Sunday, 26 January 2014

Lemon Water Flushes Toxins???

I care about what I eat, so I read a lot about what I should and shouldn't be consuming. There has been a lot of hype about hot water and lemon in the morning lately. Apparently it flushes toxins.

And here's where I should say I am a skeptic, too. Flushes toxins? Really? So I went looking for information about that. As it turns out, the people making this claim are all bloggers like me. They read it somewhere and they are passing it on without really knowing if it's true.

Here's what one doctor said on snopes.com (quite a reliable source for seeking truth):
As a scientist, I can tell you without doing any further research that this is a bunch of hooey. Your body does not "build up toxins" while you sleep any more than it should - it has a liver to remove toxins that are naturally produced by the body during metabolism. Lemon juice does nothing except provide a few more naturally-occurring toxins (which your liver handles with aplomb). While it is most certainly a refreshing beverage, it has no health benfits other than providing you with a small dose of vitamin C. 

And nothing, NOTHING, cleanses your liver except time. And drinking plenty of water every day.   I've found many people will make claims like this when they don't know squat about the human body, cellular respiration, etc... 

If anyone ever includes the phrase "cleanses toxins from the body" as a health benefit, that's a pretty good hooey-warning for me. 

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a nice cup of hot lemon in the morning. Have it for the right reasons. It starts your day with water. No caffeine. Now that's a nice thing to do for yourself!