I grew up in a country where lemons weren’t native to us yet we use them in our kitchen. Every day, my parents made a big pot of black tea with some sugar and lemon. We would drink it hot or cold throughout the day. We use the lemon zest mixed with curd cheese, some sugar and raisins as a filling for typical Slovak cake called Tvaroznik or curd-cheese cake.
In Ancient Egypt, eating lemons and drinking juice was believed to protect against poisons. Ancient Greeks used lemons to cleanse water and treat illnesses while Roman used it in cooking and drinks and treating some illnesses. Lemons and its healing properties became even more popular (and studied after) when Scottish physician James Lind conducted an experiment in 1747 on seamen who suffered from scurvy.
Lemon has been known as one of the food ingredients for detoxing your body. It helps to cleanse your system, primarily with your liver, kidneys, and gallbladder and helps you to restart your entire body. I’m going to share with you some of these delicious lemon-based detox recipes.
Detox Salad with Lemon
I am a big fan of lemon juice and a bit of hemp oil mix poured over my salads, especially during spring and summer months. In this salad uses a variety of different detox foods (as many as you want), that naturally has plenty of lemon flavour.
Think of fruits and veggies you think taste good with lemons, such as carrots, kale or spinach, strawberries, beetroot, avocado, and romano peppers. You can also add in some nuts for more protein and extra superfood goodness, like walnuts or almonds. Add in some lemon juice, or even make your own dressing with lemon juice, your choice of oil, and maybe add some garlic.
I like to add some apples to my salads and if I am not doing a detox I add cheeses like feta, eve or goat cheese.
Spicy Lemon Detox Drink
If you don’t want to have something to eat, there are also lots of drink recipes out there. This one is a simple lemon detox drink that includes just a few ingredients. You might recognize this type of recipe as something you might have tried before but this is not necessary to benefit from the detox drink.
You can enjoy it as a way to detox your body by replacing other drinks in your regular diet. This Spicy Lemon detox drink includes lemon juice, cayenne pepper, cinnamon pepper, and apple cider vinegar. It should be mostly water, and also you can add a sweetener like honey when you are starting out.
I recommend lemon water as part of the nourishing in my What’s your Hair Saying consult, especially when hair test shows that stomach acid is low, have sluggish liver and body needs a bit of help to produce more bile or as part of the adrenal mocktail.
In my Eat Seasonal program, we start a day with warm lemon water to kickstart the digestion.
Tea with Lemon
Teas with lemon are my favourite. It brings me back to my childhood or a winter season when after a day of skiing or sledging we would indulge in black tea with lemon and honey. You can also have just about any type of herbal tea, add some lemon, and turn it into a detox tea.
However, in terms of tea, you want to try to use some good quality tea or at least tea bags that contain loose tea leaves, herbs, petals or dry pieces of fruit in them.
You can also try a tea with loose tea leaves, lemon juice, ginger, and turmeric and a tiny bit of black pepper. You are adding in lots of superfoods to the health of this detox tea. If you like adding lemon, remember to use raw lemon juice and not the processed, bottled variety.
Lemon Ice Cubes
Don’t want to worry about a complicated lemon detox recipe? You don’t have to. All you need to do is make some detox lemon ice cubes, add them to your water, and you’re good to go. You want to use spring water or distilled water, and the juice of organic lemons when making the ice cubes. I also like to add some lemon peel to my cube box, before freezing it.
