How to Put the Cucumber to Work for You

If you have read The Old Gray Mare’s articles about hardworking bananas, drinking water, peroxide and other household items, you already realize there are tons of benefits found in everyday substances. Today, my focus is the cucumber. Yes – the cucumber contains an arsenal of problem solvers. Why some have even been written about on the pages of The New York Times.

Here are some uses for cucumbers. Perhaps you can recommend additional uses.

1. Replenish or enrich your daily vitamin requirements. Eat a cucumber.

The humble cucumber contains a great start to your daily requirements of Folic Acid, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc and Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and Vitamin C. We can agree the list of beneficial nutrients is amazing.

2. Refresh yourself. Nibble on a cucumber.

Feeling a bit tired in the afternoons? Put down the energy drink, caffienated soda, coffee; instead, have a glass of water and pick up that healthy cucumber. This vegetable will provide you with a hard-hitting source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates – enough for a quick pick-me-up that can last for several hours.

3. Forget binging on snacks or sweets. Enjoy the crunch of the cucumber.

If you are a snacker or love sweets, fight the cravings! Your waistline will stay status quo and you’ll be much healthier – all you have to do is grab a cucumber. Explorers, expeditions and contemporary outdoorsmen have brought along this easy-to-transport vegetable as a source of quick refreshment, meals, vegetables and even an efficient water source for quick meals to banish malnourishment.

4. Shun the inevitable hangover after an evening of spirits; stop the onslaught of a rollicking headache. Bite into a few cucumber slices before retiring for the night.

Get several cucumber slices into your stomach prior to going to bed. Most likely, you will be invigorated in the morning. Best of all, there will be no headache. The simple cucumber boasts just enough electrolytes and sugar and Vitamin Bs to replace nutrients that your spirit drinking voided. Hey, if you can do without the pounding and sickies after imbibing, then give it a try.

6. Refresh your breath without mints. Push a cucumber slice to the top of your mouth.

You bet. Grab a 1/4” slice of cucumber and stick it to the inside of your mouth (roof of mouth) and hold it with your tongue. You can feel confident that odor, bad breath or unsavory meal smells will dissipate. Best of all, the cucumber needs just 30 seconds to do its work. It works hard to kill, with a capital “K”, to rid offensive odors and bacteria that are trapped in your mouth.

7. Unfog your bathroom mirrors. Wipe with cucumber.

This one is a nuisance that The Old Gray Mare particularly dislikes. Day after day after a lovely, warm shower, it is necessary to defog the mirror. Well, stop it – bring along a slice of cucumber. Rub the slice along the mirror and get rid of the fog. Interestingly, the warm vapors given off by the cucumber slice lend the bathroom a fresh spa scent. Will it streak? You’ll have to try it.

8. Clean sinks and faucets. Scrub with cucumber.

The cucumber works hard to clean off tarnish that has built up for years. Yep! It will even bring back shine, will not streak or ruin your manicure. And, for our environmentalists, this is definitely a green product.

9. Rid your gardens of slugs and some grubs. Practice pest control with aluminum and cucumber slices. Go green!

Grab shallow tins or aluminum foil pieces and spread out several cucumber slices on them. Spread the plates around the infected area. Replace dried out slices as necessary. The hero cucumber hides a formidable arsenal of natural chemicals within and it loves to react with aluminum. So, drive the garden pests nutty from the imperceptible odor of this reaction; send them to the neighbors (just kidding!).

10. Forgot to give your shoes a shine this morning? Give them a spit shine with cucumber.

So simple – take a cucumber slice and rub it over the shoes. Watch your face appear in the shine! Wow! And the resident chemicals miraculously have an added side treasure – they help your shoes repel water too.

11. Fix that annoying hinge. Stop the squeak with cucumber.

Your wife forgot to get the squeak fixer (WD40). Again, grab the slice of cuke and simply rub. Presto, no more squeak. Yep, it will repel water.

And these three suggestions are great for the ladies.

12. Give yourself an instant thunder thigh tuck. This one is good!

Well, you won’t lose pounds or anything dramatic like that. But the magic is directly under the surface of the skin – this little miracle tightens and firms the outer layer(s), reducing ripples and denting from the cellulite. The Old Gray Mare has another thought – this must therefore also work on wrinkles. Try it, you’ll like it!

13. Place a cucumber slice on each eye after a sleepless night or as a refresher during the day. This has always worked.

Your tired eyes will thank you. This has been a tried and true method to take down redness and swelling of eye tissue for eons. The only problem is that it doesn’t last forever.

14. Treat yourself to an at-home spa treatment. Doesn’t get any easier.

Use a whole cucumber, dice it up, and boil it. Then sit back and enjoy the fabulous spa aroma that emanates from the pot as the water boils, humidifies and refreshes. Cucumber chemicals go a long way to reduce stress and anxiety.

15. Remove artistic renderings from your kids on walls. Don’t yell at Johnnie.

Your kids have been busy drawing on your dining room wall. No problem. Your trusty cucumber becomes your tool of the hour – slowly and firmly rub a fresh slice of cucumber over their priceless writing or art.