We certainly know about the tart taste lemon leaves in your mouth after we have had a regular lemon soda, but we might not really have known that this fruit offers way more than the tangy taste to the shrimp or salad.
The super fruit lemon comes in with a plethora of benefits – nutrients that aid the liver in the process of detoxification, and boosts your immunity. This sour fruit is remarkable and so versatile, that is very simple to find it throughout the year in the market, so that this tart, acidic, therapeutic fruit can be included in your daily diet, in creative, flavorsome ways.
Lemons are highly loaded with antioxidants, multiple forms of beneficial vitamins:
Vitamin A, Vitamins C (ascorbic acid), B5, B6 and Folate- The thick skin along with the pulpy flesh together constitute a fruit that is low-fat, and low in carbohydrates. In addition to being popular in various forms of cookery, lemons if included in your everyday diet will boost your physical well-being, and will result in an optimal health.
Some of the multiple other benefits of the super fruit lemon are:
- It balances the immune system of your body.
- It balances the pH of your blood.
- It is excellently effective for lessening vomit sensations.
- It helps to flush out the unwanted materials from your body.
- It aids in proper digestion.
- Puts a relief to recurrent constipation.
- Intake of lemons stimulates the peristaltic movement of gut.
- Acts as a curative in cases of urinary disorders.
- It treats gout.
- Also aids in treating malaria and cholera.
- It effectively acts as a diuretic in the body.
- It is very effective in curing throat infections.
- It helps to relieve asthma.
- It helps to treat hypertension.
- Reduces mental stress.
- Taking it in the morning alkalizes you body.
- Eliminates harmful toxins from your body.
- Cures peptic ulcers.
- Aids in the treatment of scurvy.
- Helps Rejuvenate skin.
- Helps to heal heartburn.
- Protects the health of the gums and teeth.
- Relieves from fatigue.
5 Health Benefits of Lemon in Your Water
Adding small piece of lemon in your water can help in the following ways:
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Lemon Juice and Weight loss
It is astonishing to see that only a medium sized lemon contains almost 80 mg of potassium, and 15.1 mg of calcium, in addition to Niacin, Thiamin, and Riboflavin, Pantothenic acid, also elements like iron, potassium, zinc, phosphorus and a huge dose of protein. In addition to it, it contains dietary fibers (about 19%), carbohydrates (more or less 4%) and protein (2%). Having such a superabundance of essentially requisite materials, it is evidently a nutritional front runner, in considering its ideal taste, overall composition, texture, and in terms of its countless nutritional benefits. Lemon is a naturally occurring energizer, which helps to hydrate, and oxygenates your body so that your body feels refreshed. The intake of lemons induces the feeling of revitalization. Lemons have been used traditionally and most people, if not all, are extremely familiar with it’s superiority in soothing sore throats, but the diversity of it’s applications quite exceeds the general knowledge of the mass.
It has been well studied and observed how the glycemic acid of a meal can be lowered by a good percentage by just adding some teaspoons of lemon juice to the food. By lowering the glycemic acid index, the blood sugar of your body is maintained as steady, which means you will not feel hungry very often, and that in turn, will help you lose weight.
Another brilliant benefit of lemon juice to your body is that it lowers the insulin response to several carbohydrates and slows down the time taken by meal to finally exit the stomach, following excretion. It is well advisable to cut down on beverages like tea or coffee which may be higher in calories, and occasionally replace it with hot water or even cold, with lemon juice added to it, and that is very efficient in good metabolism control. Seven calories is present per ounce in lemon juice, and it helps to cut on hundreds of calories, and automatically lowers abdominal fat, in turn reducing belly fat.
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Aids in Digestion
The huge quantity of vitamin C present in lemons is responsible for the generation of new skin, ligaments and tendons, and also blood vessels which helps in healing of wounds, and for maintaining the bones in your body, teeth, and also cartilages. Drinking lemon water is a great way to maintain oral health. Drinking a glass of lemon water in the morning is the most effective, and generates the best cleansing effects.
