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Lemon Water Benefits and the Best Variations

By Ethan Boldt

February 26, 2025

Lemon water is having a moment. This super simple drink is being touted for skin and gut health, plus even healthy weight management (as part of an overall healthy diet and lifestyle, including regular exercise).

How many of these claims are the real deal? What else can you add to this drink to up the nutritional value and benefits? Let’s find out.

As always, you should consult your healthcare professional prior to beginning any new dietary or lifestyle regimen.

What is lemon water?

Lemon water is usually half a lemon squeezed into eight ounces of cold or warm water. It’s a popular drink any time of year. Sometimes additional ingredients are added, such as lemon zest, cucumber, strawberry, mint, honey, or even spices like turmeric and cayenne pepper.

Lemon water has become more popular, including among wellness influencers, because it can make regular water more enjoyable to drink, is very easy and inexpensive to make, and contains far fewer calories than soda or fruit juice.

Known for their helpful properties, lemons have been used in traditional health approaches for centuries. In Traditional Chinese Method, lemon water is used for supporting digestive and stomach health. Some practitioners say that lemon water possesses cooling properties that may support both liver and gallbladder health.

Benefits

1. Acts as a detoxifying digestive aid

Lemon juice possesses an atomic structure that’s like the stomach’s digestive juices. It can help the liver produce bile and keep food moving through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract smoothly.

The citric acid within lemon water may promote gastric production and help digestion, while also helping lower occasional bloating and constipation. It may help stimulate the secretion of digestive enzymes and support regularity.

Citric acid in lemon juice may also support liver and kidney function, helping the body’s natural ability to detoxify.

Lemon water will also act as a mild diuretic, so you may urinate more often after drinking lemon water. This can help the urinary tract maintain its health and help in overall healthy detoxification.

2. Assists with hydration

Drinking lemon water can help keep you hydrated and promote regularity. It’s a flavorful way to increase your water intake, particularly during workouts or hot weather.

Many people come up short with their water intake, in part because the recommendations are now higher than they used to be. Today, on average, the Mayo Clinic recommends that women drink roughly 11.5 cups (92 ounces) of water per day, and men drink roughly 15.5 cups (124 ounces).

3. Supports skin health

Lemon water contains vitamin C from the freshly squeezed juice, and this antioxidant helps the skin fight free radicals and assists with collagen production in the skin. The development of collagen can help with elasticity and fighting fine lines in the skin.

Some wellness influencers have taken it a step further by adding a scoop of unflavored collagen into their lemon water.

4. Promotes a healthy weight (in addition to a healthy diet and lifestyle, including regular exercise)

First, water assists with healthy weight management, for being well hydrated can alleviate feelings of hunger and cut down on daily calorie intake. A study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed that drinking 17 ounces of water before breakfast cut the number of daily calories consumed by 13 percent.

Secondly, the acidity of lemon juice is connected to lowering the body’s normal glycemic response, according to a European Journal of Nutrition study, so it’s helpful for supporting healthy blood sugar levels already in the normal range. In addition, this study showed that lemon juice boosts both gastric secretions and emptying rate, both of which help you manage a healthy weight.

Thirdly, drinking lemon juice rather than calorie-laden drinks can help lower one’s overall daily calorie intake.

How to make

Lemon juice is very easy to make. First, get some good lemons. You can find lemons year-round in most grocery stores.

How do you choose a good lemon? Pick ones that are fully yellow and ideally organic. Lemons with thinner skins will be juicer. Don’t get lemons that are still slightly green (which means they were picked too early), are wrinkled, due or slightly hard.

When you’re ready to make your lemon water, get out a clean cutting board and a glass of filtered water, around 8 ounces. Slice the lemon in half. Take half of the lemon and squeeze it over the filled water glass. Give it a quick stir and consume.

You may choose to sip over a period of time or consume more quickly. Some do the latter, with a straw, in part to prevent their teeth from overexposure to the acid.

If it’s warm or hot where you live, you may want to add some ice cubes along with a sliver of the actual lemon. That being said, many people prefer room temperature or even warm lemon water, so it doesn’t shock your system.

Consider using a lemon squeezer or hand press to get the most juice out of each lemon. It can make a serious difference, especially with tougher lemons, and keep those pesky seeds out of your water.

Want to have lemon water for the day or share the drink with others? Simply make up a pitcher of lemon water, with approximately one squeezed lemon for every 16 ounces of water. If you add other ingredients like mint, sliced cucumber or fruit, allow the ingredients to infuse for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.

To maximize the benefits of lemon water, you can have a couple of glasses each day.

Lemon water variations

• To boost the skin health benefits, a popular option is stirring in a scoop of collagen, such as unflavored Multi Collagen Protein. Use a hand-held frother for the best result.

• Want to add an extra flavor to lemon water and still get in your daily collagen? Consider adding a scoop of Multi Collagen Protein Strawberry Lemonade, Multi Collagen Protein Beauty Within (guava passionfruit flavor) or Multi Collagen Protein Gut Restore (lemon ginger flavor).

• Want both collagen and a superfood hydration formula with your lemon water? Add a scoop of Multi Collagen Advanced Hydrate lemon lime flavor.

• Maybe you just want extra hydration without the added collagen. Then add a stick pack of either Rapid Hydration lemon lime or strawberry lemonade to a sports bottle of lemon water.

• To speed up the lemon water process, you can juice several lemons with some water for an ice cube tray and freeze. Pop one of these lemon-concentrated cubes into your water when ready.

• To up the health benefits, consider adding spice powders like cayenne, turmeric or ginger. You can also add apple cider vinegar.

• If you want to add an herb, mint is the most common.

• For the best type of fruit to accompany lemon, orange slices, melon chunks or strawberries also add some nice flavor touches. Make a pitcher so the flavors get a chance to marry.

• For the best vegetable to add to lemon water, look no further than sliced cucumber. Also consider using a pitcher. Generally, you want to let the cucumber infuse for two to four hours in the refrigerator.

What to watch out for

Lemon water is considered a safe drink to ingest, but lemons’ citric acid is highly acidic and does affect tooth enamel if directly applied. This issue lessens when diluted in water, such as with lemon water. Nonetheless, make sure you always drink highly diluted lemon water rather than highly concentrated versions.

Because of the acid, it’s a good idea to drink lemon water through a straw so the lemon juice doesn’t come into direct contact with your teeth. Get fancy and buy some glass straws and make it part of your daily routine.

Additionally, after drinking lemon water, rinse your mouth well with water to help remove the citric acid. Also don’t brush your teeth right away after having lemon water. It’s better to have your saliva neutralize the acid first.