The Benefits Of Lemon Water On An Empty Stomach

You’ve probably been told to start drinking lemon water, whether you’ve heard it through friends and family, from your doctors, or from fitness trainers who highly recommend it, and it should come as no surprise that they give you that advice. Lemon water, especially on an empty stomach, in the morning, once you get out of bed helps your health and fitness tremendously.

There are many benefits to drinking lemon water, and it’s not just because the sourness of the lemon wakes you up. In fact, there are more health benefits to drinking lemon water than you probably thought, from beauty, to actual bodily functions that are vital for survival.

Before You Start Drinking

When you start drinking lemon water, remember to take it into moderation. Having too much lemon water can damage your systems more than help it. So, it’s recommended you only have one cup of lemon water daily. If you drink more, you might damage the lining of your stomach and intestines, as the drink can be highly acidic, and because your stomach also contains acids, to help break down your food, the added acidity will attack the organ itself.

1. Weight Loss

When you think about lemon water, you mostly think about the sour taste waking you up. Of course, there’s a reason. The acid in the lemon water is waking up your whole body, and aids your metabolism, so you feel more energised and awake. So, by speeding up your metabolism, you gain more energy because it burns fat.

2. You Stay Hydrated

A lot of people don’t like the taste of water on its own because it has no taste, but by adding lemon juice to the water, there is at least some form of flavour that might entice you to drink more. After all, it is highly recommended that the average adult needs to drink at least 8 cups of water every day. So, by adding fruit, like lemon, can make it more interesting for those who dislike the idea of drinking plain water

3.  It’s A Good Source Of Antioxidants

Naturally, your body develops compounds called free radicals, or oxidised compounds, which can cause real harm to your body, from creating fatty tissues and blocking your blood vessels, to causing health conditions like cancer, Type 2 diabetes, and blood clots.

That’s why having a good source of antioxidants, to remove these free radicals is important. You can find them in fruits, especially citrus, like lemons and oranges. That’s why including lemons into your morning cup of water is beneficial to you. During the night, your body will develop these free radicals, which can accumulate with nowhere to go, so drinking lemon water in the morning off sets those free radicals early in the day.

4. It Aids Digestion

It’s always a good idea to drink hot lemon water in the morning, to help your digestive system, as it acts like a laxative and can help prevent constipation throughout the day. The acidity of lemon juice can help your stomach and intestines digest completely the food that you had the night before and clears your digestive tract of any waste that may have built up during the night. So that you can have full and nutritional meals throughout the day.

5. It Prevents Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are formed because the waste products in your blood can form crystals in the kidney, and if not treated, can cause severe pain, blood in the urine and vomiting. So, to prevent it, you need to drink enough water to help flush those crystals out. Not only that, but one of the main components of lemon is citrate, which helps in the breakdown of kidney stones. That’s why, drinking lemon water can help prevent and pass kidney stones.

6. Your Skin Will Glow

You’ve probably heard it said before, but lemon water helps with improving the quality of your skin. It’s because you’re not only drinking water, which increases the moisture in your body, thus preventing dryness, but the vitamin C in lemons will help prevent wrinkles, aging and damage from the sun, because of the antioxidants that are fighting your body’s waste by-products which cause wrinkles and aging skin.

7. It’s Antibacterial

If you clean your house, you’ll find a lot of cleaning sprays, chemicals and wipes come in lemon scents. Of course, this isn’t just to help your house smell clean. The lemon itself is antibacterial, because of its acidity. That’s why it’s a good idea to drink lemon water in the morning.

After 7 or 8 hours of sleep, bacteria can still develop in your mouth, even though you’ve brushed it the night before. It’s a natural process. So, by drinking lemon water in the morning, not only are you cleansing your mouth of the bacteria, but it’ll promote the stimulation of saliva, which can help with removing bacteria as well.

8. Freshen Your Breath

Naturally, lemon is a fresh scent, and because of its antibacterial properties, it cleanses anything it touches. As bacteria develops overnight, your breath will eventually begin to go bad. So, by drinking lemon water, you’ll freshen your breath, because you’re removing the bad bacteria.

You’re also preventing dry mouth, which can be a breeding ground for bacteria, by drinking water. Not only that, but the lemon in lemon water will freshen your breath, by removing the odour.

9. It’s Anti-Inflammatory

Sometimes your blood vessels can swell during the night, because you’re stationary in one position for a good 7 or 8 hours. Because of that, you can sometimes wake up puffy and swollen, especially if you’re sick or if you’ve had a rough night. That’s why it’s good to drink lemon water in the morning.

The anti-inflammatory properties of the lemon can help reduce that swelling. Not only that, if you have hay fever, it may help reduce the swelling of your respiratory system, so you can breathe a little more easily in the morning.

10. It Fights Cold And Flu Symptoms

You’ve probably used lemon, ginger, and honey as a home remedy, to fight off the common cold. Of course, this works, because lemon has anti-inflammatory properties, which can reduce the swelling of blood vessels in your respiratory tract.

Not only that, but swollen blood vessels are what make sore throats and sensitive wounds. So, by drinking hot water and lemon, you’re not only reducing those symptoms, but the Vitamin C in the lemon can aid your immune system, to help fight the cold and flu. 

How To Make Lemon Water

Making lemon water is very simple and easy to do. It’s literally just combining freshly squeezed lemon juice into a cup of plain water. Just remember, the juice of half a lemon is enough, any more and you may as well drink the lemon juice on its own, which can be bad for you, as its acidic content won’t be as diluted and will cause problems for your stomach.

Of course, if you’re not keen on the sourness of lemon juice on its own, you can add other ingredients like mint, ginger, honey, cinnamon, or turmeric, to sweeten the taste, and add more health boosts from these ingredients.

After all, mint is another antibacterial, and another great fresh scent; ginger also has anti-inflammatory properties; honey is not only sweet but can also help with a few health issues, from healing wounds to protecting your stomach lining; cinnamon can help reduce blood pressure, and turmeric is another great source of antioxidants. 

You can also add other fruits like strawberries, peaches, and oranges to add to your daily “5-a-day”. Just be sure you eat the fruit once you’ve drunk the water, to really get the most out of the fruit.

Convinced Yet?

Remember, although it’s a good idea to add lemon water to your daily morning routine, don’t overdo it. While it may have many health benefits, it can be damaging too since lemon is highly acidic. If you have lemon water all day, every day there is a good chance that you’ll develop stomach ulcers as the high acidity in your stomach can eat away at the lining of your stomach. So, the best recommendation is to have lemon water once a day, or by adding other ingredients into the lemon water to dilute the acidity. 

You should also remember that although lemon water can help with weight loss, it isn’t a quick fix, and if you really want to see results, you need to do much more than just drink lemon water, first thing in the morning. Exercise, and eating a healthy diet will help.

After all, while drinking lemon water can be beneficial, it is not the only thing that will keep you healthy since it doesn’t have the protein you’ll need, to develop muscles, it doesn’t contain probiotics, which can help the gut, nor does it have the calcium that helps with bone structure.

So, although there are many benefits to lemon water, remember to take it in moderation, as well as exercise and eat a healthy and balanced diet, to really see improvements in your health. 

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403313/