Recently, I discovered some amazing ways you can reuse egg shells around the home and especially for food, health and healing. I was really surprised that I had never heard of any of these before, so I thought I would pass the knowledge on to all our TASC patients and followers. Once you have read this blog, I bet you will not throw an egg shell in the bin ever again!
Less Bitter Coffee: Egg shells are alkaline, while coffee is acidic. When added to coffee, the egg shells remove much of the bitterness and mellow out the flavour. Add an eggshell to your coffee in the filter, and your morning coffee will be less bitter. The spent coffee grounds, eggshell and bio-degradable filter are then conveniently ready for the compost pile. If you have an espresso coffee machine just add the egg shells into the portafilter with the coffee grounds before attaching it to your machine. Then proceed to make coffee as normal.
Egg on Your Face: To restore a youthful glow to your skin pulverize dried egg shells with a mortar and pestle, or if you don’t have one put shells in a plastic zip lock bag and use a rolling pin to grind them into a powder. Whisk the powder in with an egg white to use for a healthful, skin-tightening facial. Pop a few cucumber slices on your eyes and lay back and relax, once the face mask has dried, simply rinse it off with some warm water.
Treat Skin Irritations: Put 1 eggshell in a small container or jar (one that holds about 200mls) and pour in apple cider vinegar, almost to the top. The egg will dissolve in the vinegar in about two days. You can then use the mixture to treat minor skin irritations and itchy skin.
Making Water Kefir: Have you discovered Kefir water yet? Well if you have, did you know you can use eggshells to nourish your water kefir grains? You just add 1/4 of a clean eggshell to your water kefir while it’s brewing, this can be used instead of buying mineral drops and seems to work great.
Calcium Supplement Powder: You can save your egg shells by freezing them, then when you have about 2 dozen, steam them to sanitise and let them dry. Grind them down into a fine powder and you have calcium powder. You can then add this to your cooking, put it in broths, shakes or juices or take as directed below.
How to take eggshell calcium (this forms calcium citrate) takes 3 hours:
- Put 1/2 teaspoon of powdered eggshell into a small dish (approximately 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches across) 1/2 teaspoon equals approximately 400 mgs of elemental calcium.
- Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon (freshly squeezed), and mix well it will start to bubble and foam, which is what is supposed to happen.
- Leave it at room temperature for 6 hours. The longer you leave it the less gritty it will be, but never leave it longer than 12 hours.
- Then just drink it, followed by mouthfuls of water to wash it down. It is surprisingly not sour tasting but the taste is quite pleasant.
- It is recommended you also take 400 mgs of magnesium citrate at the same time.*
Liquid Mineral supplement: Put 3 – 4 egg shells in a jar, add the juice from 1 lemon, and fill with water (jar should hold about 350mls), then place in the fridge for a few weeks. The egg shells should dissolve and you can then add a tiny bit of the liquid to whatever you are cooking, soups, stocks, juices or shakes, to get extra minerals.
Calcium-Rich Vinegar: To make a calcium rich vinegar, you start by adding calcium rich herbs (oregano, thyme, dill, etc) and one clean eggshell, to apple cider vinegar. It needs to infuse for at least six weeks, then be decanted. The calcium from the shell and the plants goes into the vinegar and can be used just like ordinary vinegar would be, in salad dressing, over cooked veggies, etc. I have added a list of calcium rich herbs below. Feel free to play with mixing different combinations to give you the flavour you are looking for.
Interesting Facts:
One whole medium sized eggshell makes about one teaspoon of powder. One teaspoon of powdered egg shell yields about 750 – 800 mgs of elemental calcium plus other microelements (Elemental amounts are the amounts absorbable), i.e. magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sulphur, silicon, zinc, etc. There are actually 27 elements in total found in an egg shell, which is very similar to the composition of our bones and teeth.
Most people require a minimum of 400 mgs per day of calcium, in addition to calcium from other food sources. So you would take 1/2 teaspoon of the powder per day. Also take 400 mgs of magnesium citrate at the same time.
*Calcium and magnesium should be taken in at least equal amounts, and some people require more magnesium than calcium depending upon how much they obtain from their diet. If you have muscle cramps or suffer general fatigue, you should try increasing your magnesium intake.