It’s not simply the citrusy scent of lemon that may perk you up — consuming lemon juice may increase digestion, immune well being, and extra. Listed here are 5 potential advantages of lemon juice.
1. Lemon Juice Could Promote Digestion
Lemon juice is acidic, which might be useful for digestion. “I’m an enormous fan of lemon juice water within the morning as a result of it prompts the digestive system in a optimistic manner,” says Abigail Hueber, RD, a practical dietitian and the proprietor of Above Well being Vitamin in Boston.
Most anybody can profit from lemon water within the morning (see recipe under), however particularly those that might use digestive help, says Hueber.
Some of us have a low manufacturing of abdomen acid (referred to as hypochlorhydria), which has numerous causes, together with bacterial infections like H. pylori, acid-reducing medicines (like proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs), and continual stress. “Lemon water helps create a extra acidic setting within the abdomen, which may enhance digestion,” Hueber explains.
Lemon juice shouldn’t be a remedy for digestive considerations, however ingesting 16 ounces (oz) of water with ¼ to ½ of a squeezed lemon within the morning is an efficient solution to jump-start digestion, Hueber says.
2. Lemon Juice Is Wealthy in Antioxidants
Lemon juice can complement a wholesome, balanced eating regimen by offering antioxidants, says Laura M. Ali, RD, a culinary nutritionist in Pittsburgh. Antioxidants are necessary for well being as a result of these compounds might stop or delay cell harm attributable to free radicals (unstable molecules that may harm DNA).
Vitamin C is one antioxidant present in lemon juice. One ounce of lemon juice presents 12 mg of vitamin C, making it a superb supply of the nutrient that, as an antioxidant, might assist stop most cancers and coronary heart illness.
3. Lemon Juice Could Assist Immune Operate
Vitamin C can be key for immune operate. Importantly, vitamin C acts as an antioxidant and helps the operate of immune cells that combat off sickness.
4. Lemon Juice Promotes Hydration
Squeezing contemporary lemon right into a glass of water might make it easier to keep hydrated. “The contemporary taste lemon juice provides typically makes ingesting water extra attractive and refreshing,” says Ali.
Lemon juice by itself shouldn’t be extra hydrating than different fluids, says Melanie Betz, RD, a registered dietitian and the founding father of the Kidney Dietitian in Chicago. But when incorporating lemon juice helps you drink extra water, that’s a win.
5. Lemon Juice Could Assist Forestall Kidney Stones
Lemon juice incorporates citric acid, a compound that may keep at bay calcium kidney stones (a typical kind of kidney stone composed of calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate). “Citric acid, or citrate, can assist stop calcium-based kidney stones by binding to calcium within the urine and making a soluble complicated that dissolves calcium out of urine,” Betz says.
Whereas this may increasingly cut back your possibilities of creating a kidney stone, it’s unlikely to dissolve or cross an present stone, she notes. (You’ll want to communicate to your physician about applicable remedy when you’ve got present kidney stones.)
However you’d must drink as much as a ½ cup of lemon juice every day to see a big enhance within the quantity of citrate in your urine, Betz says. As a substitute of utilizing lemon juice to stop kidney stones, she recommends consuming a eating regimen wealthy in vegetables and fruit and limiting pink meat, organ meat, and shellfish (that are excessive in purines, compounds that immediate uric acid manufacturing and encourage the formation of stones).
