Coffeetable Blog

Been reading about lemons on the Net lately, after that night when I thought of throwing a slice of lemon on my glass of water. The rest of what you will read below is a recollection of what I've come across so far, as far my recall goes.

A simple Google search led me to a couple of sites about Master Cleanse, which is a detox/weight reduction approach using primarily lemons and not much else. I've never been a fan of anything about detox or cleansing that excludes a whole bunch of everything else except for a few food types, regardless if it was intended to be done only for a period of time. Besides, it was also intended for weight reduction, which is something I don't have need of. So I move on.

The next thing I started reading about is the alkalizing property of lemons. Alkalinity is generally that state of being not acidic. Being acidic carries with it certain limitations in how the body can absorb nutrients and dispose of wastes, hence bad. Technically, being not acidic can be measured in terms of ph levels, with about 7.0 ph as being "neutral", and anything lower than that contributing to acidity. Coffee is about 4.5ph, while lemons goes a long way down at 2.3ph.

Now, that seems to run counter in most sites that says lemons actually contribute to lessening acidity in the body, or technically, bringing the body fluids closer to 7.0ph. That's where the term "alkalizing" comes into play. Lemon, though being acidic, actually contributes to alkalinity because it triggers a reaction in the body's organs to produce stuff that reduces acidity and bring about alkalinity. Hmmm sounds interesting, so I asked a medical friend of mine.

My medical friend calls the reaction of the body to the lemon as a possible form of "compensation", which happens to other situations in the body to account for certain imbalances. But this can lead to longer-term problems. For example, a situation in the body can reduce the heart's ability to pump blood, for which the body will compensate by increasing the heart rate, or the number of pumps in a given time. The desired effect may be obtained, but may result in greater damage to the body in the future. What needs to be done instead is to possibly remove the reason why the heart is not pumping blood as well as it should, like having enough exercise and proper diet.

In possibly the same way, when we take in a certain amount of lemon juice, the body is releasing substances to induce alkalinity because of the high level of acidity. Which makes drinking substantial amounts of lemon juice to induce alkalinity (some sites recommend the juice of half of a lemon to be squeezed in a glass of water, three times a day) essentially pointless, even dangerous to the body.

So far, I have yet to find a site that's actually a "medical" one that has something to say about lemons. Hope you could share here if you have come across some.