If the idea of sucking on a lemon makes your lips pucker, try squeezing it into your glass of water instead. This quick, inexpensive and refreshing treat is perfect on a hot summer day, or any time of year, especially if you’re interested in boosting your health.
Perhaps best known for their high vitamin C content essential for protecting against scurvy, lemons were so valued historically that they could fetch prices of up to $1 per lemon back in 1849![i]
Today, they’re less expensive than a century ago and easy to find in most U.S. supermarkets year-round.
8 Top Benefits of Lemon Water — Get Your ‘Sour’ On Today!
8. Antioxidants Galore
Lemons are rich in the antioxidant powerhouse vitamin C, which is essential for a strong immune system and fighting free radicals and inflammation.
7. Electrolytes
If you’ve been sweating a lot on a hot summer day, a glass of lemon water can help you replace valuable lost electrolytes like potassium, calcium and magnesium.
6. Antibiotic-Like, Cancer-Fighting Flavonoids
Flavonoids called flavonol glycosides, including many kaempferol-related molecules, have both cancer-fighting properties and antibiotic effects.[ii]
5. Artery-Clearing Citric Acid
The citric acid in lemons not only helps eliminate calcium deposits in your arteries, it may also help rid your body of pancreatic and kidney stones.[iii]
4. Cancer-Fighting Limonoids
Limonoids are compounds in citrus fruits like lemons that have been found to help fight cancers of the mouth, skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon.[iv]
3. The Alkalizing Effect
While lemon juice is acidic, it has an alkalizing effect in the body, which is why adding it to your water is a simple way to promote pain relief and healing. If your body is too acidic, it promotes disease and degeneration. Acidic conditions can actually cause muscles to constrict and inhibit the exchange of nutrients and waste products in muscle cells, causing fatigue, soreness and pain. Lemon juice may help restore proper blood pH.
2. Beneficial for Your Liver
Lemons are known to help stimulate the liver as well as dissolve uric acid, which, in excess, is linked to arthritis pain, gout and other health problems.
1. Cleanse Your System
Drinking lemon water may help to flush bacteria, phlegm and other toxins from your body, while also helping relieve symptoms of indigestion like heartburn, gas and bloating.
For even more intense cleansing, check out our cutting-edge colon cleanse solution for flushing your colon clear of toxic build-ups, soothing inflammation of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and replenishing good bacteria to help rebalance your gut microflora all at the same time.
This is important because your colon could be clogged with five to 20 pounds of hardened fecal matter. This clogging causes your GI tract to become inflamed, which can cause leaky gut — a condition in which toxins leak into your bloodstream. This, in turn, causes systemic inflammation that is linked to chronic disease, digestive dysfunction and poor health.
Lemon water is a good start, especially if you drink it daily, but if you’re serious about detoxification, try this natural program for a healthier colon.
I didn’t know that lemon juice in water actually had an alkalizing effect on the body as well as other benefits. good to know.
Thanks.
I hear so many people tellme “oh Leomons are so acidic, you get sour stomack by taking them. I know that they are wrong, and you just confirmed what is known…Thanks for your good publications.
i have had gout for the last 8 years – started having half a freshly squeezed lemon in warm water 30mins before i eat in the morning since july this year – gout now “gone”! i am able to eat anything without any symptoms, had my first beef steak a few weeks ago without any problems the next day! love lemon water. 🙂
thanks to lose the back pain for the link youbposted in july about it.
Does it make a difference when you squeeze the lemon juice into your water? Does it have to be immediately before drinking, or can you let it sit around, say in a water bottle to drink over the course of a couple of hours? I heard somewhere that when it sits it loses vitamins.
Hi Christina,
Great question! A good rule of thumb is “fresher is better” – but I haven’t seen where a couple hours will make a major difference in the benefits of lemon water listed above. In fact, I do the same thing most days, adding some lemon juice to water which I sip on over an hour or two (after my morning coffee anyhow!).
Speaking of its “holding value” it’s interesting to note lemon juice is often added to other fruits to prevent their oxidation thanks to high levels of vitamin C in lemon juice. Half a lifetime ago when I worked as a restaurant cook, we also added lemon juice to the water our sliced potatoes sat in to prevent them from going brown before we used them.
In summary, while nutrients decay over time, especially with exposure to oxygen and/or heat, I think you’re fairly safe to enjoy the vast majority of benefits from lemon water even if it takes you a couple hours to consume it…
Steve Coombes
Editorial Director