You may find the thought of eating coffee grounds unpleasant, but they are packed with antioxidants, also called dietary phenolics. These compounds promote heart health, perhaps more so than drinking coffee.
Antioxidants fight free radicals in the body that can cause cancer. They also help protect our skin from the aging process.
Antioxidants can be found in many fresh foods. For example, spinach, beets, red cabbage, artichokes, kale, raspberries, strawberries, and walnuts. Even dark chocolate is a source of antioxidants. In fact, it contains more antioxidants than blueberries and raspberries. If you consume products rich in cocoa, such as dark chocolate, they can lower your blood pressure.
Coffee grounds are useful for other things too, so don’t waste them. If you really think you can’t eat them (and why should you?), there are lots of things you can do with them.
In the garden, ground coffee is an excellent insect repellent and nutritious for plants such as roses. They are also a fertilizer and you can add wood ash or lime to the soil to make a really good fertilizer. If you have a compost heap, add coffee grounds to it because they are high in nitrogen. Worms seem to be attracted to soil, so your garden soil will benefit from their activity.
Did you know that carrots love ground coffee? If you mix your coffee grounds with your carrot seeds, you will boost their growth. You’ll get bigger and better carrots than ever before.
You can also use the grounds of the house. They absorb odors, so if you put some in an open container, they will neutralize food odors in your fridge and freezer. You can happily leave the container for a few weeks and the grounds will still work their magic.
The grounds are abrasive, so if you have tough stains on your kitchen counters, you can sprinkle some grounds onto a cleaning cloth (preferably an old one) and scrub the counters without damaging them. You can also use them to clean dishes that have food stains that are difficult to remove.
If you make your own candles, you can add the grounds to the wax and make coffee-scented candles.
You can even use coffee grounds to exfoliate your skin or do a facial with them. If you add the grounds to warm water and add a natural oil, you will have a great scrub. For a face mix, try mixing 2 tablespoons of ground coffee with an equal amount of cocoa powder, a tablespoon of honey, and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or whole milk.
Coffee grounds have many uses, so don’t throw them away even if you don’t want to eat them!
