This lemonade is a wonderful combination of tasty sweet and tang, plus it offers a hearty dose of vitamin C from whole food sources! It’s lovely for drinking when fighting off a cold or illness (or for hydrating if sick).
This lemonade is unique for a couple of reasons – first, it uses peeled whole lemons for more potential health benefits (and you end up using fewer lemons, which is frugal too!). Secondly, the vanilla is amazing with lemons! Who knew? Thirdly, I add a whole fruit source of vitamin C to make this drink a wonderful, whole food source of vitamin C!
Today is the first day of December, and we are getting in the Christmas spirit over here. Our tree is up, and I have running lists of holiday plans for us (including fun posts coming up for this blog!). But I am also trying to keep us well during this holiday season so that we can enjoy them. This little drink is just part of my “stay well” eating/drinking plan.
There is some controversy over how much vitamin C we should optimally consume every day, and whether we should use any vitamin C supplements or not. Personally, I have used a more typical vitamin C pill, but I feel most comfortable with it getting it from real food, or concentrated real food powder. For those of us who follow Dr. Price’s dietary recommendations, getting a whole food source of vitamin C in every day is part of his protocol. This lovely refreshing drink is one great way to do so.
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This was inspired by the “Singing Canary” Trim Healthy Mama drink, but is a simplified version (I choose not to use turmeric or protein powder), My version also uses a whole food source of vitamin C, rather than a synthetic version. My version also contains fewer milligrams of vitamin C in total.
Vitamin C and pregnant women and nursing mothers
One thing to double check with your health care provider about is how much vitamin from any sort of supplement you should consume when pregnant or nursing. I have gotten different answers on this question. The most conservative response is probably given by Medline Plus (a service from the National Library of Medicine)
They say, “Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Vitamin C is LIKELY SAFE for pregnant or breast-feeding women when taken in the recommended amount of 120 mg per day. Taking too much vitamin C during pregnancy can cause problems for the newborn baby.”
Two dieticians answer that question here, a summery being that eating vitamin C rich food and taking a multi-vitamin will give you plenty of vitamin C (and taking large doses could be harmful for your baby), and the second opinion being that you shouldn’t take over 2,000 MG of added vitamin C per day.
You can also get helpful charts for general info on recommended amounts of vitamin C (from diet or supplements) from WebMD, where they also point out that, “A substantial number of Americans may have low intake levels of vitamin C due to the inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables.”
The point is this – vitamin C is an important vitamin, but you can over do it, especially if you are pregnant or nursing. Many midwives recommend the higher amount (2000 milligrams per day), so there is a wide range of advice in how much to take when pregnant is optimal.
For the rest of us, it makes sense to me to get our vitamin C from food as much as possible – which is why I love this recipe!
Vitamin C from lemons in recipe: According to WhFoods.com, ¼ cup of lemon or lime juice contains 23.61 MG of vitamin C (and a small amount of folate as well!). But the pith and the peel has even higher concentrations of certain elements that could be especially healthful. Intriguing research has shown that those who consume citrus peels have a lower risk of skin cancers (read here and here), and research shows that some of the elements could be helpful in preventing breast and colon cancers. So, save those citrus peels from this recipe to use in other ways!
Whole Food Vitamin C
If you’d like to up the vitamin C content even more, you can do what I do by adding some of this Vitamin C powder made from acerola cherries. From Traditional Market, “Freeze drying and spray drying changes the acerola’s pH and reduces its vitamin levels. This vitamin C is processed with a proprietary gentle low heat method. As a result, the natural cherry color flavor and smell remains unchanged. Lab tests confirm that no vitamin C is lost during the process. Each bottle contains at least 25,000 mg of only naturally occurring vitamin C per bottle. This is truly natural vitamin C—there is no ascorbic acid added or synthetic vitamins added at all. It’s just powdered organic cherry.”
I love this stuff! It also works well in smoothies. A ¼ teaspoon has 250 mg of vitamin C, so to get 2000 mgs, I use 2 teaspoons. It has such a mild flavor, that you could easily use less as well.
https://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/VitaminC
Ingredient links:
Gluten free vanilla extract
stevia
raw honey
Whole Fruit Vitamin C Powder
- 2 lemons, peeled (white pith left on)
- 1-2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Whole Food Vitamin C extract of choice (I use this one), I use ¼-2 teaspoons worth, depending on how much vitamin C I am wanting.
- Stevia or honey to taste
- Dash of unrefined salt, optional
- Slice the peeled lemons into 4 pieces, and remove any seeds. Place in a blender with 3 cups of water and blend well, until smooth.
- Strain through a fine sieve or a nut bag into a large rim jar or bowl.
- Pour back into jar, and add the vanilla extract, optional salt, if using, and stevia or honey to taste (start low and build up). Blend briefly, and then pour over a 2 quart jar full of ice. Add water to reach the rim of the jar. Enjoy!
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Any suggestions on how to eat the peels? I’m assuming they’d best be eaten raw to preserve the nutrients.
Do you realize that often when I access your site there is a box that comes up saying the certificate does not match the name on the website? I’m assuming it is something no good and just click out of it, but thought I would let you know. (Sorry I did not write down the exact wording before I x’d out of it.) I hope you are not being hacked. I first encountered it a few months ago. It only has shown up occasionally, though.
Thank you for this recipe. I saw on Keeper of the Homestead blog that she juices her lemons, peel and all, using a champion juicer. I haven’t tried that yet, but that would certainly add nutrients to the juice.
Hey Jennifer,
Thanks for letting me know! I suspect it actually has to do with the server we are currently using (and I have good protection against hackers, with a company constantly monitoring against it). But I will look into it!
Lemonade is a sweet refreshing drink. Specially the essence of vanilla in this case making it of more taste.