Why must you not squeeze lemons on hot food? | The Times of India (2024)

Can you imagine using lemon in day-to-day cooking without squeezing it? Whether it is to make nimbu pani or exotic beverages or to make homemade chenna or delicious salads, it is impossible to think of cooking without the use of lemons. But what if you tell you that squeezing lemon on hot food can have harmful effects on health as well as food. Here’s all you need to know about it.

Call it the ease of usage or the tactic to add just the right amount of lemon juice to the food, cutting lemon and squeezing is the the easiest way to includ ethem to food or drinks. But you will be amazed to know that both culinary as well as health experts believe that the impact of adding lemon juice to hot food or drinks is not great. This may sound bizarre, but here’s the reason why you must refrain from adding lemon juice to hot food.

Cooking is incomplete without flavours and many times we add lemon juice while cooking a dish just to add a punch of flavours. No doubt the addition of lemon adds a hint of flavours, but you will be amazed to know that adding vitamin C to steaming hot food reduces the nutrition quotient of the vitamin C. This happens because vitamin C is extremely sensitive to heat so all you end up adding to your meals, soups or hot beverages is some empty flavours.

The reason why exposure to heat dillutes the nutreints in Vitamin C happens due to the presence of ascorbic acid in Vitamin C, which is responsive to temperature and light. It degrades fast when exposed to high temperatures and reduces its efficacy.

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