My wife Rose and I were sitting at the breakfast table recently when I noticed her carefully peeling all the pith off her orange before eating it. "Why are you doing that? " I asked to which she replied "my Granny always told me to do that because it's no good for you".
"That's funny" I said "mine always told me I was supposed to eat it because it is good for you"
Rushing to the computer and typing in "pith" a new world suddenly opened up to us.
Pith really is good for you and what about banana skins, carrot tops, potato skins and all the other vegetable parts that we have thrown into the compost over the years. It turns out that just about everything is good for you,it's just a case of having the time, patience and storage space to deal with all those "throw away parts".
A lot of those throw away parts are in fact the parts that produce the greatest benefits and all those years we had been throwing them away.
Every day when we open the paper or switch on the TV. we are bombarded with fresh news about what has now been found to be good or bad for us. The articles often start with "Studies show" and then proceed to tell us the effects of different foods when fed to rats or some other unfortunate member of the animal kingdom such as "guinea pigs". Actually guinea pigs are the selfless people who allow the giant corporations to shove large amounts of a particular type of food into them and then after exhausting studies declare that it may cause. diabetes!
For some inexplicable reason the expressions "There's nothing new under the sun", "You are what you eat" or "what you rub on you" had been going around in my head for a long time and by chance I chose to look up banana peels on the internet. The information I found absolutely amazed me and I couldn't believe that all my life I had been chucking them in the compost before making full use of their amazing properties.
Here are some of the things that I discovered which you may want to give a try:
1. If you are bitten by a mosquito or just have an itch, rub the inside of the peel on the affected area and it will give you instant relief. (I have tried this a few times this summer and it really does work.)
2. The oil from a banana peel will help torelieve the pain from burns and scratches.3. Wart removal - Tape a piece of banana peel on the wart and leave it until it is gone. (I happen to be wart free at the moment so can't verify this one).
4. If you suffer from acne, rub the peel on the affected areas. (I haven't had that since I was a teenager so can't verify that either0
5. Teeth whitener – Rub the peel on your teeth in a circular motion and after a couple of weeks you will notice a difference (I tried this one and might be imagining it but my teeth do appear whiter and so far haven't started dropping out)
6. Removing splinters. Just like wart removal, tape the peel over the splinter. The enzymes will help dislodge the splinter and heal the wound.
7. Polish your shoes – Just rub the inside of the peal in a circular motion over your shoes and then rub them with a cloth. (I thought this was getting a bit crazy but tried it on a couple of pairs of shoes and sure enough they look as good as they do when using shoe polish). 8. Make the leaves of your houseplants gleam – Just rub the peal over the leaves and sure enough they start to shine.
9. Cure a headache – Just hold a strip of banana peal across your forehead and lay back for a while. (I can't verify this one either since I don't suffer from headaches but I know that rubbing the peal over your face and forehead has a very soothing feeling, similar to the effect of the hot towels they hand you on plane flights,)
10. Deter aphids – If aphids are attacking your roses or other plants, bury cut up peels around the base about an inch or two deep and the aphids will usually leave.
11. Dry out the peels and then put them through your blender. They make a great fertilizer and a good way to start off your seeds in the spring.
12. I have seen them recommend cleaning your silver with them but didn't have much luck on some badly tarnished items however it certainly made a difference on lightly tarnished things.
13. Finally I saw a recommendation that mashed bananas can be used as a face mask which when caked over your face and left for 10 – 20 minutes will leave it looking and feeling fresh. (I thought about this one for a while and then decided to eat the banana instead)
All of these uses may sound somewhat zany to you, but it is certainly worth giving some of them a try and when your spouse or other member of your family isn't looking sneak off with your banana peel and put it to good use.
If you have a handy zip lock bag around put a peel into it and just like they say in the ads for "American Express" -- "Don't leave home without it".
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