Alright, folks, time to cleanse your body, mind and spirit from all evil that’s accumulated over the years and we’re gonna use lemon water. Step one: put a lemon in your water. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. That’s how you make lemon water. Shocking, but you really don’t need any education to prepare this refreshing and healthy drink in the morning or whenever you feel like giving your body a little health boost. However, if you do want to know whether lemon water is good for you and whether it can actually do magic tricks like sweeping 10 pounds of waste out of your colon in 1 second as I read somewhere – read more below.

Now, let’s be real here. With all the crazy claims about lemon water and what it can do, it’s easy to forget that it’s actually your body doing all the dirty work like cleaning out all the crap you ate and controlling your blood pH, so that you don’t have to think about it. But, yeah, lemon water gets all the fame. I’m not here to hate on this refreshing drink, it’s good for you, way better than coffee, so let’s focus on the benefits.

1. Lemon Water Is Hydrating

Aren’t you glad, this information is free? Imagine if we lived in a world where you had to pay for someone to tell you water is hydrating. Well, but here’s the thing. You rehydrating your body after sleeping for 6-8 hours is the biggest benefit you can get from drinking lemon water. Proper hydration is important for your gut health, your energy levels, your mental health and believe it or not drinking more water can actually help you burn more calories. (source) That’s right, that claim didn’t just jump out of someone’s butt.

So that’s the way the body’s supposed to be. But, what do we usually drink in the morning? Anyone? Okay, I’ll tell you. It’s Coffee. The good old cafe con leche. The espresso. What does coffee do? It dehydrates the crap out of your body and turns it into a raisin.

A human-sized raisin. If you don’t want to turn into a raisin, skip the coffee and drink your water, or lemon water to get a lil’ vitamin C-boost as well

2. Lemon Water Can Boost Your Mood

Getting enough water into your system is also important for your nervous system and your mental health. But, adding that lemon to the water can make things even more interesting. See vitamin C, which we all agree is the only nutrient found in lemons (jk), can benefit your mental health.

Your body needs vitamin C to make dopamine, noradrenaline and maybe serotonin (source) – all needed for you to feel happier.

High vitamin C blood levels were shown to be inversely related to depression, anger, and confusion in young men. (source)

3. Lemon Water Is Good For Your Skin

Again, choosing vitamin C for its only nutrient is the best decision lemon ever made. Vitamin C is crucial for the making of collagen, you know the protein that’s holding your body together and keeping your skin young and fresh?… The thing that everyone’s drinking right now? That’s right, you got it!

Did you know you could produce collagen yourself? You just need to get enough vitamin C! And that works at any age, you can be over 70 and vitamin C can still work its anti-aging magic on your skin. (study) Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, it’s a well-kept secret. But yes, you can. Don’t you dare tell me you cannot! I believe in you.

Another reason why lemon water’s good for your skin, and I’m painfully repeating myself: you’re getting hydrated. The cells in your body don’t have to shrink like raisins, pour some water in them and let them get plump and juicy. This way your skin will look smooth, fresh and healthy.

4. Lemon Water For More Energy

Again, let’s talk about vitamin C, because I feel like I’m not a broken enough record right now. Ascorbic acid, the good old C magic.

Turns out that humble antioxidant isn’t just required to make collagen. It’s also needed to help make carnitine, which is crucial for energy production. (source)

When you don’t have vitamin C, you can’t make that energy. A little lemon water here and there helps prevent scurvy and the fatigue that comes with it.

5. Lemon Water Is Alkaline

Now everyone’s gonna think I’m some hippie that believes your body’s acidic if you eat candy and not broccoli. Don’t worry. I know your blood pH will not change just because you drank a glass of water with a slice of lemon in it.

But, I also know that foods like sugar, meat and something like coffee are in fact acid-forming foods. Eating them will not affect your blood pH at all. But this acidity can degrade, little by little, tissues in your body – like your muscles or your bones. Why?

Well, the reason is, the acid that is formed when metabolizing these foods needs to get out of your body somehow. It’s not welcome there. And that’s the problem here. We need to neutralize this acid, so that it can go through the kidneys and get out of there ASAP. We can do this by eating enough vegetables since they contain acid-neutralizing minerals. But if we don’t, we’ll get those minerals from the body’s biggest mineral reserves: the bones and the muscles.

Drinking some lemon water throughout the day, even if you’re not eating perfectly, can help provide those acid-neutralizing molecules, so that your body doesn’t use its own reserves.

Okay, I think I squeezed everything out of that lemon water and its benefits. Let’s be real, it’s not magic. But it’s easy to make, doesn’t cost much and it’s a good way to add some extra vitamin C, other antioxidants and water to your diet. Plus it doesn’t cost a ton of calories, almost none.