Health Benefits of Lemons and Limes
Lemons and Limes
Some 200 years ago, men who would go on long voyages knew their chances of returning alive were not that good - not because of pirates or deadly storms but because of the disease scurvy. Nearly two-thirds of the crew wouldn’t make it. It wasn’t known at the time that the culprit was a lack of vitamin C (because the ship’s cook used up his fresh fruits and vegetables early in the voyage).
It was later discovered by a British physician that citrus fruits were able to quickly cure sailors with scurvy. Unfortunately, it was 50 years before the British Navy made use of the information and required all navy vessels to provide lime juice to every sailor daily. The term “limey” was applied to the British sailors in mockery because of this requirement.
The other name for vitamin C is ascorbic acid, literally meaning “no scurvy”.
Health Benefits of Lemons of Limes
Lemons and limes are both a good source of vitamin C (lemons have 4mg and limes have 19mg).
Besides preventing scurvy, vitamin C is needed to produce and maintain collagen (a protein that forms all connective tissue, including skin, bones, teeth, and tendons), protect against infections, and promote the absorption of iron. Vitamin C is also a powerful antioxidant that protects water-soluble substances from oxidation by being oxidized itself instead.
Lemons and limes contain other antioxidant substances and are a good source of potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron.
The health benefits of lemons and limes include helping in the…
- prevention and treatment of colds, influenza, fever, sore throats, and ear infections
- treatment of constipation
- treatment of intestinal parasites
- treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis
- prevention of cancers, including stomach, colon, lung, breast, skin, and mouth
- prevention and treatment of high cholesterol
- prevention of heart disease.
You should dilute the juice of lemons and limes with water before taking because the acid in concentrated juice can be harmful to the enamel of your teeth.
Besides getting the health benefits from lemons and limes in a nice cold glass of lemonade or limeade, you can add either to herbal teas to enhance their healing properties.
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