Hot water and lemon

[shelley2]

Today and Yesterday i have been drinking boiling water with a couple of slices of lemon.  Very refreshing. does anyone know why this is supposed to be good for you??

[Clanad]

The energy you get from your food comes from the atoms and molecules of energy in your food. A reaction takes place as cationic food enters the digestive tract and encounters anionic digestive enzymes.

To explain further, an ion is part of a molecule con-atom or a group of atoms that carry an electrical charge. Ions which carry positive charges are �anions.� Lemons are considered to be anionic, having more anions (negatively charged ions) of energy as compared to cations (positively charged ions) in their atomic structure. Saliva, hydrochloric acid, bile and the stomach's other digestive juices are also anionic.

Lemon is one of the only foods on the planet that has more anions than cations in its atomic structure.

When considering the electromagnetic properties of food it should be pointed out that all foods are considered cationic with the exception of fresh, raw lemon juice. Some have suggested that the reason fresh lemon juice is similar to digestive enzymes is due to the low amount of sulfur in lemons. It should be noted that pasteurized and packaged lemon juice is cationic and, therefore, ineffective as a health remedy.

Lemon juice helps to break up and dislodge the sticky mucus deposits that tend to clog up the system. Its powerful enzymes and high vitamin-C content are natural cleaners, helping to flush your system of toxic wastes. The bioflavonoids in the white inner rind and fibrous strands are also very cleansing, so squeeze to deliver the benefits of these fibrous parts of the lemon as well.

At least so reports a homeopathic web site...

[jills]

great post clanad, I'm off to buy a couple of lemons and start my day that way!

[newtron]

Clanad, Your elaborate answer is very interesting, but also quite confusing.  I consider myself fairly knowledgable  when it comes to chemistry and some of the things you  stated just don't make sense.  For example: "Lemon is one of the only foods ... that contains more anions than cations in its atomic structure."  Cations or anions do not just hang out by themselves.  A whole lemon does not have a net negative electric charge as your statement implies.  Lemon juice is an acidic solution, and all solutions are electrically neutral.  There has got to be a charge balance.  Because lemon juice is acidic (low pH), the H+ concentration will be high and may be the dominant cation, but this positive charge will be balanced by the presence of anions.  There are some solid subtances that do have a net charge such as some clays (usually have a negative charge), but cations are sorbed to the clay surface to maintain electric neutrality.  Also I did a quick google on some of the terms that you used and didn't find much except this link: http://www.newtreatments.org/doc/WisdomExperience/83 and as far as I am concerned, most of the statements made at this site are rubish.  I may not be familiar with the specific terms used in food chemistry, so maybe I just misunderstood your explanation.  Can you point me to any web sites or other references.  Thanks. 

[SylvieD]

I'm not a scientist so can't tell you why but I've been doing this for years.  According to dietician Jane Scrivner ( who was writing about detoxing years before Carol Vorderman et al jumped on the bandwagon) it stimulates and cleanses your digestion system.  She even compares a daily hot water and lemon to getting regular colonic irrigation! 

[Miss Zippy]

I�ve been drinking two cups of hot water and lemon every morning for the past 7 years or so following a tip I read in a magazine that it was good for preventing cellulite. I was a bit of a sucker back then when it came to trying out various beauty tips and products but this is one that seems to be  working and I�m not going to stop drinking it just in case it is the only thing keeping the dreaded orange peel at bay.

[natalie_1982]

I always thought that it helped keep your skin clear and flush your system through.  I've since read somewhere that by drinking hot water and lemon in the morning it does activate your digestive system earlier, but only because the warmness of the water stimulates bowel movement (as would plain boiling water, tea, coffee, etc).  By 'going regurly' you are clearing your body of toxins, thus your skin does become clearer.  The vitamin C and other nutritional benefits are also good for you but someone else might no why.  Anyhow, it's not going to harm you and it wakes me up and makes me feel better!

[newtron]

Upon more checking, Clanad's explanation refers to Dr. Carey Reams' biological theory of ionization. http://www.newtreatments.org/reams

Dr. Reams kind of redefines some basic chemical terms.  His ideas are interesting.  I don't know if I buy it.

[Clanad]

newtron, I certainly don't profess being a chemist, but the references I can locate and do understand seem to support the idea that lemon juice is anionic and is such by a very unique interaction. If you wish to wade through it, here's the article in it's entirety...

Dr. Carey Reams - - PhD. in Biophysics and Biochemistry - - (Re: "Choose Life or Death" by Dr. Reams and Cliff Dudley).
Lemons are the only food, which are purely anionic. The catch is that this is only true of fresh lemons. After about 30 minutes of exposure to air (oxygen), lemon juice becomes cationic. The confusion comes when one thinks in terms of acid and alkaline. Lemon juice would always be thought of as acid, but while fresh, is anionic (which corresponds to alkaline). If you had an acid urine pH and you used Dr. Reams' lemon/water drink as he suggested, your pH would become more alkaline. This seems illogical when you think of lemon juice as acidic. But it's not, its anionic. In addition to fresh lemon juice, the only other thing that is purely anionic is pure
calcium.  To explain anionic and cationic... an ion is a molecule with an electric charge. An anion contains the smallest amount of energy known to man.
One anion will contain from 1 to 499 Milhouse units of energy. It is a negative charged ion.

[Clanad]

Reams (cont.

Let me quote from Dr. Reams, ��we do not live off the food we eat; we live off the energy from the food we eat. The anion rotates in a clockwise direction, the cation in a counter-clockwise direction. Resistance is created when these two moving forces, rotating in opposite directions, collide. The measure of the resistance, in chemistry, is called ''pH''. When a person gets sick, there are not enough anionic substances present to supply the energy he needs from the cationic foods eaten.'' Add to that the issue of the foods being demineralized, and the problem becomes more serious.  The lemon/water therapy is so effective, many people experience a healing crisis when they do it. But don't think of it as lemon juice, think of it as supplying your liver with the anionic materials it needs to correct unbalanced metabolic chemistry.... Anionic corresponds to alkaline. Its electrons orbit around the nucleus in a clockwise direction. A cation corresponds to acid. One cation will contain from 500 to 999 Milhouse units of energy. It is a positive charged ion. Its electrons orbit in a counter-clockwise direction. When a cation gains more than 999 Milhouse units of energy, it splits into two anions.  According to Reams, the key issue here concerns our digestive process. The gastric juice produced by the liver is anionic. All foods (except
fresh lemons) are a varying mixture of cationic and anionic. When the anionic gastric juices come into contact with cationic foods, the two ions react to each other, much like vinegar and baking soda, and energy
is released to be used by the body.

[newtron]

Yes, I read most of Dr. Reams theory and like I said I don't necessarily buy it.  He has a lot of interesting ideas but has he tested any of his hypotheses?  The reason I questioned it is because it just sounded weird. For example, the following statement just sounds bizarre :

" According to Reams, anions are attracted to the Van Allen radiation belt around the earth. Cations are attracted to the earth itself. Cationic foods include potatoes, carrots, beets and other root vegetables, which grow into the earth because of their cationic
composition. They are not wholly cationic, however; the flowering, leafy part is anionic, which is why it grows upwards (actually, even the roots are part cationic and anionic, but mostly cationic)".  

So that's why plants grow upward, hmm...  His theory is obviously not accepted by conventional science.  That dosen't mean he is wrong.  I'm just sceptical, that's all.  According to the website provided above, his success rate for helping terminally ill people is quite high.  So maybe that is good enough and it does not matter whether his model is accurate or not.  Just because your model can predict the output of a certain process, does not mean that the process occurrs exactly as the model suggests.