Amid coronavirus pandemic situation health-experts are advising people to consume vitamin C. In our country lemon is one of the most available sources of vitamin-C. Do you throw away lemon peels after extracting the juice? You may not do this practice knowing what lemon peel can do for your health and skin. Interestingly, lemon peel is full of nutrients which can strengthen your immune system and prevent many diseases. What's more, lemon peels offer versatile uses for skin-care, and diverse house hold applications. Read this article to know the benefits and uses of lemon.

Benefits of Eating Lemon Peel

Provides Nutrients

Like the lemon juice, the peels of Lemon are rich in vitamins such as calcium, fiber, potassium, magnesium, and beta-carotene. In fact, lemon peels can deliver about 5 to 10 times more nutrients than lemon juice. About 100 grams of lemon peels are enriched with 134 mg of Calcium, 160 mg of Potassium, 129 mg of vitamin C, and 10.6 grams of fiber.

Strengthens Bones

The vitamin C and calcium can strengthen and improve the health of your bones. These nutrients can also prevent diseases like inflammatory poly arthritis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.

Prevents fungal and bacterial infections

The antibacterial properties of Vitamin C can eliminate the interior worms and parasites living inside your intestines. These properties can protect different organs of your body from diverse fungal and/or bacterial infections.

Prevents Cancer

Likewise the lemon juice, lemon peels are rich source of citrus bioflavonoid which can contribute significantly in reducing your oxidative stress levels. What is more? Making the inside environment of your body alkaline, lemon peels can prevent cancer. You may know that Cancer cells tend to grow in the acidic environments. In addition to these, the lemon peels carry properties like limonene and salvestrol Q40 that fights against the growth of cancerous cells inside your body.

How to Eat Lemon Peel?

You can freeze the lemon peels and grate them finely to prepare lemon peel powder. Another easy way is baking the lemon peels at 200 degree Fahrenheit using an oven and crushing the baked peels into powder. Lemon peel powder can be consumed in diverse forms. You can add the sprinkles of lemon peel powder to your meals, drinks, organic tea, and soups.

How Much Lemon Peel is Safe to Consume?

Lemon peel is a great source of oxalates. Consuming more than 80 mg of oxalates can create stones in kidney and gallbladder. 1 teaspoon of lemon peels may contain about 25 mg of oxalates. Therefore, the maximum limit of lemon peel intake should be not over 3 teaspoons per day.

Uses of Lemon Peel for Skin Care

Skin Brightening Body Scrub

Grind a handful of lemon peels into paste. Then mix the paste with 1/2 cup of sugar. Then, add a few drops of Olive oil considering your skin type. Dry skins would need more oil than oily skin type. After creating the mixture, apply it gently on wet skin through circular motions. Now rinse of your face with clean normal water. This scrub will exfoliate the dead skin-cells making the skin look brighter. This lemon peel scrub is also helpful to soften dry elbows. You can apply lemon peel scrub once a week.

Exfoliating Face Mask

Mix about 2 table spoons of the rice flour with a pinch of lemon peel powder. Now add cold milk to this mix until it turns into thick paste. Now spread this paste evenly on the wet skin of your face to exfoliate the dead skin cells. Leave the mask for 15 minutes. Then wash your face properly with clean normal water. This lemon peel face pack would rejuvenate your skin-cells.

Treating Cracked Feet

Grate about 1 cup of lemon peels into a powder. Then add petroleum jelly to the powder to make a paste like mixture. Now apply this paste on the cracked areas of your feet. After that put on your socks and leave the paste for several hours. After washing, the skin your feet will feel softer and look healthier.

Treating Fungal Infection on Feet

Boil about 3 cups of lemon peels into 6 to 7 cups of water for about half an hour. Strain the boiled water into a bowl. Add milk, or olive oil to this liquid. Now apply this combination as a foot bath for at least 30 minutes. Then, rinse your feet with normal water and use moisturizer. Regular lemon peel foot bath will remove the infections effectively.

Whitening Nails

Are you suffering from nail discoloration issue? Grind a handful of lemon peels into a paste. Apply this fusion to your discolored nails and leave it on for several minutes. Then, rinse the nails with normal water. This treatment would help your nails getting back their natural color.

Read: Easy Homemade Summer Drinks to Beat the Heat and Increase Immunity.

Lemon Peel for Household Use

All-Purpose Cleaner

You can use Lemon peel as a cleaner to disinfect your furniture, floors and other sections of your house. First boil lemon peels and drain the water. Now, mix vinegar or baking soda with the water to prepare a non-toxic DIY cleaner.

The chemical properties contained by lemon peels have the potency to get rid of stubborn stains of mineral, tea/coffee, and spice from kettle rings, coffee/tea mugs, and utensils. The stimulating citrus scent would be a bonus of using this lemon peel based all-purpose cleaner.

Deodorizer

Lemon peels can absorb bad odors often created inside fridge, closed drawer, trash can, etc. The magic of lemon peels can also help you in cleaning your microwaves, cutting board, and other utensils. Just put a few lemon peels into bowl full of water. Then, keep the bowl inside your microwave for several minutes. It will deodorize the inner odor of microwave leaving a refreshing smell. To disinfect cutting board, rub it with the mixture of grated lemon peel and salt. You will get a fresh smell after washing.

Room Freshener

Using lemon peels you can prepare a homemade all-natural room freshener. Mix lemon peel with dried flowers, and essential oils. Now put this citrus-scented concoction in a clean spray bottle. Thus you can keep your home scented all time without spending money.

Insect Repellent

Lemon peels can be a cost-effective alternative to kill insects in your home. It is found that bugs, especially, ants, cockroaches, etc hate the smell of lemon. So, you can keep lemon peels inside the nook and corner of your home like bookshelves, cupboard, kitchen shelves, store room, etc. You can also apply lemon peel to save your skin from insects like mosquitoes. Unlike lemon juice the peel extracts won't hurt your skin and keep the pest away.