Lemon: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits
What is Lemon Fruit?
A Lemon is a bright yellow, oval shape citrus fruit. It is famous for its unique acidic juicy flavor. we use almost every part of it in cooking or cleaning purposes. we use Lemon juice to enhance the flavor of beverages, or as a garnish in seafood recipes or other dishes. There are many health benefits of the lemon. It is rich in Vitamin C and small amounts of Vitamin B, A and E as well as minerals like Potassium, magnesium, Calcium etc. They are naturally low in Calories and are available all year long.
nutrition facts of a lemon
Nutrition facts: Lemon consists mainly of water, and carbohydrates but negligible amount of protein and fats. According to USDA lemon contain below nutritional values.
Total Calories in Lemon
One medium lemon (without peel) measuring approx. 2-1/8″ in diameter (almost 58g) gives only 17 Calories.
how many Carbs are in lemon
It consists of 5.4 g Carbohydrates. Which is 2% of your total daily requirement.
According to Glycemic Index Lemon is a low GI food having GI of 20. Glycemic Index is a parameter to measure how a food affects blood sugar level.
Even when we eat lemon with other high GI foods. It slows down the conversion of starch to sugar lowering their GI. (1)
Sugar
It contains about 1.5 g sugar. Sugar part is mainly consists of simple sugars like Glucose, Sucrose and Fructose (2)
Sour taste of lemon is mainly due to high citric acid content in it.
Dietary Fiber
Carbs in lemon mainly consists of its fiber content. Pectin is a major type of fiber in this fruit. It is soluble fiber which lower blood sugar level and helps lower absorption of simple sugars like sucrose etc.
Total Fat
If you consume whole lemon fruit then you’ll get almost 0.2g of fat. which is negligible.
Protein
It contains <1g of Protein. which is also very small amount. making it not a good source of protein.
Vitamins & Minerals
It provides numerous vitamin and minerals
Vitamin C
It is a main component of this fruit. 1 lemon can satisfy 34% of your daily value requirement. Eventually improving your immunity and skin health. (3)
Vitamin B6
This fruit can give you up to 4.7% your daily value of vitamin B6.
Potassium
Giving your body 1.7% of your Daily value. Potassium not only help lower blood pressure but also help your heart to be healthy (4)
Health Benefits of Lemon
Apart from culinary uses, lemons have multiple potential health benefits. The high amount of Vitamin C content make this fruit superior for boosting immune health, skin health etc. Lemons also help aid digestion, help detoxify our body and acts as a natural diuretic.
how to improve heart health
A study conducted in Finland, finds out that Vitamin C in lemon protect your heart from stroke or other heart diseases especially if you are obese or having high blood pressure issues. (5)
Another study explain how Vitamin C help our cardiovascular system. It alleviates adherence of monocytes to the endothelium (inner lining of veins) which improves production of endothelium-dependent Nitric Oxide helping vasodilation. It lowers vascular smooth muscle-cell apoptosis and prevent plague instability in atherosclerosis. (6)
prevention of vitamin c deficiency
Lemons are high in Vitamin C. almost 34.2% of Daily Recommended intake. It helps many disease like scurvy etc. It also elevate immune system which protect us from diseases. (7)
prevention of kidney stones
Lemon or Lemon juice both contain almost 1.44g and 1.38g/oz Citric Acid respectively. (8) which is quite high amount as compared to other citrus fruits.
Another research suggests that consuming fruit juices high in Citric acid & Potassium prevent formation of kidney stones. It also increase urine volume. Citrate in urine prevent stone formation by two mechanisms. Firstly, it binds with urinary calcium, resulting lowering supersaturation of urine. Secondly, it binds with Calcium oxalate crystals and prevent crystal formation. (9)
prevention of anemia disease
Anemia is mainly caused by iron deficiency. Although Lemon contain small amount of iron but vitamin C and citric acid is known to enhance iron absorption in the body. ultimately, alleviating iron deficiency.
how to prevent cancer
Including lemon in your diet may reduce the risks of cancer even breast cancer. Some studies suggest that due to the compounds like hesperidin and d-limonene in lemons. but still more research is required in this subject. (10)
