A lemon or two a day

Lemons are a wonderful and tasty digestive aid. Their sour taste stimulates saliva triggering the production of digestive juices, which then stimulates the liver to produce bile and in turn gets your bowels moving.

So a glass of warm water and lemon juice first thing in the morning is a good way to hydrate your body but also to wake up your digestive system for the day and ensure proper elimination of waste.

Add it to your salad dressing in your evening meal, the acids help to break down the proteins and fats and will also add a burst full of flavour and vitamin C.

Although outside the body lemon juice is acidic, lemons are very alkalising in the body. This is because citric acid is a weak acid and the lemon's overall nutrients are alkaline.

Citric acid is readily eliminated through sweat and/or urine and after that one is left with lemon's alkaline minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium, and selenium. As the foods you consume are broken down by your digestive tract they leave behind a residue known as ash and that ash can alter the body’s acidity or alkalinity.

The chemical composition of the ash can be acidic, alkaline, or neutral, lemon’s ash is very alkaline due to lemon’s alkaline minerals. So add it to your daily intake of water for a cheap and effective daily alkalising elixir.

Skin looking dull? Squeeze some lemon juice onto your palms and spread over freshly cleansed skin. Carla Oates ‘the beauty chef’ advises to do this once to twice per week to keep the skin bright and to reduce blemishes and blackheads. Lemon’s citric acid has astringent, exfoliant and regenerating properties.

It tightens dilated pores and also encourages the elimination of dead cells and stimulates the formation of new cells to renew the skin. The skin regains its radiance when the acid mantle is at an ideal pH somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5. Due to lemons acidic nature before digestion, it is an ideal gentle substance for balancing the acid mantle.

By Sarah Chambers

BHSc. (Nat), Dip.Remedial Massage, BVA