Food Focus : Lemons

Lemon has long been known as one of the best food ingredients for detox. It really helps cleanse your system, primarily via the liver, kidneys, and gallbladder, not to mention helping to restart your entire body.

Benefits of adding lemon to your daily routine…

One of the key benefits of using lemons in your detox is that they alkalize your body.

Although lemons are acidic, they can actually help create a more alkaline environment within, which is vital for detoxing your system and getting back on track.

Lemons also help clean and detox the colon and liver. This makes digestion easier and can help remove toxins more efficiently from your system. If you have had gallstones, kidney stones, or calcium deposits in the past, lemon can help reduce or remove the risks of having them occur again, especially during a detox.

In addition to these benefits, a single lemon can also provide over 80% of the Vitamin C you need in a day.

I love to start the day with warm water and lemon with a touch of ginger. I just fill a mug with hot/ boiling water, add the juice of half a lemon (juice a fresh lemon rather than add lemon juice from a bottle) and a teaspoon of grated, fresh ginger. 

Another super-easy way to add lemons to your daily diet routine is to use them in a juice recipe. 

You can easily add them to any type of juice recipe – you’ll find some great ideas for juices in the recipe book that’s with this programme. If this doesn’t work for you, you can add lemon to lemon-infused water recipes. Lemon and mint are a popular combination. Just put the lemons and mint in the water and let it sit overnight.

Detox salad with lemon

Lemon is a great flavour addition to a salad. Think of fruits and veggies you believe taste good with lemon, such as carrots, kale or spinach, strawberries, beetroot and avocado. You can also add some nuts for more protein and extra superfood goodness, like walnuts or almonds. Squeeze over some lemon juice, or even make your own dressing with lemon juice, your choice of oil, and garlic.

Lemon ice cubes

Don’t want to worry about a complicated lemon detox recipe? You don’t have to. All you need to do is make some detox lemon ice cubes, add them to your water, and you’re good to go. You want to use spring water or filtered water and the juice of organic lemons when making the ice cubes.