Adding this to water can help fight cancer, resist oxidation, and enhance immunity? The truth is...

It is hard to imagine that such tempting keywords as whitening, weight loss, enhancing immunity, anti-cancer, anti-oxidation, etc. can appear at the same time on a kind of food, and this kind of food is not expensive at all and everyone of us can afford it.

Lemonade is such a magical thing.

Every once in a while, lemonade is elevated to a pedestal. It can be said that a small glass of lemonade definitely bears the pressure it shouldn't bear.

So is lemonade really so magical? What is in a glass of lemonade?

01

Lemonade is so delicious

Why exactly?

To talk about lemonade, we must first align the concepts - lemonade refers to a large glass of water made with lemon slices or lemon juice. Lemon is just a seasoning and not the main ingredient .

The reason I say this is that what some people call lemonade is actually juice squeezed from several lemons and then stirred with a few tablespoons of white sugar. This is not within the scope of our discussion.

A glass of lemonade is refreshing with a hint of sourness, and the sourness is slightly sweet and bitter. It can be said that it has a very rich taste.

So where does its flavor come from?

Water, definitely comes first.

The main purpose of drinking lemon water is actually to drink water. After all, half a lemon slice is enough to soak several liters of water, which is enough for a person's recommended water intake for 2 to 3 days.

The outstanding fresh aroma of lemonade mainly comes from the aroma components in the lemon peel. The main components of lemon aroma are volatile substances such as limonene, citral, and geranial.

They have no functional purpose, their main purpose is to entice you to drink more water with their scent .

These fragrant volatile substances are what we call lemon essential oils, and they are hidden in the small bulging spheres on the surface of the peel.

Therefore, if you want your lemonade to be more fragrant, remember to slice it as thinly as possible so that the aroma components can be more easily soaked out.

The acid in lemons comes from the pulp.

The pulp yield of lemon is quite high. The pulp of a lemon can account for more than 65% of its weight, but most of it is water, as well as a small amount of carbohydrates and citric acid, and trace amounts of vitamin C, potassium, calcium, flavonoids, polyphenols, limonin and other substances.

The sour taste is brought by citric acid. This sour taste is refreshing, leaves a lingering aftertaste and is not easy to get tired of.

The bitterness of lemon comes from many sources.

If you don't remove the seeds, the strong bitterness mostly comes from the large amount of limonin in the lemon seeds . If you accidentally chop the seeds, the bitterness will be doubled.

Of course, limonin is not only found in lemon seeds. The white lemon peel and the flesh itself are also sources of limonin.

In fact, the light bitterness is also quite special, and together with the sourness and sweetness of lemon, it forms a unique flavor.

Of course, if you can't stand the bitterness, remember to remove the seeds and white inner skin before soaking in water .

By the way, if you want the lemon water to be more tangy, you can soak it in hot water first to promote the ingredients to dissolve into the water, and then refrigerate it. This will give it the best taste.

Many people worry that hot water will damage the vitamin C content in lemons, but there is actually no need to worry about this problem.

Because there is not much vitamin C in lemons, there is no point in trying to supplement vitamin C with lemons.

Moreover, vitamin C is relatively stable under acidic conditions, and the temperature when we soak it in water does not have that much impact on it.

In short, you can soak it in either cold or hot water, but remember, don't add sugar. If you must add it, only add a little. After all, if you add too much sugar because of the acid, you will lose the original intention of drinking lemon water for health.

02

Can drinking lemon water really be good for your health?

Many people drink lemon water for various benefits, but unfortunately, lemon water is not that effective.

1. Lemon is high in vitamin C. Can drinking more lemon help whiten your skin?

As mentioned before, the vitamin C content in lemons is not very high. Among the fruits we often eat, lemons are not even among the top three.

If we only look at the vitamin C content, winter dates, guava, kiwi, hawthorn, strawberry, lychee, orange, tangerine and other fruits all have higher content than lemon. For example, 100 grams of winter dates contain about 243 mg of vitamin C, while 100 grams of lemon only contains 22 mg. Of course, winter dates also have a high sugar content, so when eating winter dates to supplement vitamin C, you should also pay attention to the sugar intake.

Since the vitamin C content in lemons is not high, we often make lemon water with two slices a day... The vitamin C we can absorb in this way is really minimal, so let's not make lemon water too difficult.

2. Lemon water is sour, can it help you lose weight?

First of all, it is a complete illusion that acid can help you lose weight .

Although sour foods always make us feel appetizing, relieve greasiness and refreshed, and when we eat too much meat and fish, we will feel that we have lost some fat after taking a bite. But I'm sorry, you are wrong.

Acid does not really have the ability to prevent the body from absorbing fat. Neither citric acid nor acetic acid has this effect.

Therefore, whether you drink lemon water, apple cider vinegar, or aged vinegar, it will not have any weight loss effect. Vitamin C and citric acid are already relatively high in lemons, but they are still too little for the effect you want to achieve.

Therefore, lemon water can’t give you the whitening, weight loss, anti-aging, and anti-cancer effects you want. After all, there are really too few active ingredients!

Does that mean drinking lemon water is completely pointless?

Of course not, I still recommend you drink more lemon water.

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022), under mild climate conditions, adult men with low physical activity levels should drink 1,700 ml of water per day, and adult women should drink 1,500 ml of water per day. For those who don't like to drink water, lemon water with a light aroma and sweet and sour taste may be more attractive, and they can easily drink enough water for a day.

Author: Haidera (popular science creator)

Reviewer: Gao Chao, Associate Researcher, Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention