What If You Drink Lemon Water For 30 Days?

Hello Health Champions. Today we're going to  talk about what would happen if you were to drink  

lemon water every day for 30 days. You may be  surprised by some of the benefits you will learn  

plus at the end we're going to talk about under  what circumstances you really want to drink  

lemon water. Lemon water is supposed to help with  all kinds of things such as kidney stones and  

cancer and heart disease it's supposed to help you  lose weight and help with anxiety and depression  

reduce anemia improve your digestion cleanse the  liver and even lower cholesterol and help with  

cardiovascular disease and stroke so in today's  video I want to help you understand which ones  

of these claims might actually be valid and  which ones you want to take with a grain of  

salt what about kidney stones well kidney  stones are primarily made up of calcium and  

oxalates and lemon contain citric acid or citrate  and this citrate can bind with these oxalate  

and transport them out of the body without forming  stones so the citrate can actually protect you  

from kidney stones however keep  in mind that it takes quite a bit  

so if you have a problem with kidney stones it's  probably a good idea to drink some lemon juice  

but you would have to have about half a cup of  concentrated lemon juice in order to have enough  

citric acid to really make a difference but that's  not all that much so you could certainly do that  

so we put a green check mark on kidney stones  but it's probably gonna take a little more than  

squeezing a wedge of lime in there how about  reducing cancer can it do that well there's  

some research that suggests that phytonutrients in  lemons can actually kill certain cancer cells but  

they did this in a test tube and when they do  it in a test tube you have to ask yourself how  

does this translate to the human body what  kind of dosage did they use can we replicate  

that dosage and get any kind of effect in  the human body and you also have to ask  

are they really going to spend millions of dollars  on research just to make some lemon farmers happy  

I don't think so I think they're doing it so that  they can extract one molecule and mass produce it  

and sell it as a medication so chances are that  the concentrations that they use in a test tube  

would be vastly higher than what you can get from  drinking lemon water so here just my opinion I  

would give it a question mark but then again lemon  water is not going to hurt you so what's the harm  

can lemon water protect you from heart disease  well someone claimed that research showed  

that eating fruits and vegetables high  in vitamin c can protect you from stroke  

and cardiovascular disease and then they  concluded that lemons are high in vitamin c  

and then they said therefore lemons protect  you from heart disease so here's the problem  

the research doesn't say anything about the  vitamin c being the protective thing it just says  

certain vegetables are good for your heart and  they happen to be high in vitamin c so we don't  

know if it's that or something else that helps  so we have no idea if it's actually the vitamin c  

in the lemon that's going to help so they're  just two totally unrelated statements that they  

put together and draw some conclusions so I'm not  saying that lemons are bad for your heart or that  

they wouldn't protect it I'm just saying you can't  make this kind of deductive reasoning it's not  

valid and there's all kinds of claims  out there they find a shred of evidence  

and they extrapolate on it and then make some  wild claims here's another wonderful piece i  

found it says it helps losing weight because lemon  juice is high in fiber and that helps suppress  

feelings of hunger now that's a little surprising  I never thought of lemon juice as a high fiber  

food so why don't we go check the facts if you  drink raw lemon juice and let's say that you take  

2 tablespoons 1 ounce 30 grams of lemon juice then  you're going to get 0.1 grams of fiber which is  

0 of your daily recommendation someone else  claimed that lemon water can help with anxiety  

and depression and the reasoning for this was that  sodium and potassium are the two mineral ions in  

the body that are responsible for signaling in  the nervous system and that's absolutely true  

and you can get neurological symptoms if  your levels of potassium go extremely low  

so a normal level of potassium is about three  and a half to five point two but you really  

have to get down to about three or less before you  start seeing symptoms and this is extremely rare  

personally I don't think I've ever seen a blood  test out of hundreds and hundreds that has been  

under four so potassium deficiency to that degree  is kind of rare then they said that lemon is rich  

in potassium and therefore lemon water can help  with anxiety and depression now first of all a  

potassium deficiency would probably not even make  the top 50 list of things that can cause anxiety  

and depression but let's just bear with them and  then go check the facts again now let's double the  

dose of lemon juice we take 60 grams or a quarter  cup of lemon juice and that gives us 62 milligrams  

of potassium which doesn't seem so bad but that's  only one percent of your recommended daily intake  

so the claim that lemons are rich in potassium  is incorrect and that it would help with anxiety  

and depression is just extremely far-fetched in  fact if you want to supplement some potassium  

