Vitamin citrus: how to eat lemon and how much it can be eaten per day?

Citrus fruit, at any stage of ripening preserving an acidic taste, is called a lemon.

These fruits are consumed all over the world, mainly for culinary purposes.

Most often they use juice, which has not only interesting taste, but also an action aimed at cleansing the body.

From the article below, find out how to use lemon and how much it is safe.

Taste

Lemon is known primarily for its sour taste, which can be called a visiting card of the fetus. Most people have a strong association: sour - lemon.

Interesting fact. For most people familiar with the taste of lemon, the mere mental imagination of this fruit causes increased salivation.

What are the fruits like?

In the general case, the fruit is a light yellow fruit of ellipsoidal shape, about 6–9 cm long and 4–6 cm in diameter. Under the peel is the fruit itself, consisting of about 8–10 segments (lobules) filled with juicy pulp. The seeds of the plant are small, 4-6 mm in length, white or yellowish-green in color, ovoid in shape.

Variety Differences

There are many varieties of lemon, which are divided into two main groups - bushy and tree-like, and the second subgroup is characterized by higher productivity.

Few people know, but depending on the variety, the size of the fruit can vary from pigeon eggs to fruits weighing about 2 kg.

In addition to sizes, fruits of different varieties differ:

1. shape - round, or vice versa, more elongated, pear-shaped, etc .;
2. color - from greenish to yellow with varying degrees of brightness and saturation;
3. thick peel.

The accepted distinction between "lemon" and "lime" has a rather culinary basis. Lime is genetically similar to lemon, and its fruits have a characteristic taste and specific aroma only at a certain ripening stage. In ripe lime fruits, the taste can change right up to sugary-sweet, and the smell loses its vivid expression.

Why so sour?

A significant amount of organic acids, in particular citric and malic, give these fruits a characteristic sour taste. On a pH scale, the difference between adjacent numbers represents a tenfold difference. For example, pH 5 is 10 times more acidic than pH 6, and 100 times more acidic than pH 7, considered neutral. Lemon juice has a pH between 2 and 3, which makes it 10 thousand to 100 thousand times more acidic than water.

How to use it correctly?

Eating lemon just like that, in its pure form, is far from everyone's strength. Mostly drink the juice of these fruits, or add a small slice to a drink, such as tea. In general, the tradition of drinking tea with lemon is distributed mainly in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Abroad, such a combination is even called "tea in Russian."

There is the following method of applying lemons - carefully washed, cut into thin slices together with the peel, the fruits are layered in layers in a bowl with a wide neck, pouring each layer with sugar. The filled container is tightly closed with a lid and left for a while, until the citrus fruits let the juice. The resulting product is consumed with tea or on its own, since sugar softens the pronounced lemon acid. Sometimes sugar is replaced with honey, which further increases the usefulness of the finished product.

Lemon, sprinkled with sugar and powdered coffee, is often served as an appetizer for cognac. It is believed that the author of this recipe was Russian Tsar Nicholas I, so the snack is called "Nikolashka".

In what quantities?

Given the specific taste of these citrus fruits, it is unlikely that there will be a desire to consume them in kilograms. Contrary to popular belief, lemon is not a leader in the content of vitamin C. For example, in blackcurrant the content of this vitamin is 5 times higher, in kiwi - 4.5 times, in oranges - 1.5 times and even white cabbage is superior to lemon in this indicator .

But given that in the winter period it is not so easy to find fresh blackcurrant in our latitudes, lemons, along with other citrus fruits, are the main source of vitamin C.

The citric acid contained in these citrus fruits, which plays an important role in the system of biochemical reactions of cellular respiration, is of great benefit to humans. A single dose of a large dose of concentrated citric acid causes irritation of the gastric mucosa and can even lead to bloody vomiting.

However, getting such a loading dose from lemons is problematic, so you can eat them without fear, although you should remember that any acid irritates the gastric mucosa. For this reason, you should not take undiluted lemon juice or the fruits themselves on an empty stomach.

How much maximum grams is recommended to eat per day?

Like any recommendations from the field of diet, the answer to this question is purely individual for each person. A doctor must indicate the need for certain vitamins, the danger of hypervitaminosis, allergic reactions and food intolerance. There are no general rules on how much lemons can be eaten during the day, and how much can not be - you need to do tests.

Contraindications

Firstly lemons are contraindicated for those who are allergic to citrus fruits. Food allergy is far from a harmless disease - if for one person getting an allergen into the body ends with a couple of unpleasant itchy pimples, then for another person it can end up with Quincke's edema, up to the point of death.

Secondly, the question arises whether it is possible to eat citrus fruits, in particular lemons, for pancreatitis, gastritis with high acidity, during an exacerbation of a stomach ulcer, as well as for people suffering from heartburn attacks, or not. Doctors do not recommend this.

Citric acid aggressively affects tooth enamel - if there are any problems in this area, it is better to refuse to use the lemons themselves and undiluted lemon juice.

Caution should be taken in lemons and all citrus fruits for pregnant women., so as not to form in the baby in the future hypersensitivity to these products.

Is it possible or not to use every day?

Yes, you can, but with some reservations.

• Firstly, if there are no contraindications listed above.
• Secondly, some precautions should be taken: for example, do not drink concentrated lemon juice on an empty stomach, and brush your teeth or even rinse your mouth after eating these fruits. And, of course, eat them in reasonable quantities, not stuffing yourself into yourself through strength, inspired by some kind of new-fangled diet or a recipe for a "wonderful" recovery.

Moreover, Drinking a vitamin C-rich drink such as lemon water daily during meals will help improve the absorption of certain minerals., including iron.

