This homemade organic lemonade is really refeshing and hydrating on a hot day. We are really lucky to have a lemon tree on our land so I used organic lemons from our tree and local honey.
Health Benefits Of Lemons:
Lemons have long been valued as a cleansing fruit. Lemon juice is a natural diuretic helping to flush out toxins and reduce fluid retention. Lemons also help protect the liver from free radical damage so that detoxification can occur effectively.
Lemons are an excellent source of Vitamin C, a well known immune supporting nutrient. This multi purpose vitamin is also required for the synthesis of collagen, an essential building block for healthy joints, skin, hair and nails. Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron and it is a powerful antioxidant which mops up ageing, inflammation causing free radicals.
The flavanoids in lemons have been shown, in vitro, to induce apoptosis (destruction of cancerous cells).
Research also shows that lemon juice can help dissolve gall stones (in vitro) and the citric acid and potassium in lemon juice helps prevent calcium oxalate kidney stones.
Although lemons taste acidic, their effect on the body is actually alkaline so they help counteract the acidic load from eating acid forming foods such as meat, fish, diary, grains and processed foods.
Ingredients:
- 3 medium sized organic lemons
- 1-2 dessert spoons of honey*
- A pinch of sea salt or Himalayan salt
- 1.5 litres of water**
* If you prefer to avoid all sugars incuding honey, you can just leave out the honey and still have refreshing lemon water.
**for pure, healthy water I used our Berkey Water Purification System
Method:
Cut the lemons into quarters and squeeze the juice into a large jug
Add the quartered lemons to the jug after you have squeezed out the juice (I would only recommend doing this if you are using organic lemons as you don’t want the pesticide residues and wax used on non organic lemons to leach into your lemonade)
Add a pinch of salt
Add the honey and stir well
Leave in the fridge to chill for a couple for a couple of hours and then enjoy!
Serving suggestons: add a sprig of mint, a stick of cinnamon, sliced strawberries or ginger.
References:
Ogata S1, Miyake Y, Yamamoto K, Okumura K, Taguchi H. Apoptosis induced by the flavonoid from lemon fruit (Citrus limon BURM. f.) and its metabolites in HL-60 cells. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2000 May;64(5):1075-8.
Malika Chekroune1,2 & Salem Benamara 1*Gallstones-dissolving capacity of lemon (Citrus limon) juice, Herniaria hirsuta L. extract and lemon juice-based natural vinaigrette in vitro; 1Laboratoire de Recherche en Technologie Alimentaire (FSI), Université M’Hamed Bougara, Boumerdès, 35000, Algérie; 2Faculté des Sciences de la Nature et de la Vie et des Sciences de la Terre, Université de Bouira, 10000, Algérie
