Is a glass of water with lemon really that healthy in the morning?

Many people swear by it: having a glass of water with lemon as soon as they wake up. It is supposed to be incredibly healthy for you; for example, it gets your digestion going straight away, and the lemon is said to work wonders against inflammation and other ailments. Or so they say. But is there actually any truth to it? Renger Witkamp, professor of Nutritional Biology at Wageningen University, clarified this for Quest.

And the answer is: no. There is absolutely no truth to it.

Water with lemon

His advice: by all means, keep doing it if you enjoy it. Because according to Witkamp, that is the only reason you should drink it. And what about the lemon? Does it really do nothing for our bodies? ‘All kinds of health benefits are attributed to citric acid; for example, you might supposedly lose weight with citric acid. But our bodies also produce citric acid themselves, and consuming some extra lemon does not have a noticeable effect. It does not make your stomach more acidic either, because the contents of your stomach are naturally more acidic than citric acid.’

And what about all those vitamins that are supposed to be in the lemon? Nope. You would be better off eating a tangerine or an orange, because they contain much more vitamin C. There is certainly some in a lemon too, but far too little to have any actual effect. It sounds fairly logical that a piece of fruit is much healthier than some water with fruit juice in it — but I still did not expect that you could just as well drink plain water.

It can even cause damage

Witkamp takes it one step further, because according to him, it may even do more harm than good. Lemons are extremely acidic (well, duh), and your teeth are not particularly happy about that. Especially if it was your habit to perform this ritual with warm water every morning; combining it with lemon only makes the acidity even stronger.

Noted: water is just as good for you. So why do some people swear that they lose weight from that glass of lemon water every morning? According to Witkamp, it makes perfect sense; if you ‘have breakfast’ with this, you are making a lower-calorie choice than, for example, one or more sandwiches. Yes, that actually sounds very logical too…

Acidity and your teeth

One extra tip from my dentist: do not consume acidic products for an hour before brushing your teeth. The surface of your teeth and molars becomes softer when exposed to acid, which means that brushing your teeth immediately after drinking something acidic can brush away the enamel layer. This causes erosion (wear of the teeth and molars caused by acids).

Having said all that: FavorFlav’s Sharon swears by a few cups of hot water with fresh ginger and fresh lemon juice when she has a sore throat. ‘It works wonders,’ says Sharon. Whether that is because of the lemon and ginger or because she firmly believes in it, I will leave that open. It is striking, however, that she always gets rid of her sore throat incredibly quickly…

Also read:

• Here’s how to send food back
• Can we talk about that disgusting sour coffee hype?
• The ultimate coffee cup

Source: Quest