Two of summer season’s most renowned citrus are Limes and Lemons. What should one choose between the attractively arranged Yellows vs. Greens on shelves of supermarkets? Quite a tiebreaker!

Apart from adding a sour tang to our foods, the important characteristics that both of these have are:

– They are natural sources of Vitamin C

– They are excellent Immunity boosters

– They help in absorption of nutrients

– The citric acid in lime/lemon prevents oxidation and browning.

Who has an edge over the other?

The science of Ayurveda goes a step deeper into understanding the post digestive effect of different foods on our body. The food items that we consume can predominantly be divided into 6 tastes – sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. All of which, after 6-8 hours of assimilation in the body, converge into 3 tastes post digestion – sweet, sour and pungent.

The post digestive taste of Limes is sweet and thus alkalizing whereas the post digestive taste of Lemons on the other hand is sour, hence the long term use of Lemons can increase acidity.

In essence, most of us have hard time buffering the acidity of Lemons especially because of our Modern lifestyle, the type of food choices we make, exposure to pollutants and xenobiotics which contributes to rising acidity levels in the body. Thus we need less acidic (a.k.a. more alkaline) foods to stay balanced.

Best practices:

Now that Limes have won the Tiebreaker, Let’s explore the best practices while using Limes:

One of the common mistake that most of us do is squeezing Lime juice while a vegetable soup/dish or Lentil soup is still cooking. Cooking Lime juice with the dish turns the food acidic and hence giving hard time to the body to buffer the acidity. To derive the best benefit is after cooking, wait until the dish stops steaming and then squeeze the Lime juice onto the dish.

The impact of a conscious cook is necessary, and it ripples through the effect of food on one’s body! So, become Conscious of Being Conscious! (To squeeze lime juice on top of your dish!)

Tips:

To get most juice from your lime:

– Select a lime with thin skin

– Use a Lime squeezer

– Soak the Limes in warm water for 10 min before squeezing the lime juice. (Works Especially when limes have been just taken out of the refrigerator)

– Massage your limes by rolling them over the kitchen counter or a hard surface before getting them ready to be squeezed