Nutritional Facts for Lemons and Limes
If you find it hard to get all of your fruit servings, try squeezing fresh lemon and lime juice into your water. The juice has few calories – just 20 per fruit – and offers unique phytonutrients. Lemons and limes contain flavonoid compounds, which are called flavonol glycosides and have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. In addition, lemons and limes are high in vitamin C, one of the most important antioxidants in nature. Lemons also offer 10% of the RDA for iron, 9% of the RDA for thiamin and 8% of the RDA for vitamin B6
Vitamin C is also vital to the functioning of a strong immune system. Research has repeatedly shown that consumption of foods high in vitamin C can help to reduce your risk of dying from cancer, stroke and heart disease. This is because, as an antioxidant, vitamin C travels through your body and neutralizes free radicals that can otherwise cause cell damage. Free radicals interact with the healthy cells of the body, damaging their membranes and organelles and leading to cell mutations. Free radicals can also cause inflammation, or painful swelling, in the body.
If you are searching for more vitamin C in your diet, eat more lemons rather than limes since they have twice the vitamin C of their counterparts. Once the British Navy discovered that lemons and limes would prevent scurvy, a condition caused by a deficiency in vitamin C, they were added to sailors’ staple diets. For this reason, British sailors earned the nickname “limeys” during the 1600s.