What will happen if taken every day?

Many of us begin to absorb tea with lemon and citrus fruits themselves in shock quantities after they become victims of seasonal colds. Much more reasonable to do preventive maintenance in advance, and in this the lemon will be a great helper. These fruits are quite affordable, they are relatively inexpensive and stored for a long time without losing their useful qualities, which is especially important in the northern latitudes.

As a preventative measure, already in the fall season, you can start taking diluted lemon juice or add a piece of fruit to a cup of tea on duty. This will allow you to get at least part of the required daily dose of vitamin C, which plays an important role in the formation of immunity.

If you eat one whole fruit per day

What will happen if you eat this whole citrus? Most likely, nothing bad will happen to health, again, if you do not have any contraindications to the use of citrus fruits. The daily dose of vitamin C required by an adult is 90 mg, 100 g of lemon contains from 40 to 60 mg. Thus, the amount of vitamin C in one lemon weighing about 150 g is approximately two-thirds of the daily dose.

Ayurveda (the medical science of ancient India that has survived to this day), believes that one lemon per day helps people get rid of most of the known ailments. True, you need to eat fruit to treat various diseases without sugar.

Residents of the north who are deficient in vitamin C due to climatic conditions by eating one lemon each day will protect themselves from the occurrence of such an unpleasant disease as scurvy.

Can I eat at night or in the morning on an empty stomach?

With some reservations, this is entirely possible. As mentioned above, the danger of lemon juice for the stomach lies in the high content of organic acids. To neutralize their irritating effect, you should dilute the lemon juice with water.

A glass of warm water with lemon juice on an empty stomach, immediately after waking up, will allow the body to quickly cheer up and tune in for the upcoming breakfast. After 20-30 minutes, you can start eating.

Chamomile tea with lemon and honey for the night is an excellent sedative that helps to fall asleep and promotes good sleep. The only drawback is the light diuretic effect of this remedy, so you should consider whether to use it at night or not. It makes sense to take such a drink at least 1.5-2 hours before going to bed.

What happens if you take too much?

It is unlikely that it will be possible to eat too much of these citrus fruits precisely because of their specific acidic taste. Again, it is not clear how much is a lot? 1 kg of lemons is unlikely to cause any serious problems., although, most likely, provide heartburn.

An even larger amount, quite possibly, will lead to intestinal upset just because of the saturation of the fruits with organic acids. In general, nothing fatal is likely to happen to a healthy person, but experimenting with your body is still not worth it.

How to drink lemon juice and what helps?

Correctly - in diluted form. This will relieve unpleasant sensations, protect the gastric mucosa and minimize harm to tooth enamel. Lemon juice can be diluted with warm or cool water, depending on the season, optionally adding honey or sugar to taste.

Reference. After digestion in the stomach, lemon juice produces alkaline by-products that make urine more alkaline. Therefore, it is considered alkalizing despite its acidic pH.

Some experts claim that the acidified environment in the body is the cause of many diseases, such as osteoporosis, cataracts, cardiovascular diseases and even cancer.

Despite the sour taste, lemons are leaders in the list of alkalizing products. Lemon juice also contains a small amount of antioxidants, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease by strengthening blood vessels, reducing inflammation and preventing plaque buildup.

In addition, some studies report that regular use of lemon juice for urolithiasis can help prevent the formation of certain types of stones in the kidneys.

Fruit Processing Before Eating

Before you eat fruit, make tea with it or squeeze juice out of it, it will be correct to thoroughly rinse the fruit under running hot water with a sponge or brush. Fruits are delivered to our country from afar, and before they reach the consumer, they go through many hands.

After harvesting, citrus fruits are necessarily treated with the following preservatives: diphenyl, orthophenyl phenol, sodium orthophenyl phenolate, thiabendazole, alkaline salts of fatty acids, beeswax, carnauba wax, some plant resins, polyolefin acids, shellac.

If you plan to make juice from lemons, then thoroughly rinse the fruit under a stream of hot water. In the event that you are going to add fruit slices to tea, sprinkle them with sugar or use the peel for culinary purposes, you need to rinse them under hot water, rubbing soda - this will help get rid of the wax covering the skin of the fruit. After this, it is advisable to pour boiling water over the lemon.

Constantly I want lemons - what is missing in the body?

With sour citrus lovers, everything is clear, but why do you want lemons to an irresistible craving for people who are indifferent to them, and what does this mean? Such an unexpected desire, most likely, signals some hidden need.

The already mentioned Ayurveda believes that taste preferences depend on the composition of a person and the predominance of any element (the so-called dosha) in the body. Suddenly changed taste preferences indicate an imbalance that the body is trying to eliminate with the help of any products.

Also, the cause may be a decreased acidity of the stomach, or an excess of heavy food for digestion. Often the desire to eat something sour arises with an increase in the diet of meat. Instinctively, the body begins to look for foods that facilitate digestion.

Another reason may be a slowdown in metabolism for any reason. Acids contained in lemon, just contribute to its acceleration. A common lack of vitamin C or magnesium can also cause cravings for citruses. The deficiency of this microelement can be compensated not only with lemons, but also with other fruits, raw nuts, seeds or legumes.

Lemons are rich in vitamins and organic acids, while the fruits are affordable and stored for a long time, which makes them one of the main sources of vitamin C in the winter.

Regular consumption of lemon juice will help strengthen the immune system, increase the absorption of trace elements and minerals, reduce risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and prevent the formation of certain types of kidney stones.

Watch the video: Nutrition Advice : Health Benefits of Oranges (November 2024).