74 Benefits And Uses Of Vinegar
Original : Vinegar is a liquid produced from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. Ninety percent of American Households buy vinegar. The 4 major uses are for salads, as cooking ingredients, pickling and home canning.
Anyways, I just thought that everyone should know about the usefulness of vinegar other than for the 4 things mentioned above. I’ve put together 61 other things with pictures about everything else that you can do with vinegar. I’d personally suggest using high quality white and apple cider vinegar like Heinz’s when trying the below methods. (Example : A cup of Heinz Apple Cider has 34 calories, no fat, 1.4mg of iron, and 240mg of potassium) The difference between white and apple cider vinegar is that white vinegar is made from acetous fermentation of alcohol and apple cider vinegar is made from cider or apple must.
2009.06.02 : It’s now 74 uses thanks to you!! Also, for people thinking to ingest or use apple cider vinegar internally or externally on your body, get the organic one with the ‘mother’. Skip the normal everyday distilled vinegar. The organic apple cider vinegar with the ‘mother’ is unpasteurized and contains all the good bacteria your body needs. The BRAGG bottle below is an example.
Some of odyb.net blog readers’ reported successes :
- Mike – Stripped the varnish off his old hardwood floors.
- Floorman – Healed the candita yeast he lived with for years.
- Jenn – sprayed undiluted white vinegar onto the grout in my shower and scrubbed. The orange pre-mold and black mold came right off.
- Brent – Tried over 30 uses mentioned below.
- Clear mineral deposits from a steam iron.
- Clean lime deposits and calcium sludge from an automatic drip coffee maker.
- Clean the hoses and unclog soap scum from a washing machine.
- Clean rust from tools, bolts, and spigots.
- Keep a garbage disposal clean and smelling fresh.
- Remove stubborn coffee stained cups and pots.
- Prevents misty spots on glassware.
- Eliminate unpleasant cooking odors in the kitchen.
- Eliminate odors from used jars.
- Turn a chicken bone into rubber.
- Deodorize a stale lunch box.
- Kill bacteria in meat.
- Cheese storage.
- Prevent cracked hard boiled eggs.
- Clean food-stained pots and pans.
- Wipe out caked food in the microwave.
- Remove chewing gum.
- Relief jellyfish stings.
- Relieve a sore throat.
- Soothe sunburn pain.
- Cure an upset stomach.
- Relieve itching.
- Helps eliminate lice.
- Ear Infections
- Acid Reflux
- Athlete’s foot (and all other fungal infections).
- Dissolve warts.
- Remove corns.
- Relieve a cold.
- Relieve arthritis.
- Relieve a cough.
- Dandruff treatment.
- Acne remedy.
- Flake off old skin cells.
- Neutralizing hot spice.
- Take care of body odors.
- Dry skin repair & Skin Softener.
- Clean dentures.
- Weight loss.
- Cure the hiccups.
- Prevent yeast infections.
- Condition dry hair.
- Clean eyeglasses.
- Longer-lasting pantyhose.
- Prevent lint from clinging to clothes.
- Deodorize a wool sweater.
- Remove perspiration stains from clothes.
- Prevent bright colored clothes from fading.
- Remove stubborn stains from furniture upholstery and clothes.
- Remove light scorch marks from fabrics.
- Eliminate animal urine stains from carpet.
For Machines & Appliances
Fill the water tank with white vinegar. Turn the iron to the steam setting and steam-iron a soft utility rag to clean the steam ports. Repeat the process with water, then thoroughly rinse out the inside of your iron.
Once a month fill the reservoir with white vinegar and run through the brew cycle. Rinse thoroughly with two cycles of cold water.
Once a month pour one cup of white vinegar into the washing machine and run the machine through a normal cycle, without clothes.
Soak the rusted tool, bolt, or spigot in undiluted white vinegar overnight.
Mix one cup of vinegar in enough water to fill an ice cube tray, freeze the mixture, grind the cubes through the disposal, and flush with cold water.
For The Kitchen
Fill the cup with vinegar overnight, then rinse with hot soapy water.
Place a cup of white vinegar on the bottom rack of the dishwasher, run for five minutes, then run though the full cycle. A cup of white vinegar run through the entire cycle once a month will also reduce soap scum on the inner workings.
Boil one tablespoon of white vinegar with one cup of water.
Rinse peanut butter and mayonnaise jars with white vinegar.
Soak a chicken bone in a glass of vinegar for three days. It will bend like rubber.
Soak a paper napkin in vinegar and leave it inside the closed lunch box overnight.
Marinating meat in vinegar kills bacteria and tenderizes the meat. Use one-quarter cup vinegar for a two to three pound roast, marinate overnight, then cook without draining or rinsing the meat. Add herbs to the vinegar when marinating as desired.