A teaspoon of juice extracted from lemon, and including it in your diet routine before each meal helps to jump start your digestive system. They are full-fledged packed with antioxidants and they operate at cellular level to fight against various damaging toxic radicals in your body. The presence of vitamin C is almost as if a boon and very effectively helps to fight illnesses like common cold, and though not popularly known, but also arthritis. Drinking water with lemon juice added to it, rehydrates the body, and helps in digestion, and that takes place in the following way – the atomic structure of lemon juice is very similar to that of the digestive juices found in the stomach, thus it induces the liver to produce bile, which continuously helps in moving the food through the body. The lemon water benefits in detoxifying your body, and also your skin. All these properties and benefits almost make us compare lemon water to an elixir that keep making rounds on the health and definitely on the fitness circuit. The acids present in the lemon juice makes easier the processing of the food inside your body, which decreases bloating to a great extent. Intake of lemon water also supports ENZYME FUNCTIONS, by stimulating the liver. Vitamin C is an essential element, which means it is not produced in your body, and that is supposed to be taken from outside as it is very critical to your proper functioning of health system. The vitamin C stimulates the white blood cells to be produced in higher numbers, which is a vital factor for your immune system to function positively. Since vitamin C is an antioxidant, it also protects the cells from any oxidative damage, and also keeps common cold and flu far away. The citric acid in lemons interacts with the several enzymes present in your body, and thus stimulates the gastric juices to be secreted.
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Mental Health
A little less popular fact is that the vitamin content of lemons promotes optimal mental well-being and enhances its functioning. Lemons also increase the quality of cognitive capability and its activity. It also helps in regulating blood pressure and also the nerve impulses in addition to maintaining several other homeostatic activities. The citric acid in lemons have been proved scientifically to reduce chronic and poorly managed stress, which in the long turn may help reduce and balance blood pressure due to its consistency of bioactive compounds. The bioactive compounds present are terpenoids, phenolic, vitamins and also flavonoids (hesperidin, naringin, polyphenol, hesperidin and ascorbic acid.) Lemon juice treats postural hypo-tension, and dehydration, hypovolemia, iron deficiency etc. The antioxidant and the anti-inflammatory characteristics of CITRUS flavonoids play a critical role against numerous cases of brain diseases. Surprisingly, the vitamin C has more of naringin that has a substantial effect in fighting against Alzheimer’s disease. The ascorbic acid is a key antioxidant in the CNS (central nervous system) and its imbalance may lead to fatal neurodegenerative disorders there has been shown a very clear link between the constituent of vitamin , ascorbic acid, and oxidative-induced forms of neural death, some instances being Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als), Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
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Cardiovascular Disease and the Benefit of Lemon
Just like the other citrus fruits, lemons too are extremely good for the health of the heart and prevent cardiovascular diseases. The fruits properties lower the apo-B lipid found in the LdL cholesterol (also known as the “bad cholesterol”) and reduces fatigue in turn. Consuming citrus fruits along with proper hydration may help in the reduction of hypertension, fatal coronary diseases, also a disorder called venous throboembolism. The intake of citrus fruits has evidently shown a remarkable reduction in plasma cholesterol and levels of triglycerides in blood. The acidic feature of the lemon enables to stimulate the digestive enzymes, and efficiently promotes the breakdown of cholesterol present in your body. The cholesterol hereafter is converted into bile acids, which renders them water soluble so that it can be easily removed from the body.
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Kidney Stones and Lemon
Citric acid, though not essential for survival, helps prevent renal stones, which are acidic in nature, and since the lemons are characteristically a weak acid, with supposed alkalizing effect, they do not allow the formations of the kidney stones by resisting its environment. Besides resisting its growth, the citric acid has been seen to have rather positive effects on the kidney stones. It can reduce as well as break down the stones. Even just by drinking lemon water the amount of citrate in urine is considerably increased.
Hence, it is stark evident why lemons should be included in every day’s shopping list, and should be prime.
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