Lemon Water Does Nothing
Water: refreshing. Lemons: Also refreshing. Combine them and you have a bright-tasting drinking liquid. That’s all you have . Not a detox elixir or a metabolic booster. Again, when you add lemons to water, you just get lemon water.
(And if you add sugar, you get lemonade.)
If you love to start your day with a glass of warm lemon water, I definitely won’t stop you. But let’s take a look at the purported benefits of this ritual.
This is not a magic metabolic tonic . Reader’s Digest, listing the “12 Insane Benefits” of drinking lemon water, cites research supporting the idea that certain compounds in lemons “prevent weight gain.” The study was in young mice (who are still growing, hence the weight gain study ) and instead of having a morning glass of lemon water, they got a mixture of polyphenols, chemicals extracted from lemons, in amounts that made up 0.5 percent of their diet. The results were somewhat encouraging when you remember that they weren’t humans, they didn’t drink lemon water, and they didn’t lose weight.
Made from liquid . Another benefit of lemon water for weight loss is that it fills your belly, so you don’t eat a lot of breakfast. This is true, but also applies to ordinary water .
Very low in calories . Reader’s Digest, again, points out that water with a slice of lemon contains fewer calories than if you filled the same glass with the sweet juice of many oranges. Yes it’s true. Lemon water is almost entirely water.
He will not “flush out toxins” from you . Because it isn’t.
It is not full of electrolytes . “Not that I drank it straight, but half a cup of lemon juice contains about 125 milligrams of potassium, compared to about 211 milligrams in a banana,” writes Dina Gachman for Prevention . Okay, but if you don’t drink half a glass of this drink, what’s the use of this math? Here is the amount of juice in one lemon wedge . Look at all those zeros!
It helps nothing to digest . Stomach acid is sour and lemons are sour, so lemons are sure to help you digest food, right? First of all, stomach acid is involved in only one small aspect of digestion, so raising it won’t do much harm to your body. But it turns out that the acidity of the stomach cannot be changed . If you eat something alkaline, stomach cells secrete more acid; if you drink lemon juice, they will hold back.
It does not contain pectin or any other fiber . If you don’t chew or eat lemon slices, you will get very little.
Don’t get too carried away with vitamin C. One slice gives you 4 percent of your daily need for vitamin C. If you love your lemon water and drink as much as a whole lemon, you get up to 36 percent, making it a pretty good source of this vitamin. But you get vitamins in the rest of your food, right? I believe that if you were in danger of scurvy, you would jump off a pirate ship and grab a juicy, whole orange (138 percent of your daily value) on your way to the doctor’s office. If you’re just hoping to prevent colds, vitamin C won’t , but it can cut down on colds if you take large doses. That is much more than in a glass of lemon water.
In conclusion, lemon water is liquid, low in calories, and possibly tastes good. Here’s what he has. A glass of lemon water every morning can help you kick your coffee habit (though why) or help you feel like your day off started in a healthy way when you look out the window and imagine your yoga routine. try again later. Fine. Whatever. But that’s all he can.