There is one simple and healthy drink you can enjoy every morning that will help you lose weight, improve your digestion, clear your skin and help your liver and kidneys do a better job of cleansing and detoxifying your body naturally. What is this magic drink?
Lemon water.
Simply squeeze half of a lemon into a full glass of room temperature water and drink.
A 12-16 ounce glass is best, and use half of a lemon if you weigh less than 160 pounds or a whole lemon if you are over 160 pounds.
The room temperature lemon water requires less energy to digest and will be absorbed more rapidly.
If you would like additional lemon water after your first glass, try squeezing your lemon into a cup of hot water or add ice after mixing the juice and water first.
DO NOT add sweeteners, natural or artificial, lemon-ade does not provide the health benefits of lemon water.
Use clean and fresh lemons, organic if available, but avoid bottled lemon juice as it is concentrated and often contains artificial additives and preservatives like Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Sulfite, Sodium Metabisulfite, and added processed citric acid.
Note: lemon juice may be slightly corrosive when it comes in contact with the enamel on your teeth, always dilute it with your water before drinking and rinse your mouth briefly after drinking your lemon juice.
Now that you are familiar with how to prepare your lemon water, here are 15 of the many benefits and healthy reasons why you should make this simple drink part of your day.
1. Encourages Drinking More Water
It’s important to stay hydrated and few of us drink enough water.
If lemon water encourages you to drink more water starting with that first glass in the morning, you will suffer fewer headaches or constipation which are both conditions caused by dehydration.
Next healthy step, replace those calorie filled sodas, bottled juices and frappucinos with lemon water and you will drastically cut hundreds of empty calories from your diet.
Start your day with one glass of lemon water, but drink 5 or 6 more throughout the day to stay healthy and hydrated.
2. Improves Your Digestion
Lemon water is chemically similar to saliva and digestive juices and can help ease indigestion, heartburn, belching and bloating.
Lemon water loosens “sticky” toxins that are a byproduct of normal digestion which accumulate in the folds of the lining of the intestines, allowing them to be flushed and eliminated.
Further down the digestive tract, lemon water stimulates your liver to produce and release bile, hydrates the colon and helps move water into the stool.
These varied digestive benefits occur when your lemon water is consumed first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.
3. Promotes Natural Cleansing
Lemon water has healthy cleansing and detoxification benefits beyond your digestive tract, both the lemon and room temperature water act as diuretics and flush waste products and toxins from the liver, kidneys and urinary tract.
The citric acid can also improve the pH levels in urine and discourage bacterial growth in your bladder and ureters, the tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to your bladder.
Lemon water can decrease your risk of kidney stones and the occurrence of urinary tract infections.
4. Balances The Acidity Of Your Body
While lemons are sour and contain citric acid, they are actually a valuable alkalizing food.
Lemon water contains citric and ascorbic acids, which are easily metabolized by the body allowing them to help alkalize the blood.
Research suggests that many diseases (including cancer) only occur when your body is acidic.
Drinking your lemon water daily can lower the overall acidity of your body and reduce your risk for chronic pain, arthritis and inflammation and Type 2 Diabetes.
5. Increases Your Immunity
Your lemon water is high in Vitamin C, known to boost immunity and fight off colds and flu, but also contains anti-inflammatory properties and promotes iron absorption also known to build immunity to colds and viruses.
Your body cannot produce Vitamin C, you must provide it, and your daily lemon water can help supply a healthy dose of this important vitamin.
6. Promotes Weight Loss
While lemon water is not a magic weight loss drink, a combination of ingredients and benefits make it effective in promoting healthy weight loss.
Lemons are a rich source of pectin, a fiber that fights cravings and will promote a feeling of fullness helping you avoid unhealthy snacks.
If you have another glass of your lemon water with snacks or meals, you will feel more full sooner and take in fewer calories with each meal.
Your new lemon water induced more alkaline and less acidic body may also promote faster weight loss as a lower acidity promotes the release of fat as fuel for your body.
7. Increases Your Energy Levels
This healthy benefit may require a basic understanding of chemistry, but to put it simply, energy is produced from foods as their primarily positively charged ions react with the body’s digestive system’s negatively charged enzymes.
This reaction and energy production occurs at the cellular level.
