Maintaining your state in optimal conditions is essential and you must know what to eat to achieve it.
Honey and lemon are a good example of healthy foods, loaded with the necessary components to boost the vigor of your body.
Also, they are natural. Using homemade alternatives to safeguard your health is an approach highly recommended by experts, even more so today.
Historically, communities have always talked about the innumerable benefits that honey, or lemon, offered. However, the advancement of biomedical technology has confirmed its advantages.
1. Help against flu and colds
The first thing you may hear when talking about lemon is its high content of vitamin C. However, the truth behind its benefits goes beyond that.
Among these is its ability to strengthen the body’s natural defenses by supporting the immune system. Therefore, it is said to have antiviral activity.
This antiviral capacity is not exclusive to lemon, it is also shared by honey.
What both have in common are the flavonoids they contain. Flavonoids work against viruses that cause colds or flu by stimulating immune cells to kill them.
Among the aforementioned flavonoids, the most prominent are baicalein and luteolin. Both are present in both honey and lemon.
They are also anti-inflammatories that reduce the inflammatory response caused by our own defenses. Although they are useful in fighting viruses, they also harm our body.
By combining them, we obtain delicious and nutritious infusions that safeguard your defenses.
2. Reduce abdominal fat
Lemon juice consumption has been associated with a significant decrease in body fat.
The effects of lemon in hypocaloric diets are based on the hydration that lemon water provides us.
Why? There are several reasons. The first: adequate hydration favors satiety after a meal, avoiding overeating. Therefore, it is recommended to drink plenty of lemon water before or after a meal.
Second, the hydration provided by water with lemon favors, at the tissue level, the sensitivity of the adipocyte (scientific term for cells that contain fat) to insulin.
Insulin, the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels, acts on the adipocyte and stimulates it to break down triglycerides into fragments that can be metabolized. Thus, then, triglyceride reserves decrease.
Hydrating with lemon water speeds up your metabolism. By doing so, fat storage decreases and your body is more likely to use the calories you eat than to deposit them in your body (particularly your abdomen).
On the other hand, the effects of honey for weight loss have been less studied, but it is known that it stimulates the release of hormones that suppress your appetite.
Also, studies have found that individuals who substitute honey for sucrose (in moderate amounts) have more consistent weight and body fat loss than those who do not.
3. Helps fight bacteria
The defensive capacity of lemon and honey is not limited exclusively to viruses, but also to bacteria.
First, they provide the body with vitamins and minerals that are used as tools by our cells to function and defend themselves against attack by bacteria.
Second, are the flavonoids they contain. As we have already explained, these activate mechanisms that reduce the ability of the bacteria to multiply or adhere to the cells of our body to infect and kill them.
Both are particularly useful against bacteria that attack your gastrointestinal system, such as those responsible for salmonellosis, shigellosis, and more; both diseases whose severity is not to be underestimated.
4. Purifies and improves intestinal transit
Honey is an ally to alleviate the sensation of pain or discomfort caused by intestinal problems, as well as regularizing bowel movements and improving food digestion.
It contains antioxidants that reduce damage to the intestinal mucosa, since they bind to the free radicals present that injure the intestinal tissue.
Honey, due to its shape and texture, acts as a lubricant that covers the walls of your intestine. Therefore, when food arrives, it can pass through more easily, favoring digestion.
In addition, honey promotes tissue healing which, in the case of ulcerative colitis, is very beneficial. It is recommended that, once a day, you take a tablespoon of natural honey, either by itself or mixed in water.
On the other hand, a glass of lemon juice every morning reduces indigestion of food, reflux symptoms, the appearance of belching and prevents abdominal swelling due to gas accumulation.
So, replacing your usual cup of coffee or sugary drinks with a glass with natural lemon extract is a beneficial decision.
5. Helps prevent infections
Both honey and lemon are powerful antimicrobials, that is, they attack all kinds of microorganisms.
Not only against the flu, or gastrointestinal problems (as already mentioned), but many more types of infections.
If you want to have a body whose defenses are optimized, the consumption of these completely natural substances that offer thousands of benefits is recommended.
Supplying your body with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial agents on a consistent basis is better than doing it occasionally, around the time of an infection.
6. Improves skin health
The healing effects that honey offers to your skin are numerous and widely recognized; many countries use all kinds of ointments based on honey to treat skin conditions (dermatitis and scabies, for example).
On the other hand, treatments based on lemon extracts are also used to promote re-epithelialization, a process that consists of the migration and formation of keratinocytes (skin cells).
Treatments with honey and/or lemon encourage the formation of blood vessels in the skin, improving circulation and transit of micronutrients, essential to maintain the luster and health of our skin.
Honey and lemon prevent the growth and invasion of bacteria or fungi to any skin lesion (as will be seen later).
The benefits of honey are more powerful when we use unprocessed honey, that is, in its purest state.
7. Helps keep hair clean and grease-free
As we have already explained, honey favors the formation of new epithelial cells. If strong and healthy hair is desired, this cell growth is of paramount importance.
The texture of honey helps to create a synthetic layer that regulates the moisture of the hair shaft, by preventing the absorption of water particles that cause swelling and weakening of the hair.
This hydrophobic layer (that is, it repels water), allows fatty acids, whether natural or from essential oils, to penetrate deeper into the stem.
Naturally, this layer provides a luster to your hair that makes it look strong and healthy.
But excess of these fatty acids is not healthy either. They can clog the pores of your scalp and cause adverse reactions. That is where the lemon comes in.
Lemon, in addition to its vitamins and minerals used by the hair to nourish itself, eliminates excess fat. Thus, a balanced environment is maintained where the growth of your hair can occur as it should.
8. Helps fight wounds and insect bites
Scars, bites, burns, or skin conditions (such as prurigo or seborrheic dermatitis) can worsen because they are a gateway for microorganisms from your skin into your body.
Honey provides damaged skin with the necessary tools to repair itself. As already explained, it favors the migration of cells to the injured area of the skin.
Once there, the cells grow and release repair proteins such as collagen and keratin. These, in turn, encourage the assembly of a protective layer that replaces the damaged skin.
High amounts of harmful free radicals are known to be produced in scars and burns. The antioxidant effects of honey (and the vitamin C in lemon) help reduce them.
Honey and lemon also fight against inflammatory conditions caused by insect bites. These insects, in turn, can be infected by viruses or parasites.
The application of topics based on honey or lemon extracts inhibit the growth of said microorganisms, they also inhibit the excessive production of harmful enzymes released in response to the bite or injury.
It also prevents these entry doors from being used by bacteria that commonly reside on our skin.
In conclusion, both (honey and lemon) contain antiseptic properties.
University Professional in the area of Human Resources, Postgraduate in Occupational Health and Hygiene of the Work Environment, 14 years of experience in the area of health. Interested in topics of Psychology, Occupational Health, and General Medicine.