Tags
Today is a lesson on lemons, but don’t pucker up just yet.
Lemon contains Vitamin C, a necessity for the formation of blood vessels, cartilage, muscle and collagen in bones. Vitamin C also helps your body absorb and store iron. It’s vital to healing and as an antioxidant, protects cells against heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Vitamin C is a natural diuretic, and is known for its cleansing properties. Drinking hot water with lemon is extremely good for you. So it would stand to reason that we could assume it would be extremely good for you in tea as well. But to get your daily allotment for 1 day, you would have to drink approximately 1 cup of lemon juice. That’s a lot of lemon! And a lot of cups of tea!
Catechins are the main health compounds in tea. They are tied to reduced risk of cancer, heart attack, and other diseases, but our guts don’t absorb them well. Catechins are unstable and breakdown quickly so that less than 20% remain after digestion. But studies using green tea suggest that adding citrus juice can help the body absorb more healthy catechins and may stabilize catechins so that up to 80% remain after digestion.
Did you know…
Both colour and flavour are affected by the oxidation and fermentation processes on harvested tea leaves but overall brewed black tea is a strong reddish-brown colour. Lemon is a strong acid and when added to tea made with hard water (an alkaline), for example, the lemon reduces the ph balance and lightens the colour of your tea.
When life hands you lemons, slice them and put them in your tea.
Happy Monday!
Why does lemon juice lighten the colour of tea
The photo looks so lifelike, I could grab the cup handle and take a sip. Yes, I use lemon, SLICED, with my tea too!
I usually drink mine black, like my grandmother. I was too shy to ask for milk so learned to drink it this way. But lemon once in awhile breaks tradition, which is a good thing every once in awhile. 🙂