Table of contents:
- Myth 1. Lemon water boosts metabolism
- Myth 2. Lemon water helps you lose weight
- Myth 3. Lemon water is a low-calorie drink
- Myth 4. Lemon water helps detoxify the body
- Myth 5. Lemon water is full of useful minerals and vitamins
- Myth 6. Lemon water helps digestion
2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Lemon water does not work miracles. Let's expose the most popular myths about this "health elixir".
What magical properties are not attributed to water with a slice of lemon! Starting from the fact that it helps to lose pounds, ending with the fact that it improves immunity.
In fact, lemon water is just lemon water. Plain water with pleasant sourness and refreshing taste, nothing more.
It is really useful, but not enough to endow it with magical power and hope that one glass in the morning will solve all problems with excess weight and poor health.
Myth 1. Lemon water boosts metabolism
One study in mice looked at how polyphenols derived from lemon zest affected mice on a high-fat diet. The amount of the extract was 0.5% of the mouse diet. The results were encouraging: the mice that ate the lemon extract didn't get as fat as the mice that didn't. But compare the two phrases:
- The polyphenols from lemon peel extract have helped the mice not gain weight.
- Lemon water helps a person lose weight.
The gap between them is too great.
Myth 2. Lemon water helps you lose weight
To some extent, this is true. If you drink a glass of water before a meal, it will temporarily fill the stomach and leave it only after 5-15 minutes. During this time, you can eat something and even think that you are already full. But any liquid, including ordinary water, has this effect.
Myth 3. Lemon water is a low-calorie drink
Well, yes. Lemon slice water is made up mostly of water. Without adding honey or sugar, the calories are nowhere to be found. But, you see, the fact that water does not add calories is not breaking news.
Myth 4. Lemon water helps detoxify the body
Does not help. Because there is no detox, we have already written about this.
Myth 5. Lemon water is full of useful minerals and vitamins
Maybe the lemon itself is full. Or lemon juice. Now let's estimate how much of this juice is contained in one slice (there are such services), and let's see how many useful things there will be in a glass of water with lemon.
| Mineral | Amount in a lemon slice, mg | Percentage of daily intake,% |
| Calcium | 0, 4 | 0 |
| Iron | 0, 0 | 0 |
| Copper | 0, 0 | 0 |
| Magnesium | 0, 3 | 0 |
| Phosphorus | 0, 3 | 0 |
| Potassium | 7, 1 | 0 |
| Zinc | 0, 0 | 0 |
| Manganese | 0, 0 | 0 |
| Sodium | 0, 0 | 0 |
Lemon water doesn't have that much vitamin C. One lemon wedge will give you about 4% of your daily value. If you are very fond of lemons and drink juice from a whole fruit, then you will close the need by 36%. This is already good. But you get your vitamins from the rest of the food, too. You can, for example, eat an orange and get your entire daily allowance (and even more).
Myth 6. Lemon water helps digestion
Gastric juice is acid. Lemons also have acid, like lemons should help digestion.
To begin with, digestion is a multi-level process, and gastric juice is involved in only one stage. Increasing stomach acid will not help much. And in principle, it is not so easy to change the acidity of gastric juice with the help of food. The secretory cells that secrete gastric juice respond to changes in the environment and either increase the production of acid, or, conversely, suspend it. So the lemon will just fit into this mechanism and nothing will change.
Lemon water contains no pectin or fiber to aid digestion. There is fiber in the lemon itself, but in order to get it, you need to eat the lemon slice.
In general, lemon water is even good. Especially if you want to wake up in the morning and cheer up, and at the same time quit caffeine addiction. It definitely helps to restore water balance, and a glass of pleasant tasting water is easier to drink than just a glass of water. Lemon wedges also look cool in a glass when you open the curtains, take a sip, and get ready to start your day by exercising. Perhaps this is the best that you can expect from her.
Lifehacker also talked about how good it is to start the morning with lemon water. But we decided to show the readers a different point of view on this issue. And why the data in different sources are so contradictory, we also told.
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