I love lemons. The nostalgic lemonade stand brings me back to the days of Norman Rockwell, and back to my youth. The lemonade stand was a symbol of independence, we cut and squeezed the lemons ourselves, made the signs, constructed the stand (with a little help from Dad) and the profits were ours! My sister's biggest complaint is that we didn't strain out the pulp, but that was part of the charm of fresh squeezed.

On a more current and serious note. Lemons are used for more reasons than we realize. Besides all the health benefits that we will address later, lemons are of other practical use, not just culinary uses. Did you know that lemon juice is used to lighten hair and skin? I know this for a fact when my mother would not let me professionally highlight my hair, I used lemon in the summer and she had no idea, I just said it was the sun. It has also been used for an acne treatment. It only makes sense that it is used for acne, almost all acne treatments use some sort of acid. These may not be the typical "health" benefits, but for some, these create a sense of mental well being. When there is acne to be banished and hair to be lightened for the insecure emotional teenage girl go lemons.

Okay some lemon facts should be shared. Lemons were first grown in India. In America the lemon became popular and commercialized during the California gold rush when miners were affected by scurvy. British sailors used it for scurvy on long boat trips. Lemons have vitamin C a player in the prevention of colds and a booster of immunity. Vitamin C is elemental in preventing scurvy which is not an issue now, as it was in the previous century. Another interesting lemon fact is that the darker the lemon, the less acidic the juice, or in other terms it is not as sour. Lemons are 5% acid. It takes 4 to 6 lemons to make one cup of juice.

Do you like to eat fish, but disdain the "fishy" smell? If you marinate fish in lemon juice, it reduces the odor. It is also served with fish to replace salt and other toppings.

Many benefits follow the lemon. We already mentioned it has a Vitamin C, and plenty of it. A single lemon holds 35% of the Vitamin C we need each day. Lemons have antioxidant and anti-cancer potential. No one likes the "C" word unless its vitamin C versus cancer. Lemons are a fruit and fruits are crucial to our diet to prevent a variety of health disorders.

I don't always remember the benefits of lemon in my daily diet, but replacing salt with lemon, and fatty dressings with lemon, I am making a difference in my eating habits.

References: Wikipedia.org

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