Soda

Chewing your way through your food can help you combat weight gain problems. Tricks like using smaller-sized tableware and loading half your plate with non-starchy veggies can also help you cut portions and lose weight. Eating a healthy breakfast in the morning will kick-start your metabolism and prevent unhealthy snacking, while swapping the soda for zero-calorie water can also make losing weight a lot easier.

Commercially available cleaners, detergents, and dishwashing liquids can affect your health in various ways. Moreover, they are non-biodegradable and can cause environmental pollution too. It's best to use non-toxic ingredients like vinegar, washing soda, Castille soap, borax and essential oils to make safe all-purpose cleaners, detergents, dishwashing liquid and air fresheners.

Diet soda isn’t the worst drink for diabetes, but it isn’t the best. A healthy diet is important. Diet soda has artificial sweeteners, so it contains little to no calories. It also doesn’t change your blood glucose, making it an ideal swap for regular soda with added sugars. However, the low-calorie content can make you crave more sugar, leading to overconsumption. This worsens metabolic syndrome and increases your risk for complications. If you’re diabetic, drink diet soda in moderation.

While fizzy drinks are our go-to thirst quenchers and meal accompaniments, just one 12 oz can of a fizzy drink can contain double the sugar we should have in a day. Orange sodas top the list with 13 tsps of sugar and cola follows close behind with about 10 tsps. Some clear fizzy drinks may have up to 11.5 tsps, while fizzy fruit drinks may have about 6 tsps.

Not only do soft drinks offer no nutrition, they also contain harmful chemicals. Their high sugar content, often high-fructose corn syrup, can cause diabetes and affect the heart and liver. Preservatives like phosphoric acid can cause bone loss and kidney disease and citric acid can cause severe dental erosion. The caramel color in cola and the chemicals in the containers are also linked to cancer. Drink infused water or kombucha instead.

Baking soda and lemon have potential in the treatment of the dreaded 'C.' Although further studies are required, get some of this good stuff in your system.

Did you know baking soda could actually help fix a host of little health niggles? A surprising home remedy, this simple white powder can do more than its appearance suggests. From a luxurious homemade foot soak to first-aid for an insect bite or sunburn, baking soda lends itself to a number of uses.

Soda alters urine composition by decreasing magnesium and citrate excretion and increasing oxalate excretion. It, thus, promotes formation of kidney stones. Its fructose and phosphorous content increase risks of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, electrolyte imbalance, renal dysfunction, and chronic kidney disease. Avoid colas, artificially sweetened sodas, and fruit punches.

Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate can help your skin in many ways. Adding a little bit to your bath water can help you deal with scaly skin and soothe itchy skin. A baking soda solution can also be used to exfoliate skin, soften calluses, and clean inflamed skin. And it may help brighten dull and darkened skin when used with lemon juice. Baking soda also works as a natural alternative to antiperspirants.

Stop multitasking during meals, it reduces your body's absorption power. Consume a juice of ginger, lemon and salt before meals to trigger digestive fire (Agni). Avoid cold drinks and food, they cause stomach bloating and discomfort. Lassi helps get rid of gas and cramps and Triphala boosts detoxification and improves nutrient absorption.

Dark underarms are caused by shaving, regular use of hair removing creams, excessive sweating, poor ventilation, accumulation of dead skin cells, and use of alcohol-based deodorants. You can use potatoes, cucumber, lemon, baking soda, and orange peels to whiten your dark underarms. They all have a natural bleaching agents in them.