s pretty obvious that baking soda can’t do anything by itself.
Now onto a lighter subject. Let’s talk about the beauty benefits of baking soda…
All you beauty-conscious people out there, listen up! That baking soda in your pantry
may help you get the natural beauty you were looking for in different products.
Baking soda makes for an amazing skin exfoliator. It can help you get rid of the dead skin cells
on your face, and get the glow you were always looking for. You simply need to
dilute some of it in water and massage your face in a circular motion. Because of the alkaline,
it’s not recommended that you use it daily. Instead, you can use it once or twice a week.
It also reduces inflammation and lowers your chances of developing acne and pimples.
It also has , and can prevent those nasty breakouts on your skin.
By the end, your skin will be so much smoother.
Mixing honey and baking soda, and applying them to your lips is
believed to help get rid of darkness. It has amazing cleansing properties.
It may also be a basic ingredient for hair care…
While there’s little to no scientific proof of baking soda being used as
a perfect hair care solution, it’s said that this ingredient helps soften you up,
and allows your hair to grow. This magic kitchen ingredient deserves more attention than it gets.
One of the lesser known effects of baking soda is its ability to get rid of the pesticides that are
on your fruits and veggies. .
To prevent bugs from getting a free lunch, the farmer uses pesticides. Unfortunately,
these pesticides can harm you.
Some people may advise you to peel off the skin. But then you
don’t get all the nutrients you paid for. This is where baking soda shines. A baking
soda bath is the most effective way of removing pesticides from your food. One study has shown
that soaking apples for 12 to 15 minutes in soda water removed nearly all the pesticides.
So yeah, go ahead, give your veggies a bath before tossing them into the fridge and enjoy the tasty
fruits and veggies with all the nutrients you paid for. That should put a smile on your face.
But what if your smile looks gross?
Well, lucky for you, this is another thing baking soda can help with.
Not only is baking soda a cleansing agent, it’s also a great whitening agent. In fact,
that expensive toothpaste you just bought might already be using baking soda as an ingredient.
Many studies have found that toothpaste containing baking soda is better for
whitening teeth and removing plaque than toothpaste without. With its antibacterial
properties baking soda can also prevent your teeth from decaying. Baking soda usefulness
is not just limited to its health benefits. If you want, you can use it in your recipes.
Baking soda is terrific for cooking different foods. If you’re looking to clean your house,
baking soda can be mixed with other ingredients for a cleanser.
It’s always great when you add a new ingredient to your health regiment.
But there are also mistakes you can make. Let’s keep the conversation going with a
couple more videos, shall we? Here’s what you need to know…
Check out 12 Ways You’re Cooking Your Veggies Wrong That Can Actually Reduce Their Benefits.
Or how about 21 Unhealthy Foods That Should NEVER Be In Your Kitchen.
Go ahead, click one. Or better yet, watch both, and learn more about how to boost
your health. Have you ever tried baking soda? Let us know in the comments below!