• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Wellness Mama script logo

Wellness Mama®

Simple Answers for Healthier Families

  • About
  • Favorites
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Health
  • Natural Home
  • Motherhood
  • Mindset
  • Natural Remedies
  • Beauty
  • Organization
  • Travel
  • Reviews
  • Recipes
Practical Uses for Junk Food
  • Natural Home

7 Practical Uses for Junk Food

Katie WellsJan 28, 2011Updated: Apr 8, 2022
Reading Time: 4 min

This post contains affiliate links.
Click here to read my affiliate policy.

Wellness Mama » Blog » Natural Home » 7 Practical Uses for Junk Food
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Make Play Dough or Paper Mache for Your Kids
  • Make a Luxurious Facial Scrub or Kill Ants
  • Clean Your Hardwood Floors Naturally
  • Dry Out Electronics that Got Wet
  • Get A Facial or Calm Itchy Skin
  • Clean Your Toilet
  • Polish Stainless Steel

If you haven’t already gotten rid of the junk in your pantry, now is the time! To make the transition easier, I compiled a list of ways to use those non-foods for other household purposes.

I hate to waste as much as the next person, but I finally had to realize that my body is not a garbage can, and I refuse to use things just to finish what is in the house. When we switched to a real food diet, I donated all the unopened non-perishables, but what to do with the opened packages of flour, sugar, oatmeal, etc?

I remembered some natural beauty recipes and kid-friendly activity ideas I’d read in the past, and the kids had a blast (and I got pampered) while we used up the rest of our “junk food.”

These were my solutions:

Make Play Dough or Paper Mache for Your Kids

A win-win situation- you get to spend quality time with your kids and teach them that the best use for flour is not in their mouths or digestive tracks. (If you don’t have kids, this could be fun for grown-ups too… consider it stress relief)

To Make Basic Play Dough from That Flour You Shouldn’t Be Eating:

  1. In a large pot, pour two cups of water and 1 cup of salt.
  2. Heat over low heat until salt is dissolved.
  3. Stir in 2 cups of flour until well mixed. (thing #1 to get out of the pantry)
  4. Add 2-3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil (another thing to get out of the pantry)
  5. Add 1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar (optional)
  6. Keep stirring over low heat until it thickens and pulls away from the sides into a ball. (like when you make bread -another thing to get out of the pantry)
  7. If it is too sticky, keep stirring over low heat until it thickens.
  8. Remove from the heat and let cool until you can handle it.
  9. Add kool-aid for color (another thing to get out of the pantry)

Unhealthy things you used up: flour, vegetable oil, table salt, kool aid!

To make Paper Mache Paste:

Mix equal parts of white flour and water to make a glue-like paste. (hmmm, flour and water make a glue like paste… probably shouldn’t eat that!) Let your kids use their hands and some old pieces of newspaper to make creations. Once it dries, it is much like a sculpture (yeah, definitely shouldn’t eat that!).

As kids, we used to blow up balloons and put paper mache over them. When they dried, we popped the balloons, cut them in half and painted them to make masks.

Make a Luxurious Facial Scrub or Kill Ants

Exfoliating Sugar Scrub: Sugar= bad for your body but good for your skin. Make a spa-quality facial scrub that costs pennies. Mix 1/2 cup of sugar with enough olive oil to moisten it and any essential oils you like (optional). I use lavender and orange oils. Mix well and put into a small jar. Use a little scoop with wet hands to exfoliate your face and body.

Ant Poison: If rubbing sugar on your face isn’t appealing to you, mix 2 parts sugar with 1 part borax (which is great to have on hand for cleaning). Put in a little container or jar that ants can crawl in and out of. Make sure your kids can’t get to it. Borax is poisonous to ants, but they can’t resist sugar. It won’t kill them immediately, but they will take it back to the nest and eventually kill all of them. I’ve used this twice to get rid of ants in our house. Killing ants=good use for sugar!

Clean Your Hardwood Floors Naturally

There are natural ways to clean any type of floor, and that nasty vegetable oil (or canola, soybean, cottonseed, etc) lurking in your pantry makes an awesome cleaner for hardwood floors. Rather than letting it skew your Omega-3 and 6 ratios, use it to make your floors shine. Mix 1 cup of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil OR lemon juice to make a very effective floor cleaner. Benefits: clean floors and clean bill of health!

