Just because sugar isn’t a recommended part of your diet doesn’t mean it is entirely useless.

Sugar has plenty of uses outside of the kitchen. From reducing pain to fueling a car, sugar is a cheap and effective alternative to many cleaning and toiletry items. So, while it may be sweet in taste, the grainy powder is an effective household and beauty remedy that gets the job done without derailing your diet.

1. Feed Flowers

Mix three teaspoons of sugar with two tablespoons of white vinegar to a vase filled with water. The vinegar prevents the growth of bacteria while the sugar strengthens the stems. Sugar also helps the flowers to last longer.

2. Keep Cookies Fresh

Store your cookies in a container alongside a handful of sugar cubes in order to keep the cookies fresh. This trick also applies to cake and bread.

3. Set Lipstick

Sprinkle a bit of sugar on your lips after applying lipstick, wait a minute, and then lick it off. The sugar draws moisture from the lipstick so that the color remains while the smear potential can kiss itself good bye.

4. Smooth Lips

Dry lips aren’t just a response to winter weather. Dryness is also associated with heat and exposure to the sun; lips can start to dry out, flake, and even burn. Get that luscious pucker with a simple rub of granulated sugar across your lips. Rinse with water and apply a moisturizing lip gloss or chapstick.

5. Exfoliate the Body

Soften your skin and remove dead skin cells with sugar. Mix about ½ cup of sugar with an essential oil of your choice until it is wet enough to clump together. Scrub all over dry skin, giving special attention to the elbows, knees, and ankles. Wash out in the shower to reveal supple, glowing skin.

6. Clean Grinders

Pour sugar into your coffee grinder and let it grind for a few minutes before washing it out. The sugar absorbs flavor and smell residues left from the coffee and gives your next cup of joe a fresh start!

7. Remove Grass Stains

Get rid of those tough grass stains using a sugar and water solution that is far less harsh than bleach and other stain-removing chemicals. Simply make a paste of sugar and water, apply it to the stain, let sit for an hour, and then wash as usual.

8. Clean Grimy Hands

If you’ve worked with oil or grease and soap and water just aren’t cutting it in terms of washing the grime away, add a bit of granulated sugar to your palm and massage your hands, scrubbing in between the fingers and all around the dirty areas. The sugar helps to remove tough grease. Wash clean with soap and water.

9. Heal a Wound

There is indeed truth to the ancient Zimbabwean remedy that suggests pouring sugar on cuts and sores to kill bacteria and prevent pain. Bacteria need moisture to survive, and sugar draws water from the wound. A 6-month English study conducted on 21 patients whose wounds did not respond to conventional treatment showed that sugar was effective in curing painful infections.

10. Soothe a Burned Tongue

Suck on a sugar cube or simple sprinkle a bit of sugar on the affected area of your tongue and the burn will disappear, and immediately at that!

11. Prevent Cheese Mold

In the same way you can keep cake and cookies fresher for longer, so too can you prevent cheese from molding by storing it with sugar cubes.

12. Fuel the Car

Sugarcane can be used in ethanol, which produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. Brazil has already embraced using sugarcane ethanol and flex fuels – fuels made by a mix of ethanol and gasoline. Sugar-based ethanol is nearly 800 percent more energy-resourceful than corn-based ethanol.

Photo Credit: Crecord

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