Lemons are a wonderful fruit and are part of the citrus family of fruits, along with oranges, limes and grapefruits. They naturally grow in warm climates near the equator, but can be grown indoors in pots in colder climates.
They should be listed in all of those lists of super foods because they are quite extraordinary in their ability to help the body maintain optimum health. If you’d like to know how these amazing little yellow fruits can help you become the healthiest you can be read on for tips!
Cleanse Your Liver
In the morning your digestive system is in a state of fasting because you have not had any food in your system all night. This is the prime time to give your liver a jump start for the day in its efforts to detoxify your body of all of the harmful substances we encounter in our modern world. An excellent easy way to do this it to slice a lemon into quarters and squeeze one quarter sized piece into a medium sized glass of warm water.
Drink all of the lemon water, and then wait 20-30 minutes before eating your first meal. Store the remaining three quarter-sized pieces in the refrigerator in a container for the following days, or use them in herbal teas throughout the day to add wonderful flavour to your favourite tea.
Fight Against Colds and Flu
Lemons are a powerful addition to your fight against colds and flu. The juice of a lemon helps to boost your immune system and helps it to fight off infections like the cold and flu. It also helps to clear out any gunk that has built up in the organs that make up your immune system.
It is the powerful antioxidant, vitamin C, in lemons that help to support the immune system. Next time you feel a cold or flu coming on try adding a bit of lemon juice and honey to a glass of warm water and drink. It could help!
Fires Up Your Digestive Juices
Another benefit of drinking warm lemon water in the morning, as previously described, is that it helps to fire up your digestive juices. Our stomachs go into fasting mode over night and it can be hard on the system to just begin eating straight away when you first wake up in the morning.
Drinking warm lemon water will help wake up your stomach and intestines and prepare them for the day of eating ahead. It will also help to alkalinize the system which makes for smooth digestion as well.
Replenishes Your Electrolytes
Electrolytes are a group of nutrients in your body that work synergistically to help the body to function. These nutrients include magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium, chloride and phosphate. They are necessary for certain functions in the body such as proper heart function, muscle contraction and proper nerve function.
A drink of lemons, a little Celtic salt, coconut water, honey and mineral drops can serve as a healthy version of those other sugar laden electrolyte drinks on the market. So next time you work out try having this healthy drink instead, and see the positive results it will have on your health.
6. High in Vitamin C
Lemons are naturally high in the antioxidant Vitamin C, which is an important helper for the entire body. Vitamin C is needed to help fight the cold and flu, boosts the immune system, aids in preventing stroke, aids in maintaining a healthy heart, helps combat cancer, helps to achieve healthy skin, hair and nails and helps wounds to facilitate wound healing.
Vitamin C is an essential part of our diet, and lemons can help supply us with it.
5. Increase Your Potassium Levels
Lemons are very high in potassium, which is an essential nutrient for a healthy body. The nervous system and cardiovascular system are especially reliant on potassium to regulate heart function and maintain proper nerve firing in the body.
Regularly consuming lemons can help safeguard you against complications that can arise as a result of low potassium levels. As mentioned before, drinking a healthy, homemade electrolyte drink may be just what you need!
4. Help You Body Absorb Iron
Iron is a necessary component of anyone’s diet. But it isn’t very easily absorbed in the absence of the right nutrients. Most health practitioners recommend consuming iron in combination with Vitamin C, to boost your body’s ability to absorb the iron you have just eaten.
So next time you are eating a meal that is high in iron, make sure you include some lemons in your meal as well. This can be in the form of a lemon drink, or by squeezing the lemon juice directly over the food. It adds wonderful flavour to the meal you are about to eat!
3. Hangover Help
Often times when a person has a hangover they are quite dehydrated. This is because, despite drinking many alcoholic drinks the night before, alcohol is actually a diuretic. Diuretics deplete your body of the hydration it needs, and this can cause those lovely hangover symptoms some people are lucky enough to feel.
Before a night of drinking try mixing up a large batch the electrolyte drink that was previously mentioned, and begin your day by drinking a large glass of it to help ease the symptoms. Sip on glasses of it throughout the day.
2. Weight Loss
Drinking warm lemon juice in the morning helps to fire up your digestive system, as was previously mentioned. This helps to make sure that the digestive system is functioning optimally. An optimally functioning digestive system will help you to properly utilize and eliminate foods and will help with maintaining a healthy weight.
Also, drinking warm lemon water, or herbal teas infused with lemon juice are both great ways to substitute other sugary drinks that you might be consuming. And, as we know, sugar contributes to weight gain!
Heart Health
Studies have shown that consuming lemons helps the blood vessels and arteries in your body and heart to properly open, or dilate, to allow blood to pump through to supply the body with oxygen. So consuming lemons could help to protect your heart from diseases that affect that organ. As we know, potassium is an important mineral for a healthy body, and this includes the heart. It is the potassium in lemons that creates healthy arteries.
Lemons are an amazing fruit! They are widely available at all grocery stores and markets year round. It will be easy to grab a few the next time you are doing your grocery shopping, and it’s even easier to incorporate them into your daily routine. Lemons should be stored outside of the refrigerator to make them last as long as possible, and make a nice center piece in a bowl on your table. But I’m sure they won’t last long! Buy some lemons next time you are out shopping and give them a try. Your body will thank you!
Sources:
The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book by Shari Lieberman PhD
Eat by Choice, Not by Habit by Sylvia E. Haskvitz RD
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