What are the benefits of citric acid that can be naturally found in all citrus fruits? What is the taste of citric acid? The taste of lemon is the closest thing when it comes to the taste of citric acid. There are man-made versions of citric acid that can be found in processed food and there are medicines with citric acid that can treat different health conditions such as kidney stones.
As we can see, citric acid can be found everywhere not only in citrus fruit. Packaged food, cleaning products, alcohol, and cosmetics contain citric acid. This version of citric acid is a man-made version, not the one that can be found in nature.
Citric acid has been known to have so many every day benefits from preserving food and personal care products to removing tough stains. Citric acid is used to keep food fresh for a longer period. It can do the same for cosmetics and other products.
Citric acid used in medicine can kill bacteria and lower the level of acid in urine. On top of that, it can remove stains which is the main reason why citric acid is used in cleaning products.
What is the Effect of Citric Acid on the Body?
Benefits of Citric Acid
The FDA recognizes synthetic citric acid as safe in food and skin products, but some experts believe there is more research that needs to be done. Citric acid is known to have some bad reactions on the body. When citric acid touches your skin and stays there for a longer period it can cause swelling and stinging. You don’t want to keep citric acid near your eyes. If citric acid gets near your eyes, it will burn you. In case this happens it’s crucial to wash your eyes for several minutes and if you are wearing contact lenses, you should remove them immediately.
Furthermore, citric acid is known to have a negative effect on your teeth. Candies and drinks high in citric acid can wear out the outer layer of your teeth known as enamel. Consumption of drinks and food high in citric acid can make your teeth more sensitive; it can turn them yellow and increase the risk of cavities.
If you are taking medicine high in citric acid, often side effects are vomiting and nausea. Sometimes drugs that contain citric acid can have serious side effects such as lightheadedness, confusion, fast heartbeat, chest pain, tingling or numbness of feet and hands, fatigue. In case you notice some of these symptoms after taking your medicine, you should contact your doctor right away.
Is Citric Acid Harmful to the Body?
From the above, you can conclude that citric acid can be very harmful to your body but that’s not completely true. The citric acid found in nature can boost your immune system and give you energy. It can also help you with the absorption of minerals and protect you from the treatment of kidney stones. How often do we eat lemon, oranges, and lime to boost our immune system? Very often, and all those benefits are part of citric acid benefits to our body.
The problem comes with man-made citric acid which can be beneficial and harmful to our body at the same time. Citric acid is a strong compound that can do good or harm our body.
We have to be careful with synthetic citric acid and we will often find a warning on cleaning products or medications. To prevent harmful effects from manufactured citric acid, all we have to do is follow the instructions from the warning labels.
Does Citric Acid Kill Bacteria?
Yes, citric acid kills mold, bacteria, and mildew. It’s perfect for cleaning and disinfecting surface full of bacteria.
Citric acid is effective in removing hard water stains and even rust. All those stains that we find hard to get rid of can be easily dealt with when we have a product with citric acid on our hands.
As we mentioned, citric acid is used as a preservative in many cleaning products. Lemon juice has between 5% and 8% of citric acid and it’s often used in green cleaning. Often some people will use lemon juice to get rid of a bad coffee stain on the carpet.
It’s safe to say that we recognized citric acid’s ability to kill bacteria a long time ago, and now we can find citric acid in cleaning products, dishwasher cleaners, bathroom cleaning products, carpet cleaners, laundry detergents, window cleaners, air fresheners, stain removes.
What Does Citric Acid do to the Food?
Citric acid is often added to drinks and packaged foods. The main reason behind adding centric acid to packaged food is to keep it fresh for a longer period of time. For example, canned food and jarred food will stay fresh for longer when we add citric acid.
On top of that, citric acid can keep fruit such as sliced apples fresh for a longer period of time by preventing it to turn brownish as fruit often does when exposed to the air and higher temperature.
Also, citric acid can help thicken food and give them a somewhat sour flavor. That’s the main reason why you will see citric acid added as an ingredient to some soda packages, ice cream, and sorbets.
In conclusion, in its natural form citric acid is very useful and beneficial to our overall health. Oranges, lemons, and limes are superfoods and to some extent, that’s thanks to citric acid. On the other side, syntactic citric acid can be also super helpful in cleaning products, cosmetics, and medications. Here, the most important thing for us is to follow the instructions and read the warnings as this form of synthetic citric acid can be harmful to your body if not used properly (cleaning products) or as a side effect (medicine and cosmetics).
The citric acid that we should most definitely avoid is the one found in sodas and processed foods.
