Having warm lemon water each morning can sometimes be seen as trendy way to start the day and a common question I get from clients is “is having warm lemon water in the morning actually any good for you? Or is it just all hype?”
Lemons can 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 lemon water upon rising every morning is great for rehydrating your bodies tissues, giving you an energy boost, stimulating the clearance of toxins, promoting digestive enzymes and getting all the systems in your body going, as well as waking and warming you up on a cold morning.
However, please note to protect your teeth when drinking warm lemon water please ensure you rinse your mouth out with pure water afterwards and then eat your breakfast before you brush your teeth or simply just drink it through a straw. This is to help protect your enamel, for optimal long-term teeth health!
Below are some dot points to explain 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 and anticancer. 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, bile and also helps stimulates 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. 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 that help 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, again this is linked to reducing the occurrence of disease and illness.
4. Improves skin health: The high vitamin C and flavonoid levels found in lemon juice gives lemons their skin protective properties. Lemon consumption helps to improve skin rejuvenation, elasticity and its protective properties, helps reduce skin infections, promotes detoxification throughout the body which supports healthy skin and has also been linked to reducing body odour in some studies. Fresh lemon applied to the skin can also be used as a body scrub to help remove dead skin cells and 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 which are linked to weight reduction. Pectin found in lemons is also linked to reducing hunger cravings.
6. Treats gout: Gout is caused by 2 mains things, an accumulation of uric acid and or an accumulation of free radicals in the body. Lemons contain high levels of powerful antioxidants that clear and detoxify these 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 1⁄2 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 and magnesium from your leafy green veggies.
Happy digesting guys, remember to protect your teeth when drinking warm lemon water and enjoy the health benefits that come along with simply drinking a daily nourishing cup of fresh lemon tea every morning!
By Clinical Nutritionist Bec Stone
Bec is available for appointments over Zoom or in person at our Hawthorn studio.