5 Ways Drinking Lemon Juice Helps Your Body

Drinking lemon juice benefits your health, which is why many traditional systems of medicine recommend drinking it daily. Lemons contain vitamins, minerals and other natural compounds that boost your immune system and even fight cancer. They aid in digestion and mineral absorption, may give you more energy and protect your kidneys and urinary health. Drink fresh squeezed lemon juice, diluted in water, regularly to reap the most health benefits.

One lemon contains over half of your daily requirement of vitamin C, which is an antioxidant. Antioxidants counteract free-radical damage that occurs during food digestion and exposure to radiation and smoke. Protecting yourself from free radicals by drinking lemon juice regularly can help slow the aging process and might aid in the protection against chronic diseases. Eating more vitamin C when you have a cold might even shorten it or lessen the severity of your symptoms.

Read more: Benefits of Lemon Water

Although there's no "miracle pill" for weight loss, drinking diluted lemon juice could help in your efforts. By improving digestion, lemon helps regulate your metabolism. When digestion is poor, your body can't absorb nutrients it requires to utilize fat. Improving your digestion also helps you eliminate toxins, which improves your energy levels.

Good hydration in and of itself may assist with weight loss by enhancing the function of mitochondria, which are found in cells and help create energy for the body. Drinking water also induces thermogenesis, a metabolic process whereby the body burns calories for heat. With water being the main ingredient in lemon water, the metabolism-boosting health benefits may be a result of improved hydration overall. However, lemon water specifically may be a mild diuretic, causing you to urinate more frequently and potentially helping to cleanse and detoxify the urinary tract.

Read more: Lemon Juice and Hot Water for Weight Loss

Consuming citrus fruits such as lemons a few times a week may reduce the risk of certain cancers, including digestive, upper respiratory and pancreatic. Lemons contain 22 different compounds that have been found to fight cancer cells. A study published in Food & Function in 2013 discovered that limonoids found in lemons stymie the growth of cancer cells that depend on estrogen for growth and those that don't. It concluded that consuming lemon may reduce your risk of breast cancer.

Read more: Benefits of Lemon Juice for Cancer

Drinking lemon juice consistently could help dissolve calcium deposits, kidney stones and gallstones while possibly preventing their occurrence. According to the National Kidney Foundation, lemon juice and other juices high in citrate offer stone-preventing benefits. Citrate in the urine may prevent calcium from binding with other elements that cause kidney stones, while also preventing any crystals that are already present from getting larger. Be cautious about opting for lemonade over plain lemon water, however. The sugar in lemonade can increase kidney stone risk.