You’ve probably heard a lot of claims about what citrus fruits are supposed to do – like lightening your hair on the cheap, snorting lemon juice to prevent motion sickness, or improving your health when you drink a mocktail of citrus juice. lemon and (of course) olive. oil. Most recently, a mom on TikTok, Jess Lynne, was credited with creating the “lime sleep trick,” which involves cutting a lime in half, placing it in a bowl, and placing it next to it. from a child’s bed to prevent him from sleeping. at night.
While there’s no doubt that fruits like lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit have many health benefits, not all of the claims associated with citrus actually hold water. Here’s what it can and can’t do.
Can lime help with sleep?
Speaking to Yahoo Life via email, Lynne, a psychic medium, says she was inspired by the fruit’s use by various cultures throughout history “to rid negative energies based on fear and dark entities in their environment” and “promote peaceful sleep”.
However, Dr. Luis Ortiz, a sleep physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, told Yahoo Life that there is only limited clinical evidence to support claims that the smell of lime helps people sleep ; Much of this is preliminary research that has not yet been rigorously studied, he says.
Ortiz says it’s possible that the aroma of citrus can help people calm and relax before bed, and there is little clinical evidence to support the sleep benefits of aromatherapy. But while there are “more publications suggesting that aromatherapy can help with anxiety,” there are also articles that “report that citrus essential oils actually improve alertness and reduce drowsiness,” notes Ortiz. This would, in theory, not be conducive to sleep.
Although the smell of cut limes is not likely to harm a child or anyone else trying to get a better night’s sleep, Ortiz warns parents to be careful with essential oils, whether they are lime-based lime or not. “You never want to ingest it and you don’t want to use a water-based diffuser because it can stay in the room for long periods of time,” he says. “Overexposure to essential oils has been shown to irritate the lungs and interfere with mucus elimination.
Can smelling a lemon prevent motion sickness?
Maybe, says Krutika Nanavati, dietitian and nutritionist. Citric acid, a main compound in lemon, can have a “calming effect” on the stomach and a “distracting effect that can distract from the feeling of nausea,” Nanavati tells Yahoo Life. However, these benefits are not exclusive to citrus fruits. Peppermint and ginger can also help with nausea and motion sickness, she notes.
Can citrus fruits help prevent cancer?
For the most part, yes. “There is data that shows that consuming citrus fruits reduces the risks for [some] types of cancer, particularly cancers of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, lung, and kidney and bladder cancers,” Heidi Silver, a research professor at the University Medical Center, told Yahoo Life. Vanderbilt University.
However, researchers have also found a link between eating citrus fruits (like oranges and orange juice) and an increased risk of melanoma. “Consuming citrus juice might actually increase the risk of certain types of skin cancer, due to an interaction between citrus juice components and ultraviolet rays,” says Silver.
She adds that people who consume too much citrus juice and have excessive sun exposure are at increased risk of developing all three types of skin cancer: basal, squamous, and melanoma.
Can citrus fruits help with weight loss?
Silver says it’s possible. She co-authored a study that found that people who ate half a grapefruit or drank half a cup of grapefruit juice before each meal lost more weight than those who drank a glass of water before eating in the part of a low-calorie diet. Participants who ate grapefruit also saw an increase in “good cholesterol” (HDL), a decrease in appetite, and an increase in vitamin C, which is generally under-consumed in the United States.
Can citrus fruits help prevent kidney stones?
Yes, especially lemon and lime. As Silver explains, “increased consumption of citrus fruits can increase the amount of citrate in the urine, and urinary citrate binds to excess calcium,” which is one of the most common causes of stones. renal. “Ingesting citrus fruits can therefore help prevent [kidney stones] or a recurrence,” she says. Lemon water, anyone?
Can citrus fruits prevent cardiovascular disease?
Maybe. A 2011 study in Japan found that frequent consumption of citrus fruits could reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and cerebral infarction. Flavonoids in citrus fruits may also help reduce inflammation, which increases the risk of heart disease. According to Dr. Michael Ayers, assistant professor of cardiology at UVA Health, “anything you do to reduce inflammation probably reduces the progression of heart disease. But he adds that “overall, the body of evidence supporting that individual food groups have a large effect size on cardiovascular outcomes is minimal at best and speculative at worst.”
Ayers, however, believes there is little harm in adding citrus fruits to one’s diet to see if that helps. But the type of citrus matters. “You should eat the whole fruit and not [just] drink the juice,” says Dr. Ana Baylin, associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Even though the juice contains vitamin C, it doesn’t contain fiber,” she explains, so it’s not “as beneficial.”
Are there people who should avoid citrus fruits?
Because citrus fruits are very acidic, Baylin says people with gastritis and ulcers may want to avoid them. Excessive consumption of citric acid can also cause tooth erosion, Silver says, so people with dental problems may want to be more careful when eating citrus fruits.
Baylin adds that it’s also best to carefully consider grapefruit and grapefruit juice, as they may “interfere with certain medications.” Specifically, Silver says, people taking statins or those with chronic illnesses who take immunosuppressive medications may be advised to avoid citrus fruits, especially grapefruit.
And while there are many good reasons, in general, for most people to enjoy citrus fruits, it is possible to overdo it. If you experience “gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea or bloating” after eating, say, your fourth orange of the day, you may be eating too much, Silver says.
