I’ve been drinking lemon or grapefruit juice diluted into water the first thing every morning for decades, literally. Yes decades, without going further into dating myself here.
While I too get real tired of wild claims about this or that diet, mainly because there is never good science behind, I do not tire of the potential of understanding foods therapeutic impact on the body. Having worked with nutrition for 20 years, I have seen so many diets come and go, it drives me nuts, that we have to make something so simple, so very complicated.
It is actually quite simple: stop eating extremes, stop eating restrictive, figure out why your health is not good and treat the underlying cause of that.
Currently we are seeing two very different takes on health and nutrition. One group of people where health has turned into a religion, obsessing over every bite and nutrient - making up nonsense claims like “oats are toxic” “legumes are the reason you’re sick” and every bite on the plate must be there for a purpose and so forth. An extreme obsession with health for all the wrong reasons - health is supposed to make us thrive effortlessly, not cause us to obsess and fear. Many of these wild claims are more often than not made by uneducated people in nutrition.
Then we have another group of people, who get very upset if you talk about what food can do for our body, insisting that a calorie is a calorie, and if you are sick go to your doctor. While we should always go to our doctor if we are sick, that does not mean we can’t and shouldn’t take a preventative approach to illness into our own hands.
Most diseases are lifestyle related, so we do have some control over our health, if we choose to. Of course, more and more illnesses related to environmental toxins are occurring and that is a slightly different approach we need to take, as that has little to do with our eating and lifestyle habits.
I am both slightly amused and annoyed that there is a push-back right now against talking about the truly miraculous benefits that come from what we eat. Some of this pushback comes from therapists or influencers who themselves have had a very disordered relationship with food and now in their early state of recovery still are experiencing panic attacks, if anyone dares questions whether a calorie is just a calorie. I think we need to focus on our own plate - literally - as everyone has their own path to health. And because something triggers our own issues, doesn’t mean that it is “an issue”. And of course someone who is still scared of slipping back into an eating disorder might not want to hear about “superfoods” and stuff cos their mind is wired to go all out - so they should navigate around that type of information. Just like a cancer patient shouldn’t be following diet advice geared for someone who is anorexic.
Understanding how nature and food is filled with naturally occurring healing substances, can be super motivational to adapt new habits that cater for health.
The fact of the matter is calories are NOT created equal.
Yet there is no reason to cut entire food groups out or be scared of a peanut butter cup, as it doesn’t matter if 80% of what you eat is whole-food based and nutrient dense. We tend to make it black-or-white, because moderation is a tricky concept for our small minds to grasp.
But actually when you understand that yes your body will function just fine and it is not going to make a biochemical difference whether you have dessert or not (unless your overeat - eating excess calories will results in weight gain regardless of source), that can actually be a real game changer in navigating health and enjoying your life bite, by bite.
I am all for not going orthorexic and glutenfree just for the sake of it, I definitely have my daily cake and all. There is, however, no denying that foods have lots of therapeutic benefits for us, when we understand them and match them with our body’s circadian rhythm and detox schedule.
And lemon juice just happens to fit into that description: it helps stimulate bile flow and greatly aids in liver function. And there is no better time for that than in the morning when our body is in a fasted state: primed for natural detoxification to take place and thus it makes a lot of sense to eat/drink something that will help our liver do just that.
So yes: I am all for this “trend” - start your day by hydrating your dehydrated body with water and liver-healthy citrus juices.
Read the full study here on lemon juices liver-detoxifying benefits: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28567423/