How can you wake up your digestive system and get your stomach primed for the food of the day? By drinking a glass of lemon-infused water in the morning! This is a method recommended by ancient Ayurveda, the Vedic system of health that comes from early human history. Warm lemon water helps move nutrition through your system and avoids the buildup of toxins that might be produced if food sits in your stomach unable to be broken down.
A glass of room-temperature water with a squeeze of lemon in it wakes up the digestive system with a little fire — particularly needed for Vata and Kapha types, who have less natural fire. Digestive fire is what is needed to properly process nutrients and get the most from them. If your digestive fire is too weak, some nutrients may pass through without being useful to you. Or worse: they might stick around inside you and cause problems.
If the water is too cold, that puts a bit of a shock on your system and interferes with digestion, so I always drink water at room temperature. You might notice that after getting in this habit for a few days, your gut gets into a familiar rhythm. And you start to feel great!
If lemon juice isn’t ideal or it causes heartburn, try a squeeze of lime instead. It will have nearly the same effect. If you are Pitta imbalanced or Pitta type, you will benefit more from lime water. However, I am Pitta type and I drink a little bit of warm lemon water every day!
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