The health benefits of lemons complement the facts that they are easily available, easy to add to your food, and tasty. In fact, lemons are packed with vitamin C, potassium, fiber, folate, iron, calcium, magnesium, and many other nutrients. They even help prevent cancer and heart disease!
What is Lemon?
Lemons are one of the most popular fruits in the world. They are used in cooking, baking, drinks, and even cosmetics. But did you know that there are more uses for lemons than just food? Lemons are full of health benefits and some people believe that they are sacred. Let’s take a closer look at what makes lemons so special.
Nutrition Facts of Lemon
Lemons are one of the most popular fruits. There are many health benefits associated with lemon consumption. These include weight loss, improved digestion, and better immune system.
The following are some important facts about lemons:
• Vitamin C – This nutrient helps in building strong bones, teeth, and gums. It also helps in fighting infections and diseases such as colds and flu. In addition to this, it helps in boosting immunity.
• Calcium – A large amount of calcium is found in lemons. It helps in strengthening bones and teeth. It also helps in preventing osteoporosis.
• Potassium – This mineral is very useful for maintaining proper fluid levels in our bodies. It is also helpful in regulating heart beat and muscle contraction.
• Magnesium – Magnesium is essential for healthy muscles, nerves, and bone growth. It also assists in producing energy.
• Phosphorus – This mineral is needed for normal functioning of the nervous system. It also aids in the formation of hormones.
Health Benefits of Lemons
Lemon juice is one of nature’s best remedies for many health conditions. Lemon juice contains high amounts of citric acid, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and manganese. These minerals are essential for healthy bones, skin, hair, nails and muscles. They also help maintain proper blood pressure and regulate heart rhythm. Citrus fruits contain limonoid compounds, which help reduce inflammation and fight cancer cells. In addition, lemons are rich in Vitamin C, which keeps your body and immune system healthy.
Managing Hypertension
Lemon juice lowers blood pressure
Regular consumption of lemon juice helps reduce high blood pressure. Regular intake of lemon juice could help people suffering from hypertension by lowering systolic blood pressure by 5 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 3 mmHg compared to those who did not consume it.
People who suffer from hypertension should try drinking lemon juice regularly. In fact, many experts recommend drinking half a cup of lemon juice daily to manage hypertension. This is because lemon juice contains citric acid, which acts like a natural antihypertensive agent.
The active ingredient in lemon juice is citric acid, which is known to increase nitric oxide production in the body. Nitric oxide relaxes smooth muscle cells in arteries and veins, thus lowering blood pressure.
Weight Loss Aid
Lemon honey is one of the most popular natural remedies for weight loss. In fact, it is used in many commercial products, including diet pills. However, there are no scientific studies about how lemon honey affects human metabolism.
Polyphenols present in lemon honey could help suppress body weight gain. These compounds are known to inhibit enzymes involved in fat production. This suggests that lemon honey could aid in weight loss by suppressing appetite.
Preventing Kidney Stones
Citric acid increases urine citrates levels. This helps reduce the risk of forming kidney stones. The citric acid increases urine citrtes levels because it binds calcium ions in the stomach and small intestine. Calcium ions are needed to form calcium carbonate crystals, which are one of the main components of kidney stones.
Citric acid may also help prevent kidney stones by increasing urine volume and increasing urine pH, creating a less favorable environment for kidney stone formation.
Dental Care
High levels of vitamin C in lemons are pivotal to oral health. People who consume lemons are less likely to develop gum disease (Scurvy). This is because vitamin C helps prevent bacteria from sticking to the surfaces of our teeth.
One thing that makes lemon particularly useful is that it doesn’t contain sugar. Sugar encourages acid production, which leads to decay. However, some experts believe that lemon juice can actually help clean the teeth. Rinsing the mouth with a mixture of water, lemon juice, salt, and pepper can lower plaque scores compared to those who just brushed their teeth.
People who eat lemons can have better saliva flow rates than those who didn’t eat lemons. Saliva helps wash away food particles and bacteria from the mouth, preventing cavities.
