13 Amazing Health Benefits of Citrus Fruits

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Lemon trees are very pretty and the lemon’s flower is sweet/ but the fruit of the lemon is impossible to eat… That is what the flower children sang in the 60s. But the lyrics writer did not know that it was thanks to this impossible fruit, that sailors prevented themselves from suffering from scurvy at sea, rickety bones, loose teeth, and a weakened immunity system.

Once upon a time oranges and lemons were sold three for a penny, especially at Covent Garden, where the orange sellers, of which the most well-known is Nell Gwynn, used to sell these fruit to the theater goers every evening. These fruit also came in use, along with squishy and rotten tomatoes to pepper the actors on the stage, if the audience did not approve of their acting. Oranges, Malta , Kinoo, and other citric fruit varieties are available all over the world. The best thing about these particular fruit is that you can eat and drink them everyday in every weather in moderate quantities and they are not going to give you any digestive problems.

In fact, with the coming of winter, you need to stock up on your store of fresh orange, and lemon juice drunk every morning so that you never suffer from cold, cough or any sort of winter related problems.

Even today, in many parts of the world, people start the day with a glassful of orange juice in order to refresh themselves. They would have been better off drinking plain water for all the good this concentrated stuff is doing them. However, if they are drinking real fresh orange juice, they are on the right track to good health and a
healthy immunity system.

I had a friend who kept suffering from chronic cold, even when it was not the winter. All I thought it was possibly she was suffering from pulmonary problems like asthma and was reacting to pollen. So I just put her on a fresh orange juice diet with a little bit of lemon juice squeezed in it and a teaspoonful of honey and a little bit of fresh ginger juice for the next 15 days in order to see what happened. Well, this was a trial run. And her colds vanished, never to appear again, so through trial and error, here is this excellent remedy, which you would want to implement on any member of your family, suffering from sniffles, cold, or even cough.

If you cannot bear it cold, especially in the winter, you can warm it, but just a little bit. Too much warming means all the vitamin C content is going to disappear into the wintry air. Try it out.

1. Oranges For Your Immunity System

In ancient times, oranges were fed in great quantities to all the citizens of the state, so that they never suffered from epidemics, especially in times of disease. This was normally done by mixing up orange juice with lemon juice to give the immune system more strength.

In many parts of Europe, where oranges did not grow, they were considered to be a delicacy for many centuries. In Queen Elizabeth’s time, oranges were studded with cloves and used as a dry pomander by the nobility, in order to show two things – move out of the way, I am rich enough to afford oranges and spices, especially cloves.

Orange juice is excellent to rejuvenate you, especially when you are lethargic and feeling unenergetic. Also, if you are suffering from chronic insomnia, you may want to drink more orange juice. You may find yourself dropping off to sleep, naturally.

2. Heart Problems

Oranges have been well known to prevent heart diseases since ancient times. For this, you needed to drink fresh juice of oranges regularly. It also prevents the arteries from constricting and thus causing a heart attack. If you are suffering from heart problems, you may want to try adding more orange juice in your diet. You are going to find a marked improvement in your state of health. That is because the arteries are strengthened with the amount of vitamin C you are ingesting naturally through oranges. Also, they are going to get rid of all the accumulated cholesterol, and the toxic wastes present in your body, detoxifying your body, effectively.

3. Typhoid

I remember suffering from typhoid, once as a child, and the medicines were not doing me too much good. My grandmother immediately put me on fresh orange juice, with salt in it, because I was not being given solid food to eat. I survived. Thanks to this orange juice, my digestive system evened out, and was not harmed. Within three months, I was back to eating heartily and eating again of all those items, which may have caused the disease to occur in the first place; but thanks to a strong immune system, I never got a typhoid attack again.

4. Asthma

People suffering from asthma and chronic cough should use this natural remedy, which is extremely effective. Take half part of orange juice and half part of warm water. To this add two hefty pinches of ground roasted cumin seeds, and three pinches of dried powdered ginger. Give this to the patient two times a day until he is totally cured of asthma. It is going to take around a month for chronic cases and less than that for mild cases.

5. Pulmonary Pain

This normally occurs, if you have been out in the cold, without adequate protection. You find your rib cage area aching, because your lungs have frozen. So I am giving you this remedy, which you are going to do now, so that you have an adequate backup source for this winter.

Peel lots of oranges and dry them in the shade. That means, you are going to place them in a sunny corner of your home or garden, where there is a little bit of shade, but no direct sun, outdoors. When they are totally dry, crush them and put them in a glass bottle.

You have a very powerful winter remedy against pulmonary pain now. You are going to take three large tablespoons of this powder with warm water. Two doses and away goes that pain in the chest brought about through exposure to the harsh wintry elements.

6. Bloating

This may also occur if there is an infection in the stomach. This can be cured by taking 250 g of fresh orange juice, rock candy according to taste and 1 g of soda bicarbonate. Put the juice and the rock candy in water and make a sherbet. Now, squeeze the juice from the orange peel into this sherbet. Two – three drops is enough. Remember that the juice is rather bitter so do not squeeze in too much of the juice.

Now add the soda bicarbonate – edible soda – and while the mixture is still bubbling, drink it down. This is excellent for getting rid of edema in the stomach as well as jaundice. Do this every morning until you are cured.

7. Lemon Juice Cure

I was a very adventurous eater, as a child, thoroughly omnivorous. That is the reason why I often suffered from stomach ailments. But my grandmother would definitely not send me off to the hospital to be given plenty of toxic pills. Instead, I would be given the juice of one lemon in which she had mixed two hefty pinches each of black salt, roasted powdered cumin seed, 1 tablespoon full of honey and tell me to gulp it down.

