Health Benefits of Lemon
For many years, people have understood the health benefits of lemons to prevent scurvy. However, there are many other lemon health benefits. In fact, if life hands you a lemon, don't bother making lemonade, just squeeze a little juice in a cold tall glass of water. By adding just three teaspoons to a glass of water and drinking the lemony water three times a day, you'll not only have a thirst quencher the rehydrates with only 15 additional calories but also get almost 50 percent of your daily value for vitamin C.
You can also use lemon juice to flavor other dishes such as fish or vegetables. Nothing is quite as delicious as fresh steamed asparagus dipped in a lemony sauce made from butter and lemon juice. Of course, to make it healthier, use butter made from grass fed, free-range cows.
Lemon Juice and the Immune System
Photo courtesy of Microsoft Clipart
Some of the health benefits of lemon come from the compounds in lemons. Lemons contain phytonutrients that have an effect in aiding the immune system. Lab studies using animals found that citrus fruit, particularly lemons, have a phytonutrient called limonoids. Limonoids, according to the animal studies, can aid in the fight against cancer of the mouth, breast, lung, skin, colon and stomach.
The limonoid in lemons is limonin and the body absorbs it rapidly and easily. One study on 16 adult volunteers showed that the limonin glucoside entered the blood plasma at the highest concentrations approximately six hours after the subject drank citrus juice and slowly dissipated. In fact, five subjects still had traces in their blood even a full day after they drank the juice.
Lemon Juice Effects on Cancer Prevention
The reason that it's important to note the length of time the limonin remains in the body is the effect it has on cancer prevention and cancer treatment. Limonin is an anti-carcinogenic phytonutrient that prevents cancer cells from increasing and spreading. While there are many different natural cancer fighters that do the same thing, for example green tea or chocolate, the nutrients contained in these are only active in the body for a mere four hours to six hours at the maximum.
Lemon health benefits don't stop at fighting cancer. Limonin also may help the body lower cholesterol. It causes the body to produce less apo B. The body requires the apo B to produce LDL, the bad cholesterol and also to transport LDL and bind it. If your liver produces less apo B, you'll have lower amounts of LDL.
Lemon and Rheumatic Diseases
A study in the "Annals of Rheumatic Diseases" tracked food diaries of 20,000 subjects that had no signs of arthritis at the start of the study. The study showed that the subjects that ate the lowest amount of foods containing vitamin C often developed inflammatory polyarthritis. However, those that ate the highest amounts of foods containing vitamin C were three times less likely to develop the disease compared to the lowest C consumption group.
There are many more lemon health benefits. The lemon is antiseptic in nature and using it mixed in warm water, as a treatment for upper respiratory problems and colds has long been a folk remedy that works. Some people mix the lemon juice with raw honey to reap the additional benefits of the honey. Lemon health benefits also include drinking lemon water for high blood pressure, applied to gums for toothaches and as an antiseptic for the skin.
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