Hair Care
Lemons contain vitamin C, which promotes healthy hair growth. Lemon juice also cleanses hair follicles and removes toxins from the scalp. Use lemon juice to cleanse your hair after shampooing and conditioning.
If you’ve got dry, brittle hair, try adding some lemon juice to your conditioner. This will help soften the hair shafts and prevent breakage.
Skin Care
Lemons contain vitamin C, which is great for skin health. They’re also rich in citric acid, which exfoliates dead cells off the surface of your skin. Citrus fruits are also known to help prevent wrinkles and keep your skin looking young.
Anticoagulant Properties
Lemons contain anti-coagulants that help prevent blood clots. This means that lemon juice can be used to treat or prevent heart attacks and strokes.
The reason this works is that citric acid prevents platelets (a type of cell) from sticking together, preventing blood clots. Citric acid is found naturally in citrus fruits, including lemons.
Asthma Relief
Lemons contain vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and many other nutrients that help keep asthma at bay. They’re also great for fighting off colds and flu. Plus, lemon juice is a natural astringent, meaning it dries out mucus and makes breathing easier.
If you suffer from allergies, try drinking warm water mixed with fresh lemon juice. This can clear up those runny noses.
May Reduce Corns
Lemon juice is great for reducing corn problems. Lemon juice works well because it contains citric acid, which naturally softens hard skin. Citric acid also acts as a natural antiseptic, killing bacteria that cause corn infections.
When applying lemon juice directly to corn, be careful not to apply too much. Too much citrus juice can burn your skin. Instead, use a cotton ball soaked in lemon juice to gently wipe away excess moisture.
Prevent/Cure Throat Infections
Lemons are great for curing sore throats because they contain citric acid, which kills bacteria. Lemons are also a natural source of vitamin C, which strengthens our immune system.
Protect Against Anemia
Anemia is a condition of lower red blood cells in the human body. Iron is essential in the production of new red blood cells and in maintaining a healthy count of RBCs.
Lemons contain vitamin C, which helps in absorbing iron from the food we consume. Vitamin C is important because it increases red blood cell production, helping prevent anemia. Lemons also help reduce inflammation, which may be helpful for those suffering from anemia.
Improve Digestive Health
Lemons contain vitamin C, citric acid, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, fiber, and many other nutrients that help keep your digestive system healthy. They’re great for digestion because they stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach, helping break down food and absorb nutrients.
Improves Bone Health
Lemons contain vitamin C or ascorbic acid and are known to enhance calcium absorption in the intestines. This helps in better calcium retention thereby keeping the bones healthy. They’re also full of antioxidants that protect bone cells from damage.
A Mild Diuretic
Lemons contain citric acid, vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and many other nutrients. They’re mild diuretics because they help remove excess water from the body. This makes them useful for treating conditions such as kidney stones and urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Decrease Cholesterol Levels
Lemon juice has been shown to reduce bad LDL cholesterol levels, which may be helpful for those who suffer from high cholesterol. However, lemon juice also increases HDL cholesterol levels, which is beneficial for heart health.
Natural compounds found in lemons like hesperidin and diosmin helps lower cholesterol.
Highly Alkalizing
Lemon juice is highly alkalizing. The citric acid in lemons helps to increase the pH level of your body. This means that your body has less acidic waste products such as uric acid and lactic acid. Citric acid also increases the production of energy from food.
Possible Disadvantages of Lemon
The Citric Acid contained in lemon can cause stomach upset in some people.
Using Lemon Juice to exfoliate can irritate the skin for some people.
Lemon juice contains citric acid, high usage can damage tooth enamel.
Lemon juice can strip away the oils in your hair, leaving it looking dull and lifeless.
In conclusion, lemon juice has been used for centuries to help treat various ailments from colds to cancer. Today, we know that its powerful antioxidant properties are responsible for these amazing effects, which means that drinking lemon water throughout the day can help keep you healthy and strong.
Lemons aren’t just delicious; they’re also incredibly nutritious. In fact, they contain almost twice as much vitamin C as oranges, plus potassium, calcium, iron, and folate. So add lemons to your daily diet and reap the health benefits of lemons!
Source: NIH, National Institute of Health