How Lemons Can Help You Slim Down
Have you ever wondered how lemons can help you slim down? Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one. We’ve also wondered about it at some point and that’s why we want to share with you all the information you need.
Like oranges, lemons are rich in fiber and vitamin C, mainly. It’s often consumed in the form of lemonade, but also in many other forms, such as in dressings, for example.
Lemons have lots of great nutritional properties. Simply drinking some lemon juice mixed with a little water can have many health benefits. In particular, they can help you lose weight, as long as you also have a healthy diet.
Next, we’ll review the nutritional properties of this fruit and then, we’ll delve into the relationship between its consumption and weight loss so you’ll know why lemon is so often mentioned in diets.
The nutritional value of lemons
Fundación Española de la Nutrición (FEN) (FEN) explains that lemon is a food that contains vitamin C, organic acids, and flavonoids. You can get the following from a serving of 100 grams:
- 44 kcal.
- 1 g. of fiber
- 12 mg. of calcium
- 0.7 g. of protein
- 129 mg. of potassium
- 50 mg. of vitamin C
Lemons are also rich in minerals like calcium, iron, iodine, magnesium, zinc, selenium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorous. And as for vitamins, lemons are a great source of vitamin A, B (B1, B2, B6, folic acid), C, and D.
This fruit also contains carbohydrates like glucose, fructose, and sucrose, and fatty acids like palmitic acid and linoleic acid, although in lower quantities than the salts and vitamins.
All these nutritional properties make lemons an excellent part of a healthy diet.
Obviously, its strong acidic flavor makes it a little difficult to eat a whole piece of lemon. But you can still get its many benefits by squeezing it and drinking its juice diluted in a little water, or by adding the juice (as a garnish) to a dish.
Now, can the juice of this fruit help you lose weight? Let’s look below.
Learn these Keys to Lose Weight Without Starving Yourself
How lemons can help you slim down
Firstly, lemons are a natural diuretic. Therefore, in addition to favoring the digestion process, it promotes intestinal transit and helps the body to expel retained liquids.
Lemons are also rich in flavonoids. These are antioxidant compounds that contribute to the health of all organs and your body.
It’s also believed that these flavonoids help reduce the fat content in the blood, thus preventing the accumulation of fatty plaques in the arterial walls. Likewise, the assimilation of its polyphenols helps reduce the number of lipids accumulated in the tissues.
Lemons also contain a lot of citric acids. This helps maximize the function of enzymes in the body. This enables your liver can work more effectively.
As we’ve already mentioned, lemons contain a large amount of fiber, in particular, pectin. This soluble fiber makes you feel more full which helps you better control how much food you eat.
This means you can eat portions that are a more appropriate size for your body, which directly helps you lose weight.
Lemons can help relieve bloating and reduce fluid retention.
How to take advantage of the benefits of lemon to lose weight
You can drink freshly squeezed lemon juice with either a little hot or cold water. However, hot water has the added benefit of improving intestinal movement.
We recommend drinking a glass of warm water with lemon every day to avoid constipation.
So, lemons can help you lose weight?
Lemons can indeed help you lose weight, but only within a healthy lifestyle. Use it wisely and, if you have doubts about how to follow a balanced diet according to your needs, consult your doctor.
A balanced diet, doing daily physical exercise and, in general, the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits, is what will really bring you health and wellness, not just drinking lemon juice alone.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Fukuchi, Y., Hiramitsu, M., Okada, M., Hayashi, S., Nabeno, Y., Osawa, T., & Naito, M. (2008). “Lemon Polyphenols Suppress Diet-induced Obesity by Up-Regulation of mRNA Levels of the Enzymes Involved in β-Oxidation in Mouse White Adipose Tissue”, Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition, 43(3), 201–209
- Kang DE1, Sur RL, Haleblian GE, Fitzsimons NJ, Borawski KM, Preminger GM., “Long-term lemonade based dietary manipulation in patients with hypocitraturic nephrolithiasis”, J Urol. 2007 Apr;177(4):1358-62; discussion 1362; quiz 1591.
- Aras B, Kalfazade N, Tuğcu V, Kemahli E, Ozbay B, Polat H, Taşçi AI., “Can lemon juice be an alternative to potassium citrate in the treatment of urinary calcium stones in patients with hypocitraturia? A prospective randomized study”, Urol Res. 2008 Dec;36(6):313-7.