Drinking a cup of hot water and lemon is a morning ritual for millions of people, including Beyoncé and Jennifer Aniston.
They do this in the belief that it is ‘good’ for the liver and boosts the digestive system. But drinking hot water with limes, water infused with limes, can actually undermine your efforts to be healthy.
Dentist Hannah Woolnow, a spokeswoman for the British Dental Association, says: “The habit of drinking hot water and limes is frequently mismarketed as a cure-all for a multitude of health conditions. But what is most worrying is the damage this habit can do to your teeth – which in many cases is permanent. cases and cannot be reversed.
Dentist Nilesh Parmar, who runs Parmar Dental in Essex, agrees: “I know a lot of patients who drink lime water and I really wish they didn’t. They do it in the false belief that they are choosing a healthy option because that’s what they hear.”
There is no evidence to support the idea that drinking hot water and lemon will ‘cleanse or detoxify the liver’ as it is claimed, says Professor David Lloyd, Consultant Hepatologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary, to ‘detoxify’ the liver or rather heal the damage done. With your liver, you have to stop doing the things that make it work so hard and cause problems in the first place like drinking alcohol or using drugs.
This, in addition to drinking about two liters of water per day, will keep the liver healthy. A cup of hot water and lemon can’t do that. Furthermore, the function of the liver is to detoxify, and there is no such thing as “detoxing” the liver itself.
Dr Stephen Mann, consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, says there is equally little evidence to support the use of hot water and lemon as a digestive aid. He vehemently rejects the notion, proposed by some ‘natural health experts’, that hot water and lemon will stimulate gastric juice, helping to push things forward (by stimulating wave-like muscle contractions).
“The only thing that water and lemons do is replace fluids, which is essential to maintaining hydration – but that’s because of the water, not the lemons,” he says.
Furthermore, people who are prone to reflux — where acid and other stomach contents are backed up into the throat — will find that lemon water exacerbates the problem because it is acidic.
And when it comes to teeth, hot water with lemon isn’t healthy — not least because lemon juice is highly acidic and can dissolve the hard, protective enamel surface over time. Enamel damage can also cause pain and sensitivity as it exposes nerve endings.
2023-07-12 05:34:50
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