Squinting your eyes already? Clicking your tongue? Regretting why you ever stated you could put half a lemon in your mouth and not make a face?
It’s a feeling we’ve all experienced. If not all, most of us definitely. We’ve very confidently challenged our siblings to do the same, and we’ve lost miserably. Even after all this agony, you might be wondering why we still call lemon the “souring saviour”? Easy. Let us take you on this acidic journey of some sour, some bitter but mostly, refreshing memories.
Do you remember the race you had to run for your sports day, with a fresh looking lemon placed on the spoon? For starters, we bet it was fresh looking owing to its preservation in a Liebherr. But otherwise, for most of us it was our very first encounter with this citrus fruit. While we did not taste it directly, we did get a hint of the hype back then. From then on, there wasn’t a single place we didn’t see it at. Restaurants added it to our finger bowls, parents added it to milk to curdle it, our siblings added a squeeze of it to the freshly sliced cucumber. But what did we do? We just sat and admired it from a distance. Worried that it would be way more sour than imagined.
But then we squeezed it a little more in our finger bowls. We relished homemade curd more than anything. We stole a cucumber slice or two from our siblings with a whole lot of pride. We slowly transitioned from lemon haters, to the flag bearers of this citrus favourite. Now we add it to our soup, cheesecake, pasta, tea and almost everything under the sun. It isn’t just its addictive souring flavour that got us adding lemon to everything, but also the various benefits that it provides. A few of them are as follows:
See The Vitamin C
An excellent source of Vitamin C, lemons keep those heart issues at bay. If that wasn’t enough, lemons also ensure reduced cholesterol levels amongst individuals.
Hydration Is Key
While water is enough to keep you hydrated, adding in a squeeze of lemon juice only proves to be beneficial. Not only will it add Vitamin C to your regular diet, but it will also add flavour to the mundane taste of water.
Souring Fitness
Lemons also aid in managing your weight and keeping you fit. It is due to the pectin fiber present in lemons, that helps you fill up before time and hence, reduces your appetite to a great extent.
Digesting The Facts
The most popular benefit of consuming lemon is that it aids in digestion.
Oral Health
The juice of a lemon is widely used as a makeshift mouthwash, of course in the absence of a real one. It helps whiten teeth, removes plaque and strengthens the enamel. It is because of a lemon’s high Vitamin C content, that makes it so versatile even as a mouthwash.
You can love it, you can hate it, but what you can’t do is ignore the click of the tongue, the squinting of eyes, and the face one makes when the juice of a lemon touches the tip of your tongue. You made that face now, didn’t you? It’s alright. Try not to be bitter, rather just ‘squeeze’ the day!
