What Are The Benefits Of Warm Water & Lemon Juice?

Warm water with lemon juice is one of the best beverage choices you can make. This simple mixture of two ingredients is a good source of an important vitamin, can help keep your body working properly during the winter, make you feel better when you're sick, keep you lean and may even help ward off one of modern society's most dreaded diseases.

Vitamin C

Warm water with lemon juice gives you vitamin C; three lemon wedges provide 12 percent of the daily value. Vitamin C helps keep your skin, bones and connective tissues healthy, helps your body heal after injuries and aids in the absorption of iron, according to the Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, a service of the National Institutes of Health.

Cold-Weather Hydration

More than half of your body weight is water, and every part of your body, from the smallest cell to the largest organ, requires water to function properly, according to the Family Doctor website, a service of the American Academy of Family Physicians. However, drinking a big class of ice water is the last thing you want to do when snow is blowing around outside. A cup of hot water with lemon is a lot more appealing, and will help you get the eight glasses of water you need every day.

Cold and Flu Relief

Warm water with lemon is an old home remedy for colds and flu, especially for the sore throats that often come with those illnesses. Add some honey to get the greatest benefit. According to the Mayo Clinic, hot water with honey and lemon helps break up congestion and prevents dehydration, an important concern when you don't feel well.

Weight Control

If you drink warm water with lemon instead of sugar-sweetened warm beverages, it can help you keep your weight under control. One lemon wedge contains only a single calorie, and water has no calories. Contrast this with the 150 calories present in a small latte from a popular coffee chain, or the 230 calories in the same chain's hot chocolate with 2 percent milk.

Possible Cancer Protection

If you get your lemon juice from whole lemons, and drop the wedges into the water, warm water with lemon juice might help protect your from cancer. Lemons and limes contain limonin and limonene, compounds that may be able to stop the cellular changes that cause cancer, according to Selene Yeager's "The Doctor's Book of Food Remedies."