Very popular in folk medicine, this drink is mainly used as a purifying food, to be taken both on an empty stomach and a full stomach. On the other hand, the "hypothetical" functions of water and lemon are quite varied; in fact, as for all citrus fruits, even in lemon juice and zest have different properties and therefore give rise to two distinct drinks: water with juice - water with zest.
to be consumed on an empty stomach, possibly in the morning, is perhaps the most popular method for consuming the food in the diet daily. This drink, hypothetically already complete, can be further enriched with other ingredients with excellent nutritional characteristics; some examples are: fresh ginger , turmeric and cinnamon.
The fanatics of this drink claim that lemon juice is able to stimulate the immune system, balance the pH of the organism, optimize the beauty of the skin and promote the maintenance of health.
In fact, more than providing a good concentration of vitamin C, citric acid and mineral salts, there is no scientific basis that can prove what has been declared; below we will understand why.
, it is totally "far-fetched"; this affirmation is justifiable by the fact that the blood circulation is regulated by buffer systems that are so effective as not to undergo the slightest influence of a food.Moreover, the average human diet tends to be more acidic than alkaline, an aspect that has aroused quite a few (generally excessive) concerns especially regarding the health of the skeleton. Precisely for this reason, various alternative food philosophies are based precisely on the attempt to increase the Blood pH. The only reason you should try to increase the acidic components in your blood is to fight off annoying urinary tract infections (cystitis). In fact, due to the balancing action of the blood, the acidic components in excess are buffered and / or excreted, consequently lowering the pH of the urine. Ultimately, by subjecting certain microorganisms to a more acidic liquid, these are supposed to slow down their development. inside the urethra.
Moving on to the stomach, which often suffers from irritation, ulcers, hyperacidity, etc., there is no concrete reason why by lowering the pH in fasting, an improvement in health can be achieved.It is true that, being able to tolerate pH between 1 and 2, a healthy stomach could hardly suffer from exposure to food pH; in fact, lemon juice (which is among the most acidic products of all) barely reaches 2.4 In this sense, the only application of lemon water could be aimed at promoting protein denaturation in the case of hypochlorhydria (chronic digestive difficulties); in this sense, the drink should obviously be taken on a full stomach.
Apart from the participation of vitamin C in the synthesis of collagen, a structural protein of the skin, there are no valid reasons to justify the positive effects of the drink on the beauty of the skin.
As for the alleged efficacy of stimulating the immune system, this activity should depend on the good concentrations of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) present in the food; what many do not know is that, if it is true that the system is deficient in vitamin C immune system remains compromised, it is equally true that taking in more, in addition to the indispensable ration for the organism, does not provide any real advantage. Among other things, for the same reason, by eating: chillies, peppers, parsley, broccoli, lychees, oranges, apples, lettuce, radicchio, rocket, spinach, dandelion, mandarins, guava, kiwi, grapes, etc. you should get the same effect on the organism (or greater, given the more generous concentrations of ascorbic acid). For more information on the correlation between vitamin C and the immune system see the article: Vitamin C.