This mixture was so delicious, that sometimes I did not need to feign a stomachache. According to her, this was an excellent drink to be drunk in the summer, to prevent dehydration, sunstroke and stomach problems. Also, this is something I did last night. I could not rest, because my throat had a tickle due to a wet cough, and I had begun feeling the start of a cold coming on, and a bit of fever, with the onset of the cold weather.

I got up and juiced one lemon in a glass of lukewarm water. In that I put 2 hefty pinches of black salt and pepper, and a few leaves of scissored mint. I drank it down, and after 15 minutes, I went to the drinks closet and got out 4 large tablespoons full of red wine. I normally do not drink any sort of drink with an alcoholic content, but this was for medicinal purposes and I did not have any brandy around. After drinking the wine, I diluted the alcoholic effect with a glassful of water.

After 20 minutes, and all the vestiges of fever, possible chest infection and cough and cold were gone. This morning, my breathing is easy, my nasal passages are clear, and I know that I am never going to suffer from any cold this winter as long as I have lemons with me followed with some red wine.

Traditionally, this lemon cure is done by taking out the juice of two lemons and putting it in boiling hot water. Allow the water to cool down, until it is lukewarm, and then add one teaspoonful of honey. This is drunk as soon as you are ready to go to bed and by tomorrow, you are definitely not going to have any signs of a cold.

8. Lemons for Your Teeth

Since ancient times, lemon has been used as an excellent protective cure for teeth care. You could start with shade – dried lemon peel powdered with a little bit of salt and a little bit of soda bicarbonate. This is definitely the best teeth whitening agent, preventer of halitosis, and also prevents tooth decay.

When I was young, I saw a number of children who had never seen toothpaste before, having lived their lives in outposts of the Empire, using the natural way to clean their teeth, as their ancestors did before them. This was by taking half a lemon, dipping it in a solution of salt and mustard oil. Their teeth were whiter than Balsara pearls, against their dusky complexions and they never suffered from any sort of gum diseases like by bleeding of gums – gingivitis.

Even today, I have never needed to go to a dentist, because my teeth are in excellent condition and no way am I going to go there for whitening my teeth ever. I am just going to dip half a lemon in some salt and some mustard oil, and brush my teeth and gums with this mixture. Within four days, I am going to have teeth bleached out well and definitely not yellow, and also no teeth, mouth, and gum problems.

9. Anemia

If you find somebody suffering from a low blood count, anywhere in your vicinity, just start giving him the juice of one lemon and two tomatoes, fresh everyday. Along with that, you can give him the juice of one lemon with salt to taste. This helps in encouraging the red blood corpuscles to grow.

In olden times, people who suffered from less blood were given this treatment. The juice of one lemon was mixed in a glass of water with 25 g raisins. It was then placed over night in an airy place. The next morning, you would pick out the raisins from the lemon juice, and chew them, while drinking us a sip of lemon juice – water alternately.

The raisins helped in increasing the blood count, and giving you plenty of energy. It also help detoxify your body. In the same manner, if you have radishes around, you are never going to suffer from anemia just cut the radishes in bite-size pieces, mix with lemon juice and pieces of ginger. Eat this as a salad. This will soon make you rosy with lots of healthy red blood in you.

Remember, do not eat too many lemons, because that is also not too good for your body. The juice of two lemons is enough, when it is diluted with water. Raw lemon juice sprinkled on your food should never be more than one lemon.

10. Diarrhea

Diarrhea can be cured by just adding the juice of one lemon to a glass of milk. This prevents cramps, and if the diarrhea is accompanied with pain, then eat raw lemons without peeling them.

You can also add the juice of one lemon to a cup of water and drink it as often as you can. This is going to clear out your system. You are going to do this five times a day and by the next day, your diarrhea will have been under control. If you do not want to drink it down, you can just put one drop of lemon juice in one spoonful of water, a little bit of salt and a little bit of sugar and drink this down five times a day. This is an extremely good electrolyte which will prevent diarrhea from dehydrating you as well as curing it.

You can also make this electrolyte with one cup of cold water in which you have mixed one fourth of a lemon and sugar and salt, according to taste. Drink this every two hours. Your diarrhea will be cured within the next 48 hours or before.

11. Toothache

Tooth ache normally strikes at midnight, especially when you do not have the dentist around. That is when you are just going to take some cloves and powder them. Add a few drops of lemon juice to the mixture and rub it all over the affected area. You are soon going to find that you may never need the ministrations of a dentist ever again.

12. Pimples

I never suffered from pimples, thanks to a very healthy childhood with plenty of exercise and extremely nourishing diet, without junk food and soft drinks, and that is why when at college, my friend suffered from pimples, they asked me for this remedy told to me by my grandmother.

Take 250 mL of boiled milk. Add the juice of one lemon to it. The milk is going to curdle, but do not worry, keep heating it until it is nice and thick and all the water has been evaporated. Allow it to cool, and then place it in a glass jar. This is prepared in the morning, and applied in the evening, all over your pimples. You may want to prepare it fresh every day, if you have easy access to fresh milk, or you may use the product prepared before hand in your glass jar. Do this for about a week, and you are going to see your skin looking fairer and the pimples disappearing without any scars.

13. Gall Stones and Kidney Stones

In ancient times when there were no surgeons with state of the art technology around to get rid of gallstones and kidney stones for us, people had to resort to natural cures to get rid of these painful accumulations of Uric Acid. To do this, you are going to take one lemon and mix it with rock salt. You are going to suck that lemon throughout the day. Do this as often as possible and you are soon going to find these stones dissolving and being eliminated through the elimination system.