The lemon. This small brightly colored fruit is often an afterthought. The item you throw into your shopping basket on a whim because it’s useful to have around for the occasional salad dressing or cocktail.
But we’d like to shed a little light on lemons. Because if you look more closely you’ll discover that they should be a staple part of your grocery shop — and of your daily diet.
Before we launch into our love letter to lemons, let’s address the big question. How can you include more lemons in your diet when they’re not exactly the kind of fruit you want to bite into on a regular basis?
The happy answer to that question is: one of the best ways to absorb the health benefits of lemons is by drinking them in high quality alkaline water.
The Lemony Benefits
It’s a common misconception lemons create more acidity in the body. Actually, although lemon juice is acidic, the effect it has once you consume it is highly alkalizing. So if you’re trying to improve your health by increasing your body’s pH levels, lemons should not be overlooked.
Here are 9 incredible benefits that you can experience if you incorporate alkaline lemon water into your daily routine.
1. Lemons Support Stable Blood Pressure
A study by nutritional researchers in Japan found that the intake of lemon juice has a positive effect on blood pressure. In particular, it helps to lower blood pressure — making it even more valuable to you if you suffer from high blood pressure, or hypertension.
2. Drinking Alkaline Lemon Water is Good for Your Heart
One lemon contains approximately 31 mg of vitamin C. That’s just over 50% of your recommended daily intake (RDI). Why is that important? Because a growing body of research shows that absorbing vitamin C from natural sources significantly reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke.
3. Lemon Water Can Help You Lose or Control Your Weight
Boosting the body’s alkaline levels is known to help with weight loss, and with sustaining a healthy weight. With a healthy pH the body is in balance; it more easily takes the nutrients it needs from healthy food.
Simply drinking water itself has been proven to temporarily increase the number of calories your body burns. But add lemon to it and you have the extra benefit of an alkalizing effect, and certain plants compounds found in lemons are thought to reduce weight gain.
In addition, having a bottle of alkaline lemon water on hand while you’re trying to lose weight can help manage food cravings. Staying hydrated and fulfilling cravings with the subtle taste and texture of lemon water will stop you from reaching for the fatty, sugary snacks.
4. Lemons Help with Anemia
Do you feel tired all the time — or have you actually been diagnosed with anemia? Anemia is a condition caused by a deficiency of iron. We absorb iron from our food — the body absorbs iron from meat, fish and chicken very easily. But it’s more difficult for the body to absorb iron from plant sources.
Lemons help your body to absorb more iron from vegetables and fruit. This is because they’re high in both vitamin C and citric acid, which are both crucial for effectively absorbing iron from plant sources. So increasing your lemon intake could prevent anemia.
5. Alkaline Lemon Water can Reduce the Effects of Aging
Lemons are high in limonoids, known to reduce the signs of aging — they’re frequently used in natural skincare and cosmetics products to support clear, smooth and healthy skin. These antioxidants are most effective when consumed, rather than applied topically to the skin. So drink your limonoids!
6. Lemons Reduce Inflammation
Lemons, with their high concentration of vitamin C, reduce inflammation in your body. This is good for you in the short term — because less inflammation means clearer skin, smoother digestion, and more stable moods. And in the long term managing inflammation naturally by consuming alkalizing and vitamin rich lemon water can help to prevent more serious health conditions.
7. Lemon Water Freshens Your Breath
Lemons have long been included in cleaning products for their cleansing, refreshing and neutralizing effect on odor. But did you know that consuming lemons will freshen your breath, too? Sipping lemon water throughout the day will help to improve your oral hygiene and keep your breath fresh without having to resort to gum or breath mints.
8. Consuming Lemon Juice Every Day Prevents Kidney Stones
Kidney stones are small lumps that build up in your kidneys as a result of the body’s waste products crystallizing and hardening. They’re surprisingly common — and if you’ve had them once you’re more likely to get them again.
The high citric acid content in lemon juice helps to prevent kidney stones by increasing your urine volume, and the pH in your urine. Studies show that drink just half a cup of lemon juice each day can provide your body with enough citric acid to stop kidney stones from growing — even if you’ve had them before. So the simple practice of drinking lemon water as part of your usual day can prevent lots of discomfort and the nee for treatment in the future.
9. Lemons Are Good for Your Brain
A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease showed that sustaining healthy levels of vitamin C in the body is important for protecting against cognitive and degenerative disease. So the high vitamin C content of lemons could keep your brain functioning well for years to come. Not only that, but some researchers suggest that lemons are helpful for reducing stress and improving concentration.
A Love Letter to Lemons
So there it is — our love letter to lemons, complete with the scientific studies to support our passionate affair. Passionate, but lifelong and sustaining, of course. We’re in it for life with lemons.
Whether you’re already obsessed with their sweetly sour taste, or you’re only now discovering a tentative taste of lemon love, go forward with the knowledge that lemons really are good for you. They may be small, but they’re packed with powerful properties which can help to transform your health.
The benefits of lemon water have been utilized by people around the world for many years gone by. In Ayurveda, the oldest recorded system of medicine in the world, people are instructed to start each day with a drink of warm lemon water to kickstart the digestive system and promote a healthy, balanced body.