A glass of warm water with lemon has become part of my morning routine. It's something I sip as I get ready for work. I like the zesty taste, it warms me up and I have been led to believe that it's good for my insides.
But a piece I wrote recently about becoming a morning person got me thinking about this commonly held health habit. So I decided to dig a little deeper, and I've sussed it out from a number of perspectives:
What the Ayurvedic doctor says:
First I went back to Dr Ajit Singh since he was the health professional who gave me the advice. According to his ancient Indian healing methods, the morning drink should consist of half a teaspoon of ginger, half a teaspoon of honey and half a tablespoon of lemon juice. "The purpose of this is to expel the toxins that are building up in our gut area," he says. "The ginger acts as a scraper, the lemon acts as a flusher and honey acts as a binder. This helps to clean up our gut before we start our eating." He said the "toxins" are collected from the food eaten the night before, when the metabolic process slows down. He says it's the sour taste of lemon that is doing all the work. He says sourness is a stimulant that makes the absorption process more effective, and triggers the secretion of enzymes and acid which helps the metabolic function operate at optimum state. He says warm water doesn't work as effectively.
What the dietitian says:
Dietitian Sarah Hanrahan from the the NZ Nutrition Foundation says there's no scientific evidence to suggest that lemon juice in the morning has any great advantage. "The real benefit would be is that it's quite a nice refreshing drink," Hanrahan says. "Sometimes a hot drink in the morning makes you feel better... and drinking that kind of drink, it doesn't have lots of things that you might want to avoid." So there's no harm in the morning brew. She said there might be something in the pectin in lemon peel that is good for the gut, but this couldn't come from floating a slice of skin in warm water. The best way to get your digestive system in peak performance is by eating whole foods, regular meals packed with fibre and fluid. The best thing about getting in to eating habits is that you instinctively cut back on fats and sugars. Lemon juice is a good source of vitamin C, but the whole fruit is better than the juice. Like anything, you can overdo it, and in excess it can actually cause digestive problems, Hanrhan says, although "you'd be hard pushed to eat enough to do that".
