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Food-grade sugar is produced from sugar cane or from sugar beet (cane sugar or beet sugar). People have known sugar for almost eight thousand years. And did you know that cube sugar was invented in the Czech Republic? If you think sugar belongs only in coffee or in sweet pastry, you are mistaken. Ordinary granulated sugar does not have to be used only in the kitchen. There are many other surprising uses for it.
Sugar treatment for houseplants
Thanks to their green pigment, chlorophyll, plants create their food in the form of glucose through a process called photosynthesis. If a plant is not thriving and does not have enough strength for photosynthesis, it suffers and is hungry. You can help struggling flowers with ordinary sugar. Think of sugar if your plants are wilting or don’t want to bloom even though they should. A sugar treatment is also suitable for flowers you damaged while handling, or for older specimens lacking energy. Add a teaspoon of sugar to the watering water. You can give healthy plants such a boost from time to time as well. If your orchids are not blooming, try giving them a sweet bath. Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in one liter of water. Immerse the entire pot with the orchid in the sugar water for several hours. Then take the plant out, let it drain, and return it to its place.
Granulated sugar as a natural scrub
Have you been working in the workshop or in the garden and plain soap isn’t enough to wash your hands? Instead of scrubbing with a brush, try rubbing sugar in your palms together with soap. It dissolves grease well, even that „garage“ grease. Sugar as a scrub can also be used in cosmetic procedures. Add sugar to a homemade facial mask, for example with olive oil and honey. If you mix sugar with cinnamon and coconut oil, you will get a scrub used as a prevention of cellulite on problem areas of the buttocks and thighs.
Medicinal properties of sugar
Using sugar as a remedy may sound crazy, but this advice has been verified by our grandmothers. Sugar can reduce irritation in the oral cavity after a burn from a hot drink or food. You can also suck a teaspoon of sugar after a fiery hot meal with chili. Sugar has antibacterial properties, so it can also be used to treat small wounds. For example, after a knife cut wash the wound with clean water, sprinkle sugar on it and seal with a plaster. Sugar will absorb excess moisture and the wound will heal faster.
Sugar absorbs unwanted odors
The best-known neutralizer and odor absorber is coffee. But how do you get rid of the smell of coffee, for example in a coffee grinder that you intend to use for something else? Sugar can help with that. It also absorbs aromatic smells of spices from a mortar or spice jars.
Ant extermination with sugar – and borax
Can’t get rid of ants or other annoying insects? Prepare clever traps for them. Slowly heat water with sugar and honey in a pan. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Cut baking paper into strips. Dip the strips of baking paper with string into the prepared mixture and hang them in problem areas. Ants or fruit flies will stick to the sticky paper and remain trapped.
If you want to attack ants even more harshly, reach for a chemical – borax. Borax is a chemical substance most often used as a fertilizer (diluted borax). In the household some people use it to clean stubborn stains, on clogged drains or to remove mold. It can be purchased in garden centers or drugstores. In one cup of warm water dissolve half a cup of sugar and two tablespoons of borax. Soak pieces of cotton or cotton makeup pads in the mixture. Place the cotton soaked with this deadly mixture near ant trails. In the morning you will find only dead ants. Ant foragers will also carry the chemical into the anthill, so you will probably get rid of them for good.
