“When life hands you a lemon...”

“Warm water, calamansi,” That is the term my mom uses for lemon water since calamansi is more readily available.

It is common in my family to drink water with calamansi, lemon or dayap (lime). It began with my mom who believes that the alkalinity from the citrus fruit would do wonders for our health.  My dad does it too because he thinks that you can never have enough vitamin C. I hopped on the bandwagon as well and took advantage of having a tree which never fails to provide us with fresh dayap.

I’ve noticed that there are some restaurants which serve water with a slice of lemon. From there I thought that there must be a good reason behind adding a little lemon or lime to the water. And I’ve just found out that it has more benefits than I’d imagined.  

Since lemon is known to have citric acid, it is a common misconception to think that it is a highly acidic but really, when the citric acid enters the body it is alkaline. Lemons are rich in potassium and sodium minerals which are able to override the presence of acidity. This makes it beneficial because it can neutralize the pH levels of the body.

(photo from naturalhealthremedies.weebly.com)

Drinking lemon water before meals is one way to ease digestion because of its ability to stimulate the liver through liquefying the bile, a digestive juice which helps dissolve fat. Symptoms such as nausea and heartburn are some of the things that lemon water can relieve.

Lemon water is also an effective diuretic. Drinking hot or warm lemon water helps increase urine flow. This is due to its ability to remove additional salt, harmful bacteria, and toxins from the urinary tract. This makes it an effective aid against urinary tract infection (UTI) and uric acid problems.

(photo from coloncleansingtips.tumblr.com)

Overall the best advantage of lemon water is its ability to alkalize the blood and body. Most of the food we eat like red and white meat, rice, pasta, bread, milk, chocolates, and liquor are predominantly acidic when ingested. Thus it is important to incorporate lemon water into the diet to neutralize the effects of all that acid.

So, remember when life hands you a lemon, squeeze it into a glass of lukewarm water and alkalize.