In September 2021 I drank the juice of 200 fresh lemons in 12 days. I started with 5 lemons on the first day, added 5 a day until I reached 25 (about a litre of pure juice), stayed there for four days and then came back down. I finished on 17 September and wrote this page while it was happening.
What I experienced
- In the first few days I felt a bit sick: nausea, a headache, some fever and shivering at night.
- After day 5 those symptoms were gone, and I felt better every day.
- Sometimes I felt sleepy.
At the time I explained the early symptoms as toxins leaving my body and the improvement as a vitamin C boost. I can’t prove either explanation. What I can tell you is that it helped me and I felt better, and that is why I stand by my recommendation.
The plan I followed
Drink the juice of 200 lemons within 12 days:
- Day 1: 5 lemons
- Day 2: 10 lemons
- Day 3: 15 lemons
- Day 4: 20 lemons
- Days 5–8: 25 lemons
- Day 9: 20 lemons
- Day 10: 15 lemons
- Day 11: 10 lemons
- Day 12: 5 lemons
What I would no longer claim
I stand by the recommendation, but not by every reason I gave for it:
- “A great way to detox your body.” Detox diets have very little clinical evidence behind them, according to a 2015 review. There is no good evidence that feeling unwell at the start is a sign of toxins leaving.
- “Balance your body pH.” Lemon juice is very acidic. Its citrate raises the citrate level in urine, but a 2021 review found that lemon juice had no significant effect on urine pH. I found no evidence that it “balances” the body’s pH.
- “Detox your liver and remove gallstones.” Mayo Clinic says there is no reliable evidence that a liver or gallbladder flush prevents or treats gallstones. What people see afterwards are globs of oil, juice and other material.
- “Boost your immunity.” Lemon juice is a good source of vitamin C: the juice of one lemon has about 19 mg (USDA). But in a Cochrane review of placebo-controlled trials, regular vitamin C did not reduce how often people in the general population caught a cold; in adults it shortened colds by about 8%.
- “Weight loss.” In a 2015 trial of a seven-day lemon detox programme, women who drank a placebo juice on the same restricted diet also lost weight. The effect came from eating less, not from the lemons.
- Digestion, exercise performance, mental health, a “clean urinary tract”. I listed these without evidence, and I have not found trials showing that lemon juice does any of them.
What the dose really meant
On my peak days, 25 lemons gave about 1.2 kg of juice. That contains roughly 460 mg of vitamin C, well below the adult upper limit of 2,000 mg a day given by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. The acid is the bigger issue. Lemon juice contains about 1.44 g of citric acid per ounce, so my peak days contained around 55 g. For comparison, the “lemonade therapy” that doctors have used for some kidney-stone patients was 4 ounces of lemon juice diluted to 2 litres and spread across the day, about a tenth as much acid.
I drank the juice pure and told readers not to mix it with water. Diluting it does not change the amount of acid, only how concentrated it is, so what matters most is how you drink it. In a case-control study, acidic drinks were strongly associated with erosive tooth wear, and so were habits that keep the acid in contact with the teeth for longer, such as holding or swishing a drink before swallowing. Citrus fruits can also trigger reflux.
If you want to try it
My suggestion, if you want to try it: start with fewer lemons than I did, drink the juice rather than sipping it over hours, don’t hold it in your mouth, and stop if you feel unwell. If you have reflux, a stomach ulcer, kidney disease or sensitive teeth, ask a doctor or dentist first. A fever is a reason to see a doctor, not a sign that a detox is working.
Be the One, for me, means standing by my own experience and being honest about what I can prove. Record what you feel, and be careful with the story you tell about why.
This is a record of a personal experiment and my recommendation, not medical advice.
