With the proliferation of lemon-based weight loss and detox programs, you may be led to believe that lemon juice is the key to taking the fat out of food. Some of these diet plans claim that calorie restriction is unnecessary as long as you drink a glass of lemon water every day, so the lemon juice must cut the fat, right? Wrong. Although it's true that lemon can be a useful tool in healthy cooking, it will not change the nutritional value of the food, fat or otherwise.
Rumor Basis
The rumors about lemon juice's effect on fat may have a slight basis in truth. It has long been known that people who are deficient in vitamin C are more likely to be resistant to weight loss and have a higher body mass index, but it's not clear which is the causative factor. The higher body mass may come from a diet low in fruit and vegetables, which would cause the deficiency, or vitamin C may play a role in fat oxidation. Either way, the relationship concerns fat stores over long periods of time, not the fat in the food you cook. And the beneficial effects of vitamin C only occur when supplementing a deficiency, not adding more vitamin C to someone who already has adequate levels.
Substitution
Adding lemon juice to a meal can cut the fat content by replacing fattier sauces and toppings. For example, chicken breast rubbed with black pepper and sprinkled with lemon juice is much lighter and healthier than chicken that's been deep-fried or doused in cream sauce, but it still has flavor. A salad sprinkled with lemon juice instead of regular full-fat dressing can contain 200 fewer calories and 20 g less fat. This is the value of lemon in weight loss -- it is fat-free and very low-calorie, but it packs a flavor punch. It also pairs well with diet-friendly foods such as fish and chicken, more so than fatty meats such as pork and beef. But sprinkling lemon juice into your deep-fryer will not magically make the food fat-free.
Caveat
The major point to keep in mind is that the addition of lemon does not make the meal low-fat. Making a light lemon-pepper chicken is great, but you won't lose any weight if you eat three servings of it, along with buttery mashed potatoes, a stack of biscuits with honey, a soda, and ice cream for dessert. All ingredients of every part of the meal matter. A better accompaniment to the chicken would be a light, lemon-splashed mixed greens salad and another green vegetable.
In Tea
A 2007 study in the journal "Molecular Nutrition and Food Research" found that adding lemon juice to green tea caused a full 80 percent of the tea's antioxidants to survive digestion, as opposed to less than 20 percent without the lemon. This leaves more of these beneficial compounds for the body to absorb, which may allow you to reap a larger health benefit. So if you enjoy lemon in your tea, feel good about it -- if you use it instead of milk and sugar, you're also cutting the calories and fat.
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