Dry Out Electronics that Got Wet

I’ve had three cell phones thrown or dropped into water by my kids (and one I dropped myself). Three of the four were saved by rice. Store your rice in jars and when an electronic gets wet, put it in the jar and close the lid tightly. The rice will absorb the moisture and pull it out of the gadget. Unless there is structural damage, this usually works. It can take a few days or even a couple weeks, so be patient.

Get A Facial or Calm Itchy Skin

I don’t recommend eating oatmeal, unless you are a fan of insulin. I do recommend using it on your skin. For a relaxing facial, powder oatmeal in a blender or food processor and add warm milk to make a paste. Rub on face, let dry and wash off. It tightens pores, removes blackheads and moisturizes. You can also use the powder as an oatmeal bath for sunburns or itchy skin.

Clean Your Toilet

Toilet dirty? I’m sure yours is not, but mine sometimes is. Pour a can of coke in a toilet and let sit an hour. Use a brush to remove stains and flush. It will shine. We even tried this on a 30-40 year old toilet in a house we remodeled- it worked (and that toilet probably hadn’t been cleaned in 30-40 years). To me, that is enough reason to never ingest the stuff but if not, here are some other things you can use it for so you don’t drink it:

  • Removing gum from hair- soak hair in it for 10 minutes and gum comes right out
  • Unclog drains- just pour in the coke and wait (Did I mention you should not ingest this stuff!)
  • Remove that gunk from car batteries-pour on and it come right off
  • Clean grout- soak a sponge in it and use to clean grout stains
  • Remove grease stains on clothes-soak the stain in coke and wash well

Things not to use soda for: human consumption.

Polish Stainless Steel

Oh the fingerprints! Stainless steel shows smudges, a lot. After normal cleaning, pour or rub some flour onto the stainless to make it shine and remove fingerprints or water spots. Caution: keep flour away from mouth!

Hope this gave you some alternate ideas for that junk food that might still be lurking in your pantry. If you haven’t already, consider getting rid of (or creatively using) wheat and gluten containing flours of any kind and products made from them, harmful fats and products made from them, and sugar or sugar-containing foods.

Have any other ideas? I’d love to hear them below!

Category: Natural Home

Share this article

FacebookTweetPinLinkedIn
Print / PDF / Email

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a wife and mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

  • All Posts

You may also enjoy these posts…

7 Healthy Uses for Honey

7 Healthy Uses for Honey

Benefits and uses of Turmeric

Benefits of Turmeric and Curcumin (+ 12 Practical Ways to Use It!)

Seven natural uses for baking soda

7 Natural Uses for Baking Soda

7 Healthy Ways to Use Apple Cider Vinegar

7 Apple Cider Vinegar Uses & Benefits

7 ways to use vinegar for natural cleaning

7 Ways to Use Vinegar for Natural Cleaning

practical paleo

Practical Paleo Book Review

Reader Interactions

Discussion (29 Comments)

  1. akynos

    June 24, 2013 at 12:07 AM

    why is oatmeal on this list and not recommended for eating?

    Reply
    • patty

      February 5, 2014 at 10:49 AM

      Bcs it is over processed. Buy it at a health food store.

      Reply
  2. Wellness Mama

    September 5, 2012 at 1:57 PM

    I’d be really curious to see which of the foods above (white flour, sugar, vegetable oil) one could justify as good for you.

    Reply
    • Stevie

      March 8, 2013 at 10:09 AM

      Oats are great for you in my opinion. I find it strange that you eat meat but class oats as junk food :/ Im not having a go i just find it strange thats all. Thanks for the post 🙂

      Reply
      • Steve

        July 3, 2014 at 9:13 AM

        I just read a bit on phytic acid the other day on another one of her pages concerning grains, and believe oats are a grain, so this is why she deems aots as “junk food”.

        I started to think a lot on what we, humans, would do in the wild, concerning many things, from diet to lifestyle (sun exposure, no shoes thus feet touching the dirt so we absorb minerals from it, etc.), and eating fresh, raw meat is one of this things. For those who hunt their own meat, good for them! I’d suggest many others try hunting their own meat!

        Meats are naturally consumed by humans out in the wild, so I’d be shocked to see someone say that meat is “junk food” actually; and yes, I am shocked that many vegans actually believe animal meat is ‘bad’ for them, when in reality, they’d most likely be eating animal meat/fish all day, every day, if they lived out in the wild and not in this modern society.

