Lemon Water Is Useless For Your Health

Why you can leave the lemon out of your water unless you like the taste

Pictured: Tasty, but useless for your health. Photo by Julia Zolotova on Unsplash

Lemon water is one of those fascinating health fads that has somehow never gone away. To this day, there are tens of thousands of articles extolling the amazing benefits of squeezing some lemon into your water. Sometimes it’s with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper added, occasionally it’s lemon/lime for added tartness, and every once in a while you’ll see some mint or stevia thrown in for good measure. But it always comes down to a simple recipe: warm water with a bit of lemon juice, downed at least once a day, will cure whatever ails you.

That might sound like an exaggeration, but here are a handful of the health claims that you can find made for lemon water with a quick Google search:

1. Aids digestion

2. Detoxifies body

3. Heals the body

4. Rejuvenates skin

5. Causes weight loss

6. Improves mood

7. Increases energy

8. Helps your immune system

9. Reduces inflammation

10. Improves joint and muscle health

11. Fights cancer

12. Etc

I could go on. The number of claimed benefits is truly astonishing — if this was all true, we could close down hospitals, fire the doctors, and just gulp liters of lemon water to live forever illness-free.

Unfortunately for all of us, there’s not a shred of evidence that lemon water has any benefits for your wellbeing. It’s true that drinking water is good for you, but the idea that you can make any major improvements to your life by squeezing some citrus into your morning routine is almost certainly untrue.