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

Summer is the season when lemons are abundantly available. Many people like to buy fresh lemons and make lemon water at home, which is healthy and affordable. Lemons contain extremely high amounts of vitamin C, and are generally used as a beauty food. So is lemon an acidic or alkaline food? Will 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 like 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 has a rich fragrance. Because it tastes extremely sour, it can only be used as a top-grade seasoning, used to prepare beverages, dishes, cosmetics and medicines. In addition, lemon is rich in vitamin C and can resolve phlegm and relieve cough, promote salivation and strengthen the stomach. It is used for symptoms such as bronchitis, whooping cough, loss of appetite, vitamin deficiency, and heatstroke with thirst. It is the nemesis of "scurvy".

Is lemon an acidic or alkaline food?

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

Lemon clearly tastes sour 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 to produce 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 and is more easily excreted by the body, which can reduce the risk of gout attacks.

How to 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, etc. Almost all delicious things are acidic, such as: fish, meat, rice, alcohol, granulated sugar, etc., all are acidic foods.

Vegetables, fruits and the like contain elements such as potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium, and after metabolism in the body they generate alkaline substances, which can prevent the blood from shifting toward acidity. Therefore, sour-tasting fruits are generally alkaline foods rather than acidic foods. Chicken, fish, meat, eggs, sugar and the like 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 too much acidic food is eaten, the acidity of the blood increases, the activity of the blood throughout the body slows down, and there is a feeling of fatigue.

Conversely, alkaline foods can improve the state of the blood, give a refreshing feeling throughout the body, and 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, etc.

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

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

Weakly alkaline foods: potatoes, cabbage, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms and the like, rape, pumpkin, tofu, apples, pears, bananas, cherries, etc.

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.

Will drinking lemon water during the day make you dark?

For those 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 means 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 sunlight 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…… A scientist once did a related experiment and reached the conclusion: if there is nothing abnormal about your body, you would need to eat 300 lemons and then sunbathe for 300 hours before you would become dark!

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

Can drinking lemon water whiten the skin?

For those counting on lemon water to whiten the 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 not as reliable as eating 100 g of Chinese cabbage (31 mg /100 g).

What is the best way to make lemon water?

Good lemon water should taste light, with a slight aroma of lemon. 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 and soak them in water.

Soak one large slice of lemon with peel in about 600 mL of water. It has fragrance and is slightly sour but does not need sugar. If necessary, add a few pieces of ice. It is an excellent thirst-quenching drink for relieving the summer heat.

How to store unused lemon?

Although fresh lemon is good, soaking it in water only takes 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 high acidity, so it 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 with 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 a long time.