        Anyway, I’ve been eating (organic) oatmeal for years now, as I had always thought “as long as it’s organic, I’ll stick with it,” but I’m one who likes to test and see what things do, so I’m cutting grains out for now. I say that anyone who doubts what she says, try testing it out for yourself. It could not hurt you just to stop eating grains, as it’ll just leave more room in your wallet to buy [organic or homegrown] dark leafy green veggies, organic eggs, organic/wild meat, wild caught fish, etc. You’ll still get great nutrients and antioxidants in the body without any grains in your diet.

        There’s no logical reason why NOT to test and see for ourselves, imo. 🙂

        Reply
  3. Adele

    August 15, 2012 at 5:49 PM

    There are some people in the world who have a knack of communicating vital information and making challenging changes a fun-filled new experience!

    Thank you for being such a gem; for sharing and caring 🙂
    Off to clean out the pantry, then treat myself to a facial 😉

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      August 15, 2012 at 7:56 PM

      Aww… you are so sweet! Thank you 🙂

      Reply
  4. Heather

    February 29, 2012 at 1:03 PM

    My husband is a truck driver, I remember one time when I was on the truck with him and we had to haul one of the ingredients for coke. We were considered hazmat, which means we were hauling hazardous material, I thought that was just crazy. Never again did I drink coke again after that! I remember other times when we had to go to meat packing plants too, they stunk so bad it made me want to get sick. Now we eat only local meat from humane farmers. People just don’t know and don’t care where their food is coming from or what is in it anymore! It is in my opinion a dangerous situation we have gotten ourselves in and we really need to start caring about what we are eating.

    Reply
  5. Dana Seilhan

    January 13, 2012 at 10:31 PM

    The bodies of poor people are not garbage cans any more than yours is.  If people want junk, it is normally very cheap.  It’s the nutritious stuff that they need to be getting from food banks.  And yes, I’ve been that poor, and didn’t have transportation to the food pantry, and lived off the junk castoffs.  I was pregnant.  That was not a good pregnancy.

    People, you wasted your money the day you bought that stuff.  It’s too late to worry about it when you come to your senses and are contemplating throwing it away.  Go ahead and chuck it.  With any luck it’ll kill some landfill rats.

    Reply
  6. emily

    January 13, 2012 at 9:20 PM

    Funny and informative post – Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Becca

    February 24, 2011 at 11:45 AM

    I love the idea of a luxurious facial scrub that also kills ants. Wouldn’t want ants on your face!

    Reply
  8. Elizabeth

    January 29, 2011 at 11:36 AM

    I wish I could say I didn’t use this stuff for human consumption… thanks for the cool tips! I do remember that Coke trick from a science experiment. Another thing I learned that day: leave a few strands of hair sitting in Pert Plus shampoo and it will dissolve…

    Reply
    • Jane

      January 23, 2013 at 7:47 PM

      Wow, Pert Plus shampoo will dissolve your hair? You know I’ve been using Head & Shoulders and my hair has been full of static and has not helped my scalp ANY.

      I wonder what things Head & Shoulders will dissolve… bahaha

      Reply
      • Emmy

        February 25, 2020 at 7:31 AM

        Jane, is it possible you have a candita overgrowth in your gut?

        Reply
  9. Kristen

    January 29, 2011 at 10:04 AM

    I love the ideas! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  10. Monica

    January 28, 2011 at 5:11 PM

    This was entertaining, as well as educational! The soda bit…was…shocking! We don’t drink soda anyway, but wow…maybe I should buy some anyway to clean up around here. Glad I found you.

    Reply
Newer Comments »

Join the Conversation... Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Please read the comment policy.

Recipe Rating




The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service, Full Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, and Comment Policy. Content may not be reproduced in any form. Ads provided by CafeMedia Family & Parenting Network. Displayed ads do not constitute endorsement or recommendation by Wellness Mama.


Content

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Favorites
  • Wellnesse

Support

  • Newsletter
  • Podcast Application
  • Medical Review Board
  • My Books
  • Sitemap
  • Contact

Policies

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Full Disclaimer
  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • Promo Guidelines
  • Comment Policy

Join the
Wellness Mama Tribe!


Copyright © 2023 · Wellness Mama® · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding