lemon juice and cayenne pepper

  • Has any body had any experience with drinking first thing in the morning about 1/2 squeezed lemon ( juice) , a tad of cayenne pepper mixed with warm water to speed up your metabolism for the day? A co worker of mine said she was told by a nutrionist to do this. After googling such a recipe I do see there are "detox" recipes....but I dont think I was really interested in doing a detox on my self, Please chime in if you have had any experience with this.... or is this just a homemade laxative,, lol
  • I don't drink that, but I do drink hot water every morning, after I brush my teeth. Sounds weird, but it's actually really good (and yes I drink coffee/tea, but not first thing in the morning). I tend to eat less throughout the day if I do this.
  • When I first heard that cayenne was supposed to speed metabolism, I'd been drinking this and similar concoctions (hot and cold) for years as a decongestant/expectorant for colds, flus, and chronic respiratory illness.

    I'd drink the hot lemon/cayenne at home, and I'd add cayenne to Crystal Light at work (or I'd make a pitcher of cayenne lemonade at home and would fill a large water bottle with it).

    If there were any metabolic effects at all, they were so small as to be unnoticeable. I didn't lose weight any faster drinking cayenne/lemon concoctions (whether the concoctions were cold, hot, sweetened, unsweetened...) than when I wasn't drinking them.

    Although it doesn't work (for me, at least) for weight loss, it is absolutely an amazing decongestant/expectorant. To this day, if I get a bad cold or a sinus infection, I make a big pitcher of cayenne lemonade (I usually drink it cold though. It works faster hot, but it tastes better cold - it just doesn't work for weight loss either hot or cold).

    It can decrease appetite though, especially if you drink a glass before meals. I've also noticed that when I eat extremely spicy food (even though I love it) I'm more likely to eat less, and find myself satisfied sooner and less likely to eat until uncomfortably full.

    And maybe that's why I've never noticed a difference with the cayenne lemonades, I'm already eating capsaicin-containing foods quite regularly.

    If it does have any metabolic effect, I suppose that means I would have weighed a lot more than 400 lbs if I didn't love spicy food so much.
  • Beyonce did this diet for about 2 wks I believe to get trim.
    The recipe I have heard is that you add maple syrup too for a bit of energy. It sounds very extreme to me and I'm on a VLCD.

    The hot water, with a squeeze of lemon juice is meant to be great to cleanse the system in the morning. I find it refreshing too.
  • Its not really a detox, but it is glorified as such

    Its essentially a starvation diet. No detox to it- same thing with juicing
  • The lemonade detox is not very healthy. It has little to no nutritional value. The lemonade with act like a laxative. The cayenne pepper may slow hunger, but again, this is not the best choice.

    Drink hot green tea if you want to boost your metabolism in the morning.