Cheese will last longer if you store it in a vinegar soaked cloth.
Add two tablespoons of white vinegar per quart of water before boiling to prevent the eggs from cracking. The egg shells will also peel off faster and easier.
Fill the pots and pans with white vinegar and let stand for thirty minutes. Then rinse in hot, soapy water.
Fill a small bowl with equal parts hot water, place it in the microwave and set the power to high for 5 minutes. The steam built up inside makes it easier to clean.
Freeze it out and scrape off as much as you can first. Then saturate the area that has the gum on it with vinegar. The rest of the gum will actually dissolve. If the vinegar is heated first the process will work faster.
For Diseases And Infections
Dot the irritation with vinegar to relieve itching.
Put two teaspoons of vinegar in your humidifier. Check out these other natural remedies for recovering from a sore throat.
Apply undiluted vinegar to the burn.
Drink two teaspoons apple cider vinegar in one cup water to soothe an upset stomach.
Use a cotton ball to dab mosquito and other bug bites with vinegar straight from the bottle.
Dissolves whatever glue the little buggers use to lay eggs on the hair shaft. Comb your hair and rinse it with equal parts water and vinegar.
Dip a cotton bud into pure vinegar and dab onto affected areas.
2 tablespoons in a full glass of water, sipped, usually first thing in the morning and 1 tablespoon before meals to control acid reflux/hiatal hernia.
Dab directly onto the affected areas.
Mix one part apple cider vinegar to one part glycerin into a lotion and apply daily to warts until they dissolve.
Make a poultice of one crumbled piece of bread soaked in one-quarter cup vinegar. Let poultice sit for one-half hour, then apply to the corn and tape in place overnight. If corn does not peel off by morning, reapply the poultice for several consecutive nights.
Mix one-quarter cup apple cider vinegar with one-quarter cup honey. Take one tablespoon six to eight times daily.
Before each meal, drink a glass of water containing two teaspoons apple cider vinegar. Give this folk remedy at least three weeks to start working.
Mix one-half cup apple cider vinegar, one-half cup water, one teaspoon cayenne pepper, and four teaspoons honey. Take one tablespoon when cough acts up. Take another tablespoon at bedtime.
Simply pour a few tablespoons of vinegar on your hair and massage into your scalp. Wait a few minutes, then rinse and wash hair like normal. Try this for a few days until you see results. It restores chemical balance to the skin.
Remedy for acne skin conditions when diluted 50:50 with water and used as a toner. Careful around the eyes.
For Maintaining Health
If you can take it, put a cotton bud or cotton square with appe cider vinegar and dab all over your face. It’s safer and so much cheaper than any store-bought ‘alpha hydroxy’ products.
When you eat something too spicy hot (habenero, jalepeno, wasabi) you can quickly get rid of the burn by dabbing your tounge with vinegar.
Use vinegar when soap won’t knock down the body odor in your arm pits. And any other area you feel requires attention.
Add one-half cup of vinegar or so to warm bath water when bathing and get double benefits; softer skin and a cleaner bathtub with less work. Smooth a little vinegar on cracked, dried skin to help it heal.
Soak dentures overnight in vinegar, then brush away tartar with a toothbrush.
One thing that science has shown is that apple cider vinegar might help to balance blood sugar. Insulin responses have been shown to create excess belly fat. Therefore, if insulin and blood sugar are controlled, a person might lose weight. Fat might in fact be as much a matter of hormones (insulin) than lack of activity. Of course, more than likely they go hand in hand.
Mix one teaspoon apple cider vinegar in one cup of warm water, and drink.
Apple cider vinegar is a natural remedy for yeast infections, when diluted with water and used as a douche. For example, douche with one tablespoon white vinegar to one quart warm water to adjust the pH balance in the vajayjay.
Shampoo, then rinse hair with a mixture of one cup apple cider vinegar and two cups water. Vinegar adds highlights to brunette hair, restores the acid mantel, and removes soap film and sebum oil.
Wipe each lens with a drop of vinegar.
For Fabric
Add one tablespoon of vinegar to the rinse water when washing, and your pantyhose will last longer.
Add one cup vinegar to each wash load.
Wash sweater, then rinse in equal parts vinegar and water to remove odor.
Apply one part white vinegar to four parts water, then rinse.
Before putting the article in the washing machine, soak it in white vinegar for ten minutes.
Apply white vinegar directly to the stain, then wash as directed by the manufacturer’s instructions.
Rub lightly with white vinegar, then wipe with a clean cloth.
Blot up urine, flush several times with lukewarm water, then apply a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and cool water. Blot up, rinse, and let dry.
Pages: 1 2
Although you alluded to it (by way of Athlete’s Foot/Jock Itch), Vinegar works great for treating Ringworm on Cats, Dogs, etc. Cider Vinegar is very good but Distilled will work in a pinch.