Lemons and lemon water contain more negatively charged ions than positive resulting in an easier and more productive reaction with the digestive enzymes which produces slightly more energy.
8. Enhances And Brightens Your Mood
The increased energy level combined with a new alertness both act to naturally to lift your spirits, enhance your mood and outlook.
Combine that with the naturally pleasing scent of your lemon water and you will experience a brighter mood and clearer mind and lemon water may also reduce your anxiety and depression.
9. Promotes Healthy Skin
Lemon water promotes clear, healthy and more youthful skin in a variety of ways.
The antioxidants in the ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) help to decrease wrinkles and blemishes and combats free radical damage that occurs secondary to aging.
This same Vitamin C kills many types of bacteria known to cause acne through its antibacterial and alkaline properties.
Your lemon water increases hydration and cleansing which eliminates toxins through urine or clearing your pores by sweating.
Adequate hydration with lemon water will reduce acne, blackheads and similar blemishes from the inside out.
This same process that promotes healthy skin, also promotes healthy hair and nails as well.
10. Freshens Your Breath And Heals Gums
Your lemon water will reduce the harmful bacteria in your mouth, freshen your breath, reduce tooth pain and can cure gingivitis.
Used for centuries to prevent or cure scurvy, lemons and limes prevent and help heal inflammation of the gums and gum disease - gingivitis.
Remember that the citric acid that improves oral health and gum disease may also damage tooth enamel so always rinse your mouth briefly with water after lemons and your lemon water.
11. Flushes Your Lymphatic System
Your daily lemon water further supports the immune system by hydrating and flushing your lymphatic system, the network of lymph nodes, lymph ducts, and vessels that transport lymph from your body’s tissues to your bloodstream.
Many people are not aware of their lymphatic system or its importance, it drains and transports all of the waste products and toxins from tissues throughout the body and deposits them on organs like your liver for processing and elimination from the body.
Lemon water supports this process.
12. Promotes Your Body’s Healing
The ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in lemon water promotes tissue granulation and wound healing, and is essential in the repair and maintenance of bone, connective tissue, tendons and cartilage.
13. Lowers Blood Sugar And The Glycemic Index Of Foods
Lemon water is a healthy way for a diabetic to start the day.
Lemon water, due in part to its ability to shift pH and lower the acidity of your blood, allows your cells to become more sensitive to insulin meaning you will be LESS insulin resistant.
Lemons also contain hesperidin which lowers blood sugar by increasing glucokinase which then “eats” the glucose in your blood stream.
14. Reduces Stones
The citric acid in your lemon water helps to dissolve stones - gallstones, kidney stones, calcium deposits, and pancreatic stones.
Citric acid becomes citrate in the urine and prevents calcium from binding and becoming kidney stones.
This same citrate may also prevent crystals from binding with each other and preventing them from getting bigger.
Not meant as a substitute for medical treatment, but adding lemon water at least once per day, if not more often, will reduce your risk of stones or help dissolve any existing stones.
15. Reduces Production Of Mucus And Phlegm
Cow’s milk and dairy products promote your body’s production of mucus and phlegm.
You can offset this mucus production with your morning lemon water.
If you are recovering from a cold, flu or any infection which produces mucus or phlegm, continue drinking your lemon water throughout the day to help “cure” your illness and reduce the flow of mucus and production of phlegm.
Lemon water first thing every morning will help to wake your body up and prepare it for the day ahead.
Your body then starts off hydrated and ready to flush toxins that have settled in your digestive tract overnight and properly digest your meals and gain the energy and nutrients from them.
Your lemon water will balance your pH and reduce the acidity of your blood and body, increase your immunity and resistance, help your weight loss or weight maintenance efforts, while you enjoy a new level of energy and alertness and clear, healthy and blemish free skin.
The best way to experience this long list of health benefits?
Try a refreshing and cleansing glass of lemon water tomorrow morning, it may be the most simple yet most important thing you can do for your health.
Melissa says
I have always loved lemon water so it’s so nice to read about all the different benefits of it. I had no idea that you could gauge the amount of lemon you should add to your drink by how much you weigh. That’s good to know. Also I use a straw when I drink mine as I’ve heard that that can help with protecting your front teeth at least from the acidity!