Over the past week, I’ve been putting to the test one of the easiest ways I’ve found to help your body stay healthy. It doesn’t involve starting a recipe 100 hours ahead of time, or making weird science experiments in your kitchen, or any of the other somewhat overwhelming tasks a Real Food-er must do. It’s pretty darn… doable.
I discovered this from reading something that really stood out to me in the outline of the GAPS diet online — Dr. Campbell-McBride’s caution that eating breakfast first thing in the morning can really throw off your body’s natural rhythm of “activity and rest; feeding and cleaning-up.” Your body goes into detox mode from about 4 am to 10 am.
Did you ever pull an all-nighter in college that was going alright until you hit that OMG-awful, ifeellikeabsolutecrapihavetogotobed wall? Pretty sure that happens right around the 4 am mark. This must be why!
So, to aid in this part of the cycle where your body needs to clean things up in there, Dr. Natasha recommends for GAPS patients (and really, everyone) to start the day off with a glass of warm, clean water with a bit of lemon. And to try to hold off on eating your breakfast til about 10. (Yeah…wasn’t always successful with that part!)
Lemon Water is for Lovers
While coffee and tea tend to be the go-to morning drink for most, they both definitely have their drawbacks. Coffee can overstimulate your adrenal glands, while tea can be high in fluoride. Switching to warm lemon water might just be a great way for you to kick those habits, and still get a similar jump-start to your day.
Drinking a cup of water with lemon can do so many great things for your health, including:
- Flush out toxins: Lemon is a diuretic, meaning it encourages a quicker rate of urine flow, helping your body release toxins faster.
- Cleanse the liver: One of your body’s first lines of detox defense will get a jump start from the strong cleansing effects of lemon water.
- Aid digestion: Lemon water stimulates hydrochloric acid production, as well as bile, both essential for digestion.
- Restore balance: The alkaline properties of lemon help to normalize your body’s pH levels. It also helps to restore electrolytes, making proper hydration of your cells quicker and easier.
- Strengthen immunity: Lemons are a great source of immune system-supporting vitamin C.
- Promote skin health and vitality: That vitamin C in lemons also helps to purify the blood, clear skin blemishes, and even lessen wrinkles and scars.
- Boost your brain power: Lemons are a good source of potassium, an important mineral for brain and nervous system function.
- Up your energy: When your liver is bogged-down with toxin overload, it has a huge affect on your energy levels. The lemon water’s support of your liver plus all these other benefits listed translates to better health and more energy for you. Lemon also assists with proper adrenal functioning, so rather than over-stressing your adrenals with caffeine, you can ease their burden with lemon water.
I was not a huge tea or coffee lover before, but given all those benefits and having experienced them myself, I can definitely see how lemon water could easily replace the caffeinated effects of a typical morning beverage.
Just add (hot) water
My new morning lemon water routine is pretty simple. First thing in the morning, I just heat up some filtered water (cold water can be a shock to the system), add a small wedge of lemon, and drink before putting anything else into my body.
It makes me feel great! I’m more alert in the morning (and that’s saying a lot for this super-NOT-a-morning-person), I have more energy to get things done, and I feel good about doing something healthy for my body as I start each new day.
If you’ve never done this, I hope you give the lemon water trick a try! Do you have any other easy ways to make a healthy change for the better?
{This post is being shared with Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist, Mangia Monday at Delightfully Dowling, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager, and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!}
I drink green tea in the morning at work, but after 4 years of doing the 8-5 thing, I still am not a morning person! I’m definitely going to try this and hope I feel an energy boost!
I love lemon! I drink a glass of lemon every morning. I also like to add Young Living lemon essential oil in my drinking water throughout the day.
I used to do this, but have got out of the habit lately. This is a good reminder that I should start doing this again. Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing this informative post at FAT TUESDAY!
http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-6-2011/
My mom is a true believer of this! However, I did not know that the body detoxified itself during those hours… makes sense now! I think I’m going to try this and see if I really do start getting more energy and being more alert in the AM 🙂 Thanks!
hmmm, so I read this as I woke at 3 am and drink my cup of joe! Maybe tomorrow! 🙂
This is a good reminder! I was doing pretty well drinking lemon water in the mornings when I was first on GAPS intro, but have been forgetting about it lately. Have you tried drinking apple cider vinegar in water at all? That’s another one that is recommended. I actually did that this morning.
I have been doing this for years but I use the juice of a whole lemon and sweeten it with Stevia. It also gets the bowels moving and cleans out your colon and is so goo for the skin.
Ah ha….I always knew eatting breakfast right when you wake up isn’t all that good for you…..I always wait until at least 10am and as for this little trick been doing it to but when I eat gonna try it in the am now..Thanks
I do this and it works for me. I also grate some fresh ginger into it. Yum!
Great idea, Kristy! Ginger is also very cleansing.