Acidic ingredients like apple cider vinegar, coffee, and lemon juice have long been touted for getting things moving in your gut. With lemons, citric acid is the key to stimulating digestion.
A 2022 study found that lemon juice increased gastric emptying 1.5 times more than water1, likely due to its acidity level. “Lemon water may help with the production of digestive juices that break down food into smaller pieces so it can be better absorbed,” explains Cohen.
Still, you might need to drink a lot of lemon water to achieve these effects. “Lemons have been observed to aid in digestion and as a diuretic, but research is limited, and standard dosing and formulation studied has been 85 milliliters (60 mEq citrate), which is about 3 ounces, or two medium lemons,” points out Monique Richard, M.S., RDN, LDN, owner of Nutrition-In-Sight and national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