then you would have to drink three full cups of  concentrated lemon juice to equal what you get in  

about one large avocado I think I know which one  I would prefer and if you truly had symptoms like  

anxiety and depression you were that deficient  in potassium then you would probably want to have  

a therapeutic dose something like the  full 100 daily allowance of potassium  

which means that you would need to drink  1.2 gallons of concentrated lemon juice  

or 4.6 liters and if you were to do that of course  you would also get 317 grams of carbohydrate  

and 116 grams of sugar but bless your heart if you  were to drink over a gallon of lemon juice then  

you earned yourself a little sugar but seriously  there are actually some potential benefits  

if we understand the mechanism what some of these  ingredients do then it would actually make sense  

why it could reduce anemia why it can help  digestion it can even help cleanse the liver  

it might help lower or improve cholesterol  and you could even make an argument for why  

it could help you lose weight and help reduce some  cardiovascular disease and stroke let's start with  

anemia and citric acid just like the name says  is an acid that means it has a very low pH and pH  

is very important for signaling in the  body so when we have citric acid which is  

acidic then it's going to signal and increase the  production of hydrochloric acid so that we start  

making acids we reduce the pH in the stomach  much sooner than we would otherwise and with  

a lower pH in the stomach we're actually  going to improve the absorption of iron  

and this is especially important for vegans  because the type of iron in plants is different  

it's called non-heme iron versus the heme iron  that we have in meat and animal products and it's  

much easier to absorb the heme iron whereas  it's very difficult to absorb the non-heme  

iron without the acid so if you're vegetarian  especially then that can absolutely help to  

increase your acidity a little bit and potentially  reduce your anemia and that increased acidity  

can already help improve your digestion but  it can do one more thing because this acid  

further stimulates and signals and it  stimulates something called CCK which stands for  

cholecystokinin and that's a hormone that is  responsible for kicking the gallbladder into  

gear it makes the gallbladder contract and release  bile and bile is another component so we need acid  

to break down proteins to stimulate pepsinogen  to become pepsin which is an enzyme to break  

down protein but then the cholecystokinin helps  release bile and this bile helps digest fat but  

interestingly this can also help cleanse the liver  because what the liver does it basically takes fat  

soluble toxins and renders them harmless by making  them water soluble and then it dumps these water  

soluble end products into the bile and that's  one way that we get rid of things it's a main  

method that the liver gets rid of toxins by  dumping them in the bile which are stored in  

the gallbladder but then the cholecystokinin  comes in and makes the gallbladder squeeze  

and release some of that toxin so there's  a dual purpose here it helps us get rid of  

toxins and it helps us digest fats better but  without the acid without the cholecystokinin  

the gallbladder can become sluggish it  gets backed up and if it gets backed up  

now the liver doesn't really have a place to dump  its toxins so the outflow of the liver gets slowed  

down or clogged up so with acid we can keep that  process going and allow the liver more easy exit  

of the toxins now this same mechanism can even  help your body regulate cholesterol and the reason  

is that bile is made from cholesterol so when we  have a stagnant gallbladder if we're not flushing  

out that bile then there is no reason for the  body to make new bile because it's clogged up  

and then if we release that gallbladder if we  empty that on a regular basis then we need to  

make more bile we need to make nubile  from cholesterol so that helps us keep  

that cholesterol in circulation and it helps the  body regulate cholesterol when there's a turnover  

but now this story gets really interesting  and this has to do with how carbohydrates  

are digested in the body so in the mouth you  have saliva and there's something called salivary  

amylase and this is an enzyme that breaks down  carbohydrates we have some in the mouth and  

then in a pancreas we have pancreatic amylase and  they used to think that the salivary amylase just  

worked while you were chewing for a few minutes  and then when the salivary amylase got into the  

stomach it was neutralized by the acid because  that's what happened it's an enzyme and as soon  

as there's some acid it degrades and degenerates  that that enzyme but what actually happens  

is that the acid in the stomach could  take 30 minutes 60 minutes or sometimes  

even more and during all that time the salivary  amylase is digesting carbohydrates in the stomach  

so if you eat just carbohydrates like bread with  nothing else with it then all of that or most of  

that carbohydrate is going to be quickly digested  in your stomach and spike your blood sugar and  

your insulin but if you take something sour like  citric acid with that bread not that I suggest you  

would eat bread but if you did then that citric  acid would inhibit the salivary amylase because it  

would stimulate the hydrochloric acid much sooner  and now we don't have that spike of blood sugar  

