When life hands you lemons, you don't have to just "make lemonade". Lemons all by themselves are one of nature's most powerful healing foods. Lemons have such amazing powers, I call them Nature's Weapon of Mass Degunktion, meaning they clean up and clear out lots of "gunk" in your system.
Lemons are often used for weight loss and detoxifying, with great results, and are also recommended for people with asthma and other respiratory (breathing) problems. Simply put, lemons kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!
Even the conservative allopathic WebMD raves about the wonders of lemons as a healing agent.
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Lemon is a plant. The fruit, juice, and peel are used to make medicine.
Lemon is used to treat scurvy, a condition caused by not having enough vitamin C. Lemon is also used for the common cold and flu, H1N1 (swine) flu, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), Meniere's disease, and kidney stones. It is also used to aid digestion, reduce pain and swelling (inflammation), improve the function of blood vessels, and increase urination to reduce fluid retention.
There is some indication, but insufficient scientific evidence to be conclusive, that lemons can help in:
- Meniere's disease. There are some reports that a chemical in lemon called eriodictyol glycoside might improve hearing and decrease dizziness, nausea, and vomiting in some people with Meniere's disease.
- Kidney stones. Not having enough citrate in the urine seems to increase the risk of developing kidney stones. There is some evidence that drinking 2 liters of lemonade throughout the day can significantly raise citrate levels in the urine. This might help to prevent kidney stones in these people.
- Treating scurvy. Scurvy is a condition caused by a lack of vitamin C. Lemon can provide some missing vitamin C.
- The common cold and flu.
- Decreasing swelling.
- Increasing urine.
Organic Facts discusses the healing properties of lemons:
"Health benefits of lemon are due to many nourishing elements like vitamin C, vitamin B, phosphorous, proteins, and carbohydrates present in it. Lemon is a fruit that contains flavonoid, a composite that holds antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. It helps to prevent diabetes, constipation, high blood pressure, skin care, fever, hair care, dental care, indigestion and many other health problems. Studies conducted at the American Urological Association highlight the fact that lemonade or lemon juice can cure kidney stones by forming urinary citrate, which can prevent formation of crystals."
Let's see what the A 2 Z of Health, Beauty and Fitness article "Health Benefits of Lemons" has to say about our little yellow friend.
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Although the lemon is often thought of as acidic, it is very effective in curing many digestion problems when mixed with hot water, including biliousness, nausea, heartburn, disorders of the lower intestines like constipation and worm infestations. It is even known to relieve hiccups.
Water plus a few lemons becomes lemon juice. Lemon juice, when taken regularly in the morning, acts as a tonic to the liver and stimulates it to produce bile making it ready to digest the day's food. It is also thought to help dissolve gallstones.
Because of its high vitamin C content, it is thought to help prevent and treat many infections, hasten wound healing and temper down high fever. Lemon juice also relieves symptoms of asthma, tonsillitis and sore throat.
Lemon is also a diuretic. This means it is good for people with urinary tract infections and high uric acid problems, such as those with arthritis or rheumatism because it helps flush out all the toxins and bad bacteria. When lemon is mixed with coffee, it is thought to help treat malaria. This concoction is also effective for headaches.
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Lemons have an unusual history. It seems to have truly been a somewhat "secret" plant of health until the Islamic faith began. Did you know that they were relatively unknown in Europe until recently?
The Wikipedia entry for lemon provides some intriguing information.
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The first real lemon cultivation in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the fifteenth century.[2] It was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages. Spanish conquest throughout the New World helped spread lemon seeds. It was mainly used as ornament and medicine.[2] In 1700s and late 1800s, lemons were increasingly planted in Florida and California when lemons began to be used in cooking and flavoring.[4]
In 1747, James Lind's experiments on seamen suffering from scurvy involved adding Vitamin C to their diets through lemon juice.[5]
[END QUOTE]Mediterranean food expert Clifford A. Wright explains the obscurity of the lemon in his "History of Lemonade".
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The very first uses for the lemon in the Mediterranean were as an ornamental plant in early Islamic gardens. Tracking the progress of the lemon tree from its origin in Assam and northern Burma to China, across Persia and the Arab world to the Mediterranean, is difficult because of the lemon’s adaptability to hybridization.
This has caused problems for the horticulturist (a variety might not take to a new land), the food historian (unclear references--for example, the “round citron”), and the taxonomist (a proliferation of botanical terms).
Although the citron--like a lemon but larger, with a very thick rind and very little pulp or juice--seems to have been known by the ancient Jews before the time of Christ, and perhaps dispersed in the Mediterranean by them, the lemon seems not to have been known in pre-Islamic times.
Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa is wrong to claim in her book A Taste of Ancient Rome, that the Romans grew the lemon. In fact, the malum medicum mentioned by Pliny is the citron.
Although there are depictions of citrus fruits from Roman mosaics in Carthage and frescoes in Pompeii that bear a striking resemblance to oranges and lemons, this iconographic evidence is not supported by any paleo-botanical or literary evidence, suggesting that the artists either imported the fruits or saw them in the East.
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