The nemesis of "scurvy": is lemon an acidic or alkaline food? Does drinking lemon water during the day make you dark? Can it whiten your skin?

Summer is exactly the season when lemons flood the market. Many people like to buy fresh lemons and make lemon water at home, which is healthy and affordable. Lemons contain extremely high levels of vitamin C and are generally used as a beauty food. So is lemon an acidic or alkaline food? Does drinking lemon water during the day make you dark?

Lemon is a plant of the genus Citrus in the family Rutaceae. Lemon is also known as ningmeng, yangningmeng, yimuguo, and so on. Because of its extremely sour taste, pregnant women with liver deficiency love to eat it most, so it is called yimuguo or yimuzi. Lemon is rich in citric acid, so it is known as the “citric acid warehouse.” Its fruit is juicy with crisp flesh and a rich aromatic fragrance. Because it tastes extremely sour, it can only be used as a premium seasoning to prepare beverages, dishes, cosmetics, and medicines. In addition, lemon is rich in vitamin C and can resolve phlegm and relieve cough, promote fluid production and strengthen the stomach. It is used for bronchitis, whooping cough, poor appetite, vitamin deficiency, heatstroke and thirst, and other symptoms. It is the nemesis of "scurvy."

Is lemon an acidic or alkaline food?

After lemon is ingested by the human body, its final metabolites are alkaline, so it belongs to alkaline foods. Lemon water is likewise an alkaline food, and even with honey added it is still an alkaline food.

Lemon clearly tastes sour when drunk, and its pH value is also acidic. The reason it still belongs to alkaline foods is that although lemon contains citric acid, citric acid can be completely metabolized in the body into carbon dioxide and water. As carbon dioxide is exhaled from the body, the acidity is eliminated. However, potassium, calcium, and other ions in lemon remain in the body in the form of metal cations. These ions can combine with acid radical ions and can reduce the acidity of urine, so it is called an “alkaline-forming food.” Not only lemon, but the vast majority of fruits are alkaline-forming foods. This point is especially important for patients with gout and hyperuricemia, because when urine is alkaline, uric acid will form salts, which are more easily excreted by the body, and this can reduce the risk of gout attacks.

How do you distinguish alkaline foods from acidic foods?

Human foods can be divided into acidic foods and alkaline foods. Judging whether a food is acidic or alkaline is not based on people's sense of taste, nor on the chemical nature of the food dissolved in water, but on the acidity or alkalinity of the final metabolites produced after the food enters the human body.

That is, foods that after digestion ultimately form nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, chlorine, salts, and other acid radicals that remain in the body are called acidic foods. Such as: beef, mutton, pork, chicken, duck, fish, grains, and so on. Almost all tasty things are acidic, such as: fish, meat, rice, alcohol, granulated sugar, and so on, all are acidic foods.

Vegetables, fruits, and so on contain elements such as potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium, and after metabolism in the body they produce alkaline substances, which can prevent the blood from changing toward acidity. Therefore, sour-tasting fruits are generally alkaline foods rather than acidic foods. Chicken, fish, meat, eggs, sugar, and so on do not taste sour, but they are acidic foods.

Generally speaking, acidic foods make the skin weak, while alkaline foods make the skin healthy and beautiful. If you eat too much acidic food, the acidity of the blood increases, the activity of the blood throughout the body slows down, and you feel fatigued.

Conversely, alkaline foods can improve the state of the blood, give a refreshed feeling throughout the body, can prevent and treat dermatitis and other skin diseases that people with weak skin are prone to, and prevent the skin from becoming rough and aging prematurely.

Strongly acidic foods: beef, pork, chicken, tuna, oysters, flounder, cheese, rice, wheat, bread, alcoholic beverages, peanuts, thin sausages, sugar, biscuits, white sugar, and so on.

Weakly acidic foods: ham, eggs, lobster, octopus, squid, buckwheat, cream, peas, eel, river fish, chocolate, scallions, macaroni, fried tofu, and so on.

Strongly alkaline foods: milk, tea, persimmons, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, spinach, citrus fruits, grapes, taro, kelp, figs, raisins, and so on.

Weakly alkaline foods: potatoes, cabbage, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms and similar mushrooms, rapeseed, pumpkin, tofu, apples, pears, bananas, cherries, and so on.

When eating acidic foods, especially meat, you must also eat plenty of vegetables. The calcium and potassium in vegetables can neutralize the sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid in meat.

Does drinking lemon water during the day make you dark?

For people who worry that drinking lemon water during the day will make them dark, the answer is: you are overthinking it.

Lemon itself contains photosensitive substances (limonene, coumarins, among which coumarins are the main ones), which is to say that lemon is relatively sensitive to light.

For coumarins to exert a "tanning" effect, three conditions are needed:

1. A special constitution (for example, patients with systemic lupus erythematosus);

2. Long-term sun exposure;

3. Intake of a sufficient amount of coumarins.

The coumarin content in lemon is very low. To reach an effective dose, you would have to eat several hundred at once, and with the peel on…… A scientist once did a related experiment and reached the conclusion: if your body has no abnormalities, you need to eat three hundred lemons and then be in the sun for three hundred hours before you will turn dark!

So, if your skin really does turn dark after drinking lemon water, it may be because you forgot to apply sunscreen.

Can drinking lemon water whiten your skin?

For people who count on lemon water to whiten their skin, the answer is: impossible.

VC is indeed a whitening ingredient loved by major skincare brands, but the vitamin C content in lemon is actually not considered very high, at 22 mg / 100 g.

Even if you soak one extra-large lemon (about 100 g) in water every day, the VC you take in is still less reliable than eating 100 g of Chinese cabbage (31 mg /100 g).

How is lemon water best made?

Good lemon water should taste light, with a slight lemon aroma. If too much lemon is used, for example one or half a lemon at a time, it may irritate the mouth and stomach, and because the taste is too sour, sugar is needed to neutralize it. To taste sweetness, the sugar content must be at least above 5%, and drinking too much is not good for weight control.

It should be noted that the special aroma of lemon mainly comes from the peel, so it is best to cut it into thin slices with the peel on and soak them in water.

One large slice of lemon with the peel, soaked in about 600 mL of water, has aroma and is slightly sour but does not need sugar. If necessary, add a few ice cubes. It is an excellent thirst-quenching drink for beating the heat.

How do you store unused lemon?

Although fresh lemon is good, making lemon water only needs one or two slices, and how to store the rest afterward is an annoying problem. Actually, there is no need to worry too much, because lemon has a very high acidity and therefore naturally has some preservative function. However, in order to store cut lemon better, you need to pay attention to the following points:

1. Use a clean knife to cut it;

2. Wrap the remaining lemon in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill;

3. Use it up as soon as possible; after all, it will not be fresh if left for too long.