Fresh lemons make this girl happy. I cook with them, bake with them, make tasty beverages with them – and I use all its parts, not just the lemon juice! What can I say, I’m obsessed with the beautiful yellow citrus fruit. The best part about lemons? All of the lemon juice health benefits that come with baking, cooking, and drinking with this specific citrus phenomenon.
Lemon Juice Health Benefits You Need to Know
One of my earliest memories of my obsession with this cute little yellow fruit: lemon chicken. My mother used to make it with chicken bone-in thighs and breasts, along with drumsticks and wings. Every mouthful had the perfect balance of garlic, chicken, lemon, and chicken stock. We usually had it with a bit of white rice so we could soak up all the lemon juice health benefits…. well, probably not so much for the health benefits, more for the amazing lemon and garlic chicken flavor! Lemon gave me life with that meal, and I looked for other ways to incorporate lemon juice, along with the rest of the lemon, into more meals and beverages.
It wasn’t for the health benefits, it was just pure joy when the flavor hit my tongue. If you’re not a true lemon lover (real lemons, not Lulu Lemon, of course), consider making the leap and incorporate lemon juice into some of your baking, cooking, and beverage making. Why? Let’s find out!
Optimize Your Health with Lemon Juice
Adding lemon juice to some of your meals, or drinking it with a bit of water, can provide amazing health benefits!
Supports Heart Health
Vitamin C, it’s good for your heart. There’s not denying this scientific and nutritional fact! Now, you’ll probably want to take a whole lemon, process it through a food processor, so you can get all the fiber along with the juice. Consuming just one each day gives you approximately 31 mg of vitamin C – and that’s a great start to the 75 mg women should have each day, and the 90 mg men should have every day.
Improves Digestion
Again, you’ll need to not only drink this yellow citrus fruit juice each day, but also the pulp. Pectin, a fiber, is a soluble fiber and that can help improve gut health. It also, believe it or not, slows down the speed at which the body digests sugars and starches.
Helps Relieve a Sore Throat
Add a bit of lemon juice and honey to warm water and it helps relieve a sore throat. It won’t completely cure a sore throat, but it can provide a little relief from the pain. Plus, with all that vitamin C, it helps keep your immune system health to fight colds during cold season.
Skin Health Improves
Did you know lemons have a couple of properties over-the-counter acne meds have? Yep. They possess antibacterial qualities and also alpha hydroxyl acids.
Lemons…. they’ve got some good stuff going on for your health, as long as you aren’t loading them up with sugar, of course.
Important to Keep in Mind
If you suffer with acid reflux, clearly lemon juice is not your ideal option for the above health benefits. What you also should keep in mind is that you must clean your lemons, even if you aren’t eating the entire citrus fruit. The bacteria located on the exterior of a lemon is nasty – so when you cut through one, or eat an entire lemon using a food processor, or grating the lemon rind, that bacteria is going to carry through to the interior of the lemon. Including the juice. So, clean the outside before diving into your fruits!
And I’m not a doctor, or a certified nutritionist. Always ask medical professionals, more specifically your personal physicians, for more information about lemon juice and their health benefits.
