Why Are People Obsessed With Adding Lemon Juice to Their Coffee?

Once upon a time thousands of years ago, a goat herder named Kaldi noticed something striking. His goats became unusually energetic after eating the berries of an unknown plant. The berries had the same effect on the monks of a local monastery who ate them. Over time, the story of these energetic berries would go on to transform people’s lives. Today, over 1 billion people worldwide drink coffee each day.

From Instagrammers posting cozy cup-holding selfies with “But First Coffee” captions to workers starting their day in queues of coffee shops, the aromatic whiff of coffee is often associated with mornings. But being a health-conscious generation, people these days don’t consume coffee just for taste, they want it in a way that doesn’t impact their health in a negative way. And as TikTokers always do, they’ve figured out that an odd pairing of lemon and coffee can accomplish this purpose.

The idea of #LemonCoffee sounds attractive mainly because both lemon and coffee come with a host of health benefits. MindBodyGreen explains that both lemon and coffee are rich in antioxidants. While coffee boosts brain and heart health, lemon is considered a powerful Ayurvedic medicine capable of cleansing the bodily system. But does squeezing a lemon in a cup of coffee really work? For some TikTokers, it has while for others it hasn’t.

While @justagirlfrom1995 reported losing 8 pounds in 2 weeks after trying this recipe, @iamshanitapatriece said she actually gained some weight after trying it. @zamansbusykitchen called the viral lemon coffee his “top secret drink for a flat tummy.” In a comment on her video, @missfoodiebayarea wrote that she was “sweating bullets” when she tried this drink whereas a TikToker @lorena.m.h8 said she lost 4 pounds. In another video, @mylesomar said this “lemon coffee for weight loss actually works.” He said he took this drink every single morning on an empty stomach and reduced his weight from 12 pounds to 11.4 pounds. @eze_nwanyi1 suggested adding honey to the recipe to add a tint of sweet flavor.

To know whether this drink has a basis in science, TODAY spoke to New York-based dietician, Samantha Cassetty. Cassetty said that although there is “nothing magical about adding lemon to coffee,” it has more to do with hydration than promoting calorie burn. And even though lemon is rich in Vitamin C, a little trickle of lemon in the lemon coffee doesn’t really add much nutritional value to the body. Cassetty concluded it bluntly saying that there is no actual benefit of lemon coffee.

Speaking to Good Housekeeping, Dr. Alexandra Sowa, a health physician, said the same thing. “No doctor I know would ever recommend this as a way to lose weight,” she added. Ideally, the virality of the trend lies in the fact that people don’t like to participate in complex workouts or exercises that will actually help them burn calories. Instead lemon coffee sounds simpler.

So, while some people are forcing themselves too hard to skip their favorite morning milk coffee or milk matcha or peppermint mocha just to try lemon coffee, others are endorsing the trend with “before and after” pictures and captions like “Drop belly fat” or “Lose weight fast.” The hype is, however, just a hype. The drink itself may not be harmful to the body, but it isn’t some magic weight-loss potion either. Ultimately, “any health or weight loss hack that sounds too fast, too easy, or too good to be true generally is,” warned Dr. Sowa.

You can follow @justagirlfrom1995, @iamshanitapatriece, @zamansbusykitchen, @missfoodiebayarea, @mylesomar, and @eze_nwanyi1 to watch videos from their channels!