This Is the Best Fruit For Total Health
FAQ: What's the Healthiest Fruit?
Lemons are, after all, the most nutritionally powerful fruit on the planet, according to a report published by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that ranked 27 "powerhouse fruits and vegetables." Of all the fruit-bowl variety foods analyzed, lemons took top honors.
The juice of just half a lemon will feed your cells with more than 100 percent of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C—a powerful antioxidant shown to slash the risk of cardiovascular disease significantly. What's more, making sure you get your fill of vitamin C can boost fat-burning by as much as 25 percent and whittle your waist, according to one study.
Refresh Yourself
How about a little detox water? A few slices of whole lemon tossed in a water bottle has serious detoxifying benefits. The rind is loaded with de-limonene, a compound that gives the fruit its fresh scent and also helps activate liver enzymes to flush bloating toxins from the body.
Top Off Your Protein
And atop simply grilled fish, a few fresh rings can protect your body from mercury. That's thanks to pectin — a gel-like fiber found in both the pith and rind that acts like a magnet for heavy metals and helps excrete them from the body through the urine. As a best-body bonus, pectin may also limit fat absorption.
Shake Up Your Tea
Wondering how you should take your tea? Take it with lemon. Adding the vitamin-C-rich juice to a cuppa has shown to preserve disease-fighting catechins otherwise lost in the non-acidic environment of the intestines.
And if you need one more reason to love up on lemons, acidulating water with a generous squeeze before soaking dried beans and whole grains helps to reduce levels of phytic acid — a compound that can inhibit the absorption of important fat-fighting, mood-managing minerals like iron and zinc.
Seriously, who needs lemonade anyway?
Go ahead and pour yourself a glass of lemon water and combine it with this exclusive grilled chicken fajitas recipe from the Zero Belly Cookbook.
