Warm lemon water – why this is a great way to start your day everyday!
Lemons regularly get overlooked when it comes to fruit and vegetables, but this brightly-coloured bitter and sour fruit is a little powerhouse: packed full of hydrating and alkalising electrolytes, vitamins, minerals and trace minerals.
Having a glass of warm water with lemon when you get up every morning is great for re-hydrating your body’s tissues, giving you an energy boost, stimulating your body to clear out toxins, and getting all the systems in your body going. Not to mention waking and warming you up in the morning.
Below is some info explaining how consuming warm lemon water daily can help improve your overall health and well being.
1). Helps to strengthen your immune system:
- Citrus flavonoids and the high amounts of vitamin C found in lemons are antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. Therefore drinking warm lemon water helps support optimal immune function.
- Citrus flavonoids are also antidiabetic. The flavonoids in lemons act as antioxidants that eliminate free radicals from the body and they have also been found to inhibit cancer cell replication.
2). Assists Digestion:
- The citric acid found in lemon juice stimulates the digestive system by increasing the secretion of gastric juices and bile, and also helps stimulate the contraction and relaxation of the digestive tract. This helps the movement and absorption of food through the digestive tract, as well as promoting regular bowel movements.
- Also if you have no appetite in the morning and find it hard to eat your breakfast, try having warm lemon water 15 minutes before you eat, to help stimulate your digestive juices and appetite.
3). Assists Liver Function:
- The citric acid and other antioxidants in lemons help the liver produce more bile and enzymes, which helps enhance the liver’s function and it’s ability to clear toxins from the body.
- Lemon juice, although it tastes acidic, is actually alkalising once in the body. This helps keep the bodies pH levels higher and in a more alkaline environment, which has been linked to reducing the chance of disease and illness.
4). Skin Health:
- Lemon consumption helps to improve skin rejuvenation, elasticity, and it’s protective properties. Tt helps reduce skin infections and promotes detoxification throughout the body. This supports healthy skin, and in some studies, has also been found to reduce body odour.
- Fresh lemon applied to the skin can also be used as a body scrub to help remove dead skin cells, and can be used on the scalp to help treat dandruff.
5). Promotes Weight Loss:
- The citric acid found in lemon juice promotes fat burning in the body, can increase a person’s metabolism, and promotes detoxification throughout the body. All of this can help with weight reduction.
- Lemon also contains Pectin, which is linked to reducing hunger cravings.
6). Treats Gout:
- Gout is caused by 2 mains things: an accumulation of uric acid and an accumulation of free radicals in the body.
- Lemons contain high levels of powerful antioxidants that can clear and detoxify free radicals and uric acid from the body.
As you can see there are many reasons to include lemon into your daily diet. My favourite way is to have a 200ml of warm water with ½ a fresh squeezed lemon in it upon waking every morning, 15 minutes before I eat breakfast.
Or you can add lemon into any of your favourite cooking recipes, or use it as a salad dressing base, which will help enhance your absorption of non-haem iron form your green leafy veggies.
If you drink warm lemon water in the morning, ensure you rinse your mouth out with pure water afterwards or drink it through a straw, this is to help protect your enamel, for optimal long-term teeth health!
Happy digesting guys!
Bec
References:
Mohanapriya, M, Dr Ramaswamy, L & Dr Rajendran, R 2013, “Health and medicinal properties of lemon” International Journal of Ayurvedic and Herbal Medicine 3:1 (2013) 1095:1100.