Vinegar has the double benefit in that it not only works as well or better than prescribed ointments, the animal is less likely to eagerly lick it off during grooming because it’s tart, leaving it alone to work. The Vinegar evaporates on it’s own and doesn’t need to be washed off.
Applying it to your pet could take some doing depending on the personality of your pet and how severe the infection is. You can dab it on with a Q-tip, cotton ball or if need be: place it in a spray bottle, set to a narrow spray pattern, not quite full spray and not full stream. You want to make sure the vinegar reaches and saturates the affected skin but not further irritate the area or otherwise hurt the animal – Do Not spray around the animal’s eyes!
Our Cat had Ringworm and we applied the usual ointment. However, I noticed that he was looking kinda’ sick from it. Concerned it was probably making him ill, I saw a tip about the Vinegar. He resisted application but it worked extremely well. With the ointment, there was little difference over a couple days. With Vinegar, it was cleared up in as much time or less.
put a little Vinegar in the dogs drinking water will help get the fleas under control.
i tryed it it works.
Isn’t vinegar great? Thanks for listing all the wonderful uses for this cheap ad readily available solution.
I’ve always read that you should only use 1-2 tablespoons of ACV per 1 cup of water to clean/soften hair. On this site it says to use 8 tablespoons of ACV per 1 cup of water. Isn’t this too concentrated?
I love onions but hate the after taste AND what they do to my stomach. So today, I thought, “What could get rid of this horrible taste?” That’s right – I thought of something even more potent – vinegar! I swished my mouth out a few times with it, and then I drank a few table spoons. No more onion breath and no indigestion. Wala! Vinegar strikes again, working better than any anti-acid pill or liquid I have ever tried. Now you may eat your onions and enjoy your night afterward, too. lol
I swear by the fruit fly comment.. It gets rid of them very quickly.
i need to buy a bunch of vinegar.
This has to be one of my favorite posts! And on top of thats its also very useful topic for newbies. cheers a lot for the info!
Just want to add…if you use apple cider vinegar for body odor, spray armpit before shower and use Safeguard soap. It definitely kills the bacteria that causes odor. But this second part is a must! You must wash all your clothes in 1/2 cup of white vinegar to kill the lingering bacteria! If you do not, spraying the pits is a waste of time. I’ve been deodorant free for over 2 years now. Definately works!
Just wanted to share – 2 Tbsp or 2 tablets a day of pure ACV has really helped with my palpitations. I get PVCs/PACs – esp around my period. Taking ACV has made a significant difference. Of course, talk to your Doc about it…but I don’t see how it can hurt.
Problem: My 25 year old toilet takes 2 to 3 flushes for it to work right. Solved this problem by putting one gallon of White Vinegar into the toilet tank and two gallons of White Vinegar into the toilet seat. I did this around 7 p.m. I closed the door to the restroom (vinegar smell). I let it stand unused for 15 hours. Then in the morning around 10 A.M., I turned on the water to the toilet and I flushed it. I also brought in the outside water hose and ran water into the toilet seat (at full force) for about 5 minutes, to make sure that 25 year old hard water mineral deposits left my toilet, plumbing and my property. Now it flushes beautifully, like a brand new toilet. IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS PLEASE READ ON! YOU MUST KNOW I did use the White Vinegar at full strength (no water in the tank or seat). BEFORE YOU DO ANY OF THIS, FIRST PREPARE THE TOILET SEAT AND TANK for empting by Turning off the water to the toilet. Than flush the toilet. Now remove the toilet tank top lid. Now flush again and hold up the tank’s rubber flapper until all the water leaves the tank. Next, dump a bucket full of water into the toilet seat. This dumping of a bucket of water (believe it or not) actually forces all the water to clear the toilet seat. Now you can deal with those three gallons of White Vinegar at the beginning of this post.
Half distilled white vinegar (from grocery store) mixed with half water (and if desired a few drops of essential oils such as lavender) works great as a deodorant. This is not an antiperspirant, but I stopped antiperspirants ages ago because they shut down a normal bodily process; we do need to be able to sweat. My deodorant mixture works great and controls perspiration odors for a day. Beyond that, no, but I bathe and reapply deodorant daily so it works effectively for me. Mix up a bigger batch in a jar for refills and use a smaller pump spray for daily use. Vinegar smell evaporates in minutes; you do need to allow drying time since this is a watery deodorant. Cheap, effective, convenient, non-toxic.
Another miracle use for vinegar: curing hiccups! A tiny sip of full strenght vinegar will cure hiccups every time. I’ve been using this cure for 30+ years and it has never failed. It doesn’t seem to matter if it is ACV or white distilled.