What are the health benefits of lemons?

Lemons are abundant in vitamin C, fiber, and a variety of plant chemicals that are good to the body.
Several health benefits are attributed to these minerals.
Lemons, in fact, may help with heart health, weight loss, and digestion.
Here are six health benefits of lemons that have been scientifically proven.

1. Encourage heart health
Lemons contain a lot of vitamin C.
One lemon contains roughly 31 milligrams of vitamin C, or 51% of the recommended daily consumption (RDI).
According to studies, eating vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables lowers your risk of heart disease and stroke (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).
It's not just vitamin C, though, that's regarded to be good for your heart. Lemons' fibre and plant components may also help to reduce some of the risk factors for heart disease (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
For example, one study found that daily use of 24 grammes of citrus fiber extract for a month lowered total blood cholesterol levels (6).

2. Assist with weight loss
There are a few ideas as to why lemons are frequently touted as a weight-loss food.
The soluble pectin fiber in them expands in your stomach, making you feel fuller for longer, according to one theory.
However, few individuals consume whole lemons. Lemon juice drinks will not increase fullness in the same way since lemon juice does not include pectin.
Another belief claims that drinking hot water with lemon can aid weight loss.
However, drinking water has been shown to temporarily enhance the number of calories burned, so it's possible that the water, not the lemon, is aiding weight loss (10Trusted Source, 11Trusted Source).

3. Keep Kidney Stones at Bay
Kidney stones are tiny lumps that grow in your kidneys when waste products crystallize and stack up.

They're quite prevalent, and people who get them frequently do so.

Citric acid may help prevent kidney stones by increasing urine volume and pH, making the environment less conducive to the production of kidney stones (15Trusted Source, 16Trusted Source).

In persons who have already had stones, a half-cup (4 ounces or 125 ml) of lemon juice per day may be adequate to help prevent stone formation (17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source).

Lemonade has also been proven to be useful in preventing kidney stones in some trials, but the findings have been mixed. Other studies have found no effect (19Trusted Source, 20Trusted Source, 21Trusted Source, 22Trusted Source, 23Trusted Source, 24Trusted Source, 25Trusted Source, 26Trusted Source, 27Trusted Source, 28Trusted Source

4. Assist in the prevention of anemia
a lack of iron Anemia is a very frequent condition. It occurs when you do not consume enough iron from your diet.
Lemons contain some iron, but their main role in preventing anemia is to improve iron absorption from plant diets (26Trusted Source, 27Trusted Source).
Iron from meat, chicken, and fish (known as heme iron) is easily absorbed by your intestines, whereas iron from plants (non-heme iron) is not. Vitamin C and citric acid, on the other hand, can help with absorption.
Lemons, which contain both vitamin C and citric acid, may help to prevent anemia by ensuring that you get the most iron from your diet.

5. Improve your digestive system's health
Lemons contain about 10% carbohydrates, primarily in the form of soluble fiber and simple sugars.

Lemons are high in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that has been linked to a variety of health advantages.

Soluble fibre can help to promote gut health and reduce sugar and carbohydrate breakdown. Blood sugar levels may be lowered as a result of these effects (41Trusted Source, 42Trusted Source, 43Trusted Source, 44Trusted Source).

To obtain the fibre benefits from lemons, though, you must eat the pulp.

Without the fiber included in the pulp, people who drink lemon juice will miss out on the fiber's benefits.