Amber Richards - Amazing Lemonade Recipes To Thirst For!: A Cookbook to Unleash the Powerful Health Benefits of Lemons to Your Diet in a Refreshing Way

Lemonade is known to be a refreshing drink, but lets take another look at it, as a healthy drink.

The health benefits of lemon juice are many including aiding in several digestion issues. Its good for your skin, helps reduce sore throats and may help with weight loss. Lemon juice may also help reduce high blood pressure and high cholesterol, in part because it helps reduce stress by having a calming effect.

It can also help some respiratory problems and may assist in clearing up urinary tract infections. Its also good at helping to promote strong bone health, and the immune system, and it boosts metabolism.

Lets look at another factor for lemonade and hot lemon drinks to increase the nutritional impact. Consider using lemon peel, also known as lemon zest in your drinks.

If you use a vitamix or a similar type of blender, it's very simple to implement lemon peel into your drinks. Also, when using these types of machines, by adding ice, you can also give your drinks the consistency of a slushy.

When using lemon peel or lemon zest, try to use organic lemons. The pesticides and waxes used on non-organic lemons can be difficult to remove completely and you dont want to ingest them. If you are using a vitamix, you can simply cut off a chunk of washed lemon peel (try to cut off as much of the white pith as possible, as that can be bitter tasting) and then put it in the mixer with the rest of the ingredients. The amount should depend on the size of the batch of lemonade you are making. Start out with smaller amounts, and add more gradually until you find the right amount for your taste. Dont attempt to use the whole lemon peel.

Alternatively, you could zest the lemon by finely grating the peel, leaving the white portion off. You can use the fine edge of a food grater, or buy a special kitchen gadget specifically for zesting lemon peels as well. This is a good way to go when not using a blender to make your lemonades.

Lemon peel has some very powerful health benefits. The peels contain up to 5 10 times the amount of vitamins the lemon juice does. They are a great source of fiber, magnesium, potassium, calcium, beta carotene, vitamin C and folate. Lemon peels have been known to help prevent osteoporosis, inflammatory polyarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The peels of lemons contain citrus bioflavonoids, which are effective in combatting oxidative stress. This helps aid in eradicating toxic elements in the body and removing carcinogenic elements, helping to fight various types of cancers.

Lemons have anti-microbial properties to help ward off bacterial infections and fungi.

A word of caution however about consuming lemon peel: there is a significant amount of oxalates present in them. These are found in humans too, but when the body tends to have a high concentration of this substance, it may lead to problems with crystallization, like stones in the gallbladder and kidney. People who deal with this issue should not ingest lemon peel.

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

Simmer these together in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved in the water. This becomes your 'simple syrup'.

Juice 8 - 12 lemons to get 2 cups of lemon juice.

Add the lemon juice and the simple syrup to a large pitcher. Then add 6 -8 cups of cold water and ice. Stir well. Adjust to taste. This should make about 12 servings.

6 to 8 mint leaves, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste
2 lemon slices
2 lime slices
Ice
1 cup coconut water, or regular water
3 tablespoons coconut milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lime juice

Place all ingredients in a vitamix or blender (keeping out some mint leaves), and blend until well mixed. Serve over ice in a tall glass and garnish with mint leaves.

6 cups cold water

1 cup sugar

3 juicy limes (thin, smooth skins are juiciest)

1/2 inch of a lemon slice

6 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

Mix cold water and sugar (or make a simple syrup of this). Chill. Wash limes and lemon then cut the ends off. Cut the limes into eighths and the lemon into smaller pieces.

Blend the fruit and sugar water in a blender. Stain if using a blender, if using a vitamix there is no need to strain.

Add the sweetened condensed milk right before serving. Stir well and pour over ice.

2 cups sugar

9 cups water

2 cups fresh lemon juice

1 cup cranberry juice

Dissolve 2 cups of sugar into 1 cup water and simmer on low until sugar is dissolved. Chill. After this is cooled, pour into a pitcher add remaining 8 cups of water, and the lemon and cranberry juices and stir well. Serve over ice.