Lemon

Lemon is an amazing fruit. Even though its pH is acidic (between 2 and 3), it alkalizes the body. In fact, if it’s the only food in my gut, it will be absorbed directly into my liver, helping that brilliant organ to detoxify and filter my blood of all intruders, organic and otherwise! And it will get my kidneys going too: it’s a diuretic.

I can hear you asking, “How can a food that is acidic alkalize the body?”

It’s because it contains potassium (124 g per 100 g lemon juice) calcium (7 g), magnesium (6 g), and phosphorus (6 g), four minerals that are essential macrominerals for the human body. Essential for the body means that the diet is the only way to acquire these minerals; the body cannot manufacture them.

A while after I’ve drunk the lemon water (the juice of a freshly squeezed organic lemon mixed with water), these minerals enter my bloodstream, allowing the calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus in my bones to stay in place. The potassium also keeps my blood in a good pH range and is crucial to cardiovascular and nerve functions.

That’s the opposite action that occurs if I were to drink cow’s milk. Which I don’t do. More of that later.

Lemon juice also contains a slew of trace minerals: Zinc, Iron, Copper, Manganese, and Selenium, in trace amounts.

A myriad other claims are made for lemon juice:

  • it’s an antiseptic
  • it has lots of Vitamin C for antioxidant activity
  • it relieves asthma
  • it eases indigestion
  • it helps the bowels function more efficiently
  • it eases the symptoms of arthritis and gout
  • it clarifies the skin

Vitamin C was one of the first vitamins to be discovered, through its linkage to a nutritional deficiency diet. That was back in the 1740s, when British sailors went to sea healthy and came back with scurvy, because their diet lacked fresh fruit and vegetables. A Scottish physician, James Lind, is credited with conducting the first ever clinical trial, in which he showed that citrus fruits could inhibit the development of scurvy. Even so, it took until the 1920s before vitamin C was actually isolated, by a Hungarian physiologist, Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt.

According to a very useful site on the USDA’s website known as the Nutrient Data Laboratory, 100 grams of raw lemon juice yields 90.73 grams of water, 8.63 g carbohydrates, 2.4 g sugars, and 1 g of fibre, ash, and protein.

Being aware of these multiple benefits, I squeeze the juice of a whole lemon into my 24 oz of filtered water each morning to cleanse my liver gently and to support the healthy production of stomach acid so I can digest and absorb the nutrition from my meals.

Which all goes to say, lemon is one brilliant fruit! Try it. You’ll like it, and so will your body! It may even help you lose weight!

Nina Shoroplova, Registered Holistic Nutritionist™

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