and insulin because it doesn't happen so quickly  anymore now this alone would not solve all of  

your metabolic problems and reverse diabetes  and cardiovascular disease and all that but it  

would be hugely important in reducing the spikes  of blood sugar and insulin and one of the most  

important things about blood sugar is to keep it  stable that's stable is even more important than  

low because the unstable has tremendously harmful  effects on the body and if you can stabilize the  

blood sugar a little bit then you're probably not  going to get as hungry either so for someone who  

is relatively carbohydrate tolerant and who  is just maintaining their health this would  

be a really cool trick because you can just take  some apple cider vinegar or some citric acid from  

lemon with your food and you would dramatically  reduce the blood sugar spikes however if you are  

metabolically unhealthy if you have diabetes  if you're trying to reverse a condition if  

you're carbohydrate intolerant then you need to  realize that you still have the exact same amount  

of carbohydrate and therefore you don't really  want to rely on this method because you're still  

going to drive a lot of insulin it's just going  to be spread out over a longer period of time  

but nonetheless it could certainly have some  benefit for heart disease and stroke because  

it would stabilize blood sugar it would be a  good step toward metabolic health now what can  

you expect if you drink lemon water every day for  30 days well one video I found there was a lady  

talking about how she had a lifelong struggle  with weight and then this cartoon character  

went on to tell us that she lost 20 pounds in 30  days and now that sounds really really impressive  

that's kind of hard to believe but I have to  tell you I was totally convinced when they showed  

visual proof of how this cartoon character lost  all that weight I mean I've never seen anything  

like that just imagine in 30 days and then this  cartoon character instructed us to immediately go  

to the kitchen and make a glass of this magical  drink and I'm having a little bit of fun with them  

but there were actually some testimonials like  this one he says that it does work because he lost  

10 kilograms in three months and that's pretty  impressive that is 1.8 pounds per week or about  

0.8 kilograms so that would be pretty impressive  if that was due to lemon juice alone but he does  

go on to say that he also cut out all junk food  that's a huge step when you change from processed  

junk with no nutrition to actual real food that's  one of the most important steps that you can do  

and then he went on to say that he stopped eating  after five o'clock now that is called intermittent  

fasting that is time restricted fasting and  that is huge that is maybe even a bigger step  

than just learning to eat real food so  if you combine those two that's fantastic  

but it doesn't even stop there because he even  goes on to say that he added some workouts he did  

daily aerobic exercise and then he says if  you do all this with the lemon water then  

you will see results and i have no doubt because  he is doing the things that we're talking about  

on the channel about eating real food time  restricted feeding and getting some exercise  

and did the lemon water play any role in this  I think it did I think it might be that last  

one percent but we have to put this in perspective  and understand the bigger picture so in 30 days  

you could probably see some definite benefits  like we talked about the mechanism is sound  

I just want to bet my entire health on  drinking lemon water however here is the  

number one reason to drink lemon water and that  is if you enjoy the flavor I love lemon water  

I drink lemon water almost every day I add  it to bubbly water I add lemon to virtually  

every food there's hardly a dish in the house  that doesn't have some lemon in it because I just  

absolutely love the flavor of lemon or lime but  if you're looking for some massive health benefits  

then I would ask what else would you do what  else did you do during those 30 days and maybe  

for some it may just be that you used to drink  soda and now you drink lemon water and if you  

drank a six pack of soda and you now drink lemon  water that alone could be transformative you just  

have a new quality of life from that piece alone  but another big piece of this that a lot of people  

don't realize is mental when you set out to do  something for 30 days that has tremendous power  

because all of a sudden you feel better about  yourself so just like the guy who left the  

testimonial he talked about drinking lemon  water but actually he changed his whole life  

at the same time and people have a tendency to do  that when you make a decision and say I'm going to  

try this I'm going to do this then very often you  start doing other things as well because you feel  

better about yourself so maybe you end up joining  a gym and getting some more exercise and maybe you  

start walking more getting some more exercise on a  regular basis or you take the dog out but you go a  

little further maybe you skip that cookie and eat  a lot less sugar maybe you stop drinking so much  

and maybe you start sleeping better now that you  have more even blood sugar and you're tired from  

all that workout and that is how you really got some  truly amazing benefits from drinking lemon water  

and then of course you go tell all your friends  how you changed your life with lemon water  

now you're too smart for that if you enjoyed this  video you're gonna love that one and if you truly  

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