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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Does Lemon Juice Enhance Green Tea Benefits?

This image shows a whole and a cut lemon.
This image shows a whole and a cut lemon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Roger Flynn


The benefits of green tea can be drastically increased if lemon is added. To be able to understand this principle, one must first look into the importance of combining food.

A number of dietitians will certainly agree that combining food can positively or negatively impact a person's physical condition. Someone who is in discomfort with heartburn after a buffet may blame the large amount of food, however in some cases poor food mixing is the contributing factor. For example, mixing melon with any other food is not a smart combination.



Usually fruits are very easily digested within the stomach. Melons break down actually faster than other fruit, since they are above 90 percent water. If the digestive process is delayed caused by combination with other food, fermentation occurs in the stomach perhaps triggering upset stomach, indigestion, excessive gas and acid reflux. On the flip side, some food mixtures enhance the health benefits by helping the food absorption.

Tomatoes and olives are a great food combination. In the nutrient world, tomatoes are identified as a very good source of Lycopene. Heart diseases and cancer prevention are a couple of the well-recognized health benefits of Lycopene. Health benefits are upgraded when tomatoes are ingested together with olives. Absorption process of Lycopene is accelerated by olives. How about green tea with lemon?

Some recognized tea benefits are digestive aid, diabetes prevention, weight loss, cancer prevention and healthy heart. Due to green tea's antioxidant known as catechins the health benefits are achievable. Despite the many benefits of catechins, researches indicate these antioxidants are degraded easily inside the human intestines following digestion allowing no more than 20 percent of them for absorption.

Lemon is also famous for antioxidant which is vitamin C. It allows for some of lemon's positive factors for example digestive aid, skin care, and fight against throat infections. Even more importantly vitamin C provides suitable environment for catechins to survive when blended together.

By adding Vitamin C, human intestine becomes an acidic environment for catechins. This makes catechins to be more available for absorption. After all it does not need to be lemon. Any citrus fruit juice like grapefruit, orange or lime will increase the absorption function. Even so lemon seems to be the most effective of all indicating that other components of lemon are possibly adding to the stabilizing effect.

Because the natural flavor of tea is bitter, mixing tea and lemon juice can be more delicious. For those trying to find an alternative to tea, there are also many green tea pills with vitamin C.




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