Monday 21 January 2013

The Benefits of Lemon & Water... and A Personal Challenge


Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. I spent most of my Sunday in bed or on the sofa - my typical LAZY Sunday!.

Ever since I learned of the many benefits of drinking lemon and water, I've aimed to have a glass every morning. It's been relatively easy to stick to during the week, when I have a set routine, but I usually forget at the weekend!

I first tried lemon & water when it was a part of my daily Weight Watchers meal plan. Oh Lord, OVER ten years ago. Where did the years go???

Anyway, back to what I'm talking about here - I had a glass of warm/hot water and lemon (or lime!) every morning before breakfast. I didn't know what the reason behind it was but I felt if WW orders it, then I'm doing it.

It wasn't until years later, that I bothered to listen to a friend (Keris) and also read more about it on the internet. I also learned that it helped curved my cravings for chewing gum (which I am sometimes addicted to). As someone who's had a history of bloatedness and a sensitive tummy, this (and green tea) with the combination of a healthier, cleaner diet has made a huge difference to how my stomach feels.

Now that I'm more enlightened, I try to have it every day. Although it's advised to use warm water, which on its own has a nice effect on the stomach, I usually use room temperature water and have it at least an hour before eating breakfast.

A few benefits of lemon & water include:
  • It aids digestion and helps relieve the symptoms of indigestion and heartburn. This is because it is  has similar characteristics to our digestive juives eg saliva and bile. I can vouch for this!
  • It helps with efficiency of elimination from the bowels, to put it in a polite way ;) No need for TMI but this is one of the results I can vouch for. 
  • It helps cleanse the liver by helping liquefy bile and controlling its flow. It also helps with liver function as the liver produces more enzymes from lemon/lime water than any other food (according to A.F. Beddoe, author of Biological Ionization as Applied to Human Nutrition)
  • It helps balance pH as it's highly alkaline. Yes, it contains citric acid but when processed by the body, it has an alkalising effect. A lot of foods we eat have acidic effects on the body including meats, fish and grains which most people consume a lot of. Read this page on acid/alkaline forming foods --> http://rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm
  • It has anti-inflammatory properties: it  dissolves uric acid, which is usually responsible for pain and inflammation in the body and joints.
Although this has nothing to do with drinking it, when applied topically it's been known to gradually help fade blemishes and scars. I haven't tried this yet. Maybe I will soon, I could do with a couple of blemishes being cleared up.

It has a lot more benefits which can all be read about here: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/lemon%20water.htm

How and When Do I Have Mine?
Half a lemon squeezed into a pint glass of (filtered or spring) water. First thing in the morning, at least an hour before breakfast.

So what's my personal challenge? To continue this every single day this year but I'm going to start with this month. I will try to post on Twitter, Instagram, here or even on Facebook. Sometimes I will have it with my green drink to kill two birds with one stone, like I did today.

Feel free to join me on this little challenge :)

Note: As lemon is acidic in nature (before being processed by the body), it's been said that daily drinking of lemon & water could wear away teeth enamel. So it's been advised to drink with a straw, which I'm going to try to do more often than not. It's better to be safe than sorry!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for explaining the benefits! I'm trying to do this too but unlike you, I'm better at weekends than I am during the week, just because I like it with hot water and during the week when I usually have half an hour to get ready to leave the house, it doesn't get cold enough for me to drink it.
Hmmm, I will join you on your challenge but maybe for a week initially and then a month and when needs be, I'll have it with room temperature water instead or warm water rather than hot :)

ashani said...

hi
do be careful though.drinking acidic lime on an empty stomach i heard wears away the stomach lining.....hence ULCERS...

ashani said...

do be careful though i hear it wears away the stomach lining when you drink acidic lime on an empty tummy

Adura O. said...

@Vickii Let me know how it goes :) Oh... I'll just bother you in person :p

@Ashani Hi :) Thanks! Lime doesn't wear away the stomach lining, it *could* (not necessarily) irritate ulcers or an already inflamed gut (from other problems) but cannot cause them.

I've read that lime water actually helps heal ulcers, I'll look for the post and paste here :)



Afrolems said...

Funny enough this is something i incorporated this year as well. So far so good

Adura O. said...

@Afrolems :) :) Keep it up!