Baking soda is an essential basic product!
It really makes our daily life easier without breaking the bank.
We should all have some at home!
Whether it's for health, beauty or cleaning the house, baking soda can do it all.
Here is the practical and free guide to baking soda to know everything about this magic white powder . Watch:
Baking soda and white vinegar are the two essential products to have at home.
Whether for the household, for the garden, for health...the two go hand in hand!
Bicarbonate, like white vinegar, is a 100% natural product.
And just like white vinegar, it is natural, but industrially produced.
The good news is that thanks to this industrialized manufacturing process, baking soda is really inexpensive.
Baking soda and pure white vinegar have a lot in common.
This is surprising, because we are still dealing with two quite different products.
On the one hand, we have an acidic organic product, white vinegar, which is the result of two chemical reactions:fermentation and acidification, whether spontaneous or provoked.
On the other hand, bicarbonate is a 100% mineral product with an alkaline pH.
But the virtues of these two products, both natural and industrial, are ultimately quite similar... and countless!
The uses of baking soda are many.
Thanks to its detergent and slightly abrasive properties, it is, for example, ideal for cleaning all surfaces, including fragile ones such as car bodywork.
Although environmentally friendly, it is also known to destroy bad odors.
Note that it is harmless to health. Moreover, baking soda is used by ingestion, especially for digestion problems.
Same for skin care or dental hygiene:baking soda has its place in your toiletry bag.
In the kitchen, bathroom and toilet, it works wonders! It cleans, scrubs, degreases and shines in a single step.
It is just as effective as chemical household products sold in stores and much cheaper!
On the other hand, for really dirty surfaces, it is necessary to use more stripping products, such as soda crystals.
Indeed, bicarbonate is a soft abrasive which has the advantage of not damaging surfaces, even fragile ones.
This is actually a real advantage. But it is sometimes not aggressive enough for certain stains.
A single product and all these names? Yes, these three names correspond exactly to the same product.
And again, we are not talking about the Quebec appellation "la petite vache", Vichy salt or sodium hydrogencarbonate (its learned name) or Natrii hydrogenocarbonas (Latin name)!
Even if we all tend to talk about "bicarbonate", know that its real name is sodium bicarbonate.
On the other hand, carbonate and bicarbonate should not be confused.
Do you know the difference between baking soda and soda ash, also known as soda crystals?
To understand the difference, let's do a little chemistry.
Here is the formula of carbonate and that of bicarbonate:
- Sodium carbonate:Na2 CO3
- Sodium bicarbonate:NaHCO3
We can see that these are 2 different products.
But be aware that it is possible to transform soda crystals into sodium bicarbonate.
How? 'Or' What ? For this you need:
A molecule of sodium carbonate (Na2 CO3 ) + one water molecule (H2 0) + one molecule of carbon dioxide (i.e. carbon dioxide CO2 ).
As a result, we obtain a molecule of baking soda:NaHCO3 .
Note: if you are used to reading the composition of the products you buy, you may have already come across this food code on the label:E500. Do not panic ! This is the baking soda food code, safe for your health.
Check out the trick here.
Bicarbonate is a super effective product, provided you take care of it.
But don't worry, baking soda is really not demanding!
In general, it is sold in a cardboard package. No need to buy a very large quantity of baking soda all at once!
Admittedly, it's cheaper per kilo, but the bicarbonate eventually expires.
So, 400 or 500 g for a classic use, that doesn't seem bad!
But it's up to you to adapt the quantity according to your needs.
For example, if you use baking soda to maintain your swimming pool, it is worth buying a large quantity.
Anyway, for it to keep all its properties, it must be kept:
- protected from light
- dry
- in its original packaging.
If the packaging is damaged or wet, transfer it to an opaque box, such as a plastic food box that closes well.
To be sure that the box is well suited for storing baking soda, check that there is the following logo on the bottom of the container:
As we have seen, bicarbonate is an excellent odor destroyer.
But he himself feels nothing. And its consistency or appearance does not change. So how do you know if your baking soda is expired or stale?
It's very simple ! You have to do the vinegar drop test.
To do this, simply pour a drop of white vinegar on a little baking soda.
If it bubbles or foams, it has retained all its properties and you can use it.
It is also better to prevent your baking soda from solidifying due to humidity and becoming hard.
On the other hand, if you notice a few lumps that crumble between your fingers, it's not serious.
It just means that the baking soda is a bit old. But you can still use it without any problem or danger.
Anyway, don't worry about the expiry date of your baking soda.
This can be stored without any problem for years away from humidity and light.
And at the slightest doubt, hop! we do the vinegar drop test as explained here.
The price of baking soda varies a lot from one brand to another...
...from one store to another and of course depending on the quality of the bicarbonate and the quantity purchased.
But overall, the price of baking soda varies between 5 and 7 € per kilo.
So food bicarbonate is more refined than technical bicarbonate.
So it will be a bit more expensive. Baking soda for medical purposes is even purer and therefore more expensive, just like baking soda for cosmetic use.
That being said, whether for beauty care or as a remedy, food-grade bicarbonate is perfectly suitable, including for mouthwashes.
You may have noticed that baking soda is more expensive than white vinegar, which you can find for less than €1 in most supermarkets.
This is true, but note that generally less baking soda is used with each use.
So it lasts longer, so it's more or less the same price.
And don't forget either that the white vinegar + baking soda duo can replace most of your household products for the maintenance of your home and your kitchen.
That's a hell of a lot of savings!
Not to mention that they are safe for health and the environment, unlike chemical and toxic household products that we buy very expensive.
And that is just priceless for your health and well-being, is it?
Nowadays, it is very easy to find baking soda as we have already explained here.
There are some in grocery stores, organic stores, supermarkets, DIY stores or garden centers.
You can also find technical baking soda (household) or food baking soda (edible) on the Internet.
You will find your packet of baking soda in the salt section of your supermarket, or with cleaning products.
You may also find it in the gardening or pool maintenance department.
Generally, the baking soda you find in the salt aisle is the cheapest. But this is not necessarily the case everywhere.
So all you have to do is compare the prices per kilo to find out which is really the most economical.
You can also buy baking soda from pharmacies. Obviously, its price will be higher.
But you can benefit from the advice of a health professional, which is far from negligible.
Because be aware that there may be contraindications to the use of bicarbonate in some people.
Admittedly, baking soda is a natural and harmless product, but there can always be negative effects if you take too much of it, use it incorrectly or suffer from certain diseases.
To discover: The 7 Dangers of Baking Soda Everyone Should Know.
