When Life Gives You Lemons…: Harold Edwards

“At Limoniera, we know that good health and maintaining balance continues to be important to all of us, and that produce and citrus can be critical to this balance,” says Harold Edwards, President and CEO of Limoneria. “We understand that people are busy and looking for solutions that are easy to incorporate into their busy lives, and the Nature’s Pharmacy app does just that. Limoneira is proud to be a leader in educating consumers about how to eat their way to optimum health naturally.”

We’ve cross-tabulated 55 health concerns including the need to increase good cholesterol, prevent cardiovascular disease or ease insomnia, as well as desired outcomes, including improving energy levels or reducing wrinkles, with 74 fruits and vegetables. All of these foods, which can be found in the produce section of most grocery stores, contain 12 essential vitamins and 11 essential minerals that address these concerns or help with desired outcomes. By selecting a concern or outcome, the app then generates foods in the produce aisle that can help consumers achieve their health goals.

“Nature’s Pharmacy and Take a Healthy Stand are important components of the Food as Medicine movement taking hold nationwide,” said Megan Roosevelt, a Limoneira nutritionist and founder of Healthy Grocery Girl®. “Food as Medicine maintains that fresh, healthy produce such as lemons can help avoid an expensive and perhaps less effective trip to the grocery department’s supplement aisle.”

This app is just one of several educational platforms to be launched as part of our Take a Healthy Stand™ platform, which showcases the many ways that citrus and produce can play a role in helping to alleviate serious health issues as well as enhancing personal appearance and wellbeing. The foundation underpinning our Take A Healthy Stand™ educational campaign is consumer-friendly messaging supported by research by the Institute of National Health and other objective organizations.

Certain diet and lifestyle factors can speed up the aging process which may have a negative effect on your health and physical appearance. For example, oxidative damage from the build-up of free radicals speeds up the aging process which can result in wrinkles, age spots, dryness and decreased skin elasticity. The National Institute of Health has published research studies that have demonstrated that antioxidants may help slow aging and improve skin health. One simple way to consume more antioxidants and prevent aging is to consume lemons. Both the peel and juice are rich in Vitamin C, an antioxidant that also supports collagen production which important for skin elasticity and skin health. The pectin in lemon rind can also help with weight loss. Lemons also contain limonene which is used in cosmetics and also in a range of other items, such as fragrance and bath products.

Continued emerging research published in the National Institute of Health reveals that what you eat – and don’t eat – may help prevent certain types of cancers. For example, LEMON juice successfully inhibits the growth of several types of cancer cells. Hesperidin and d-limonene (plant Compounds found in LEMONS) have both been shown to have cancer-preventing properties.

Diet and lifestyle both play a huge role in heart disease prevention. Studies published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism have shown that hesperidin and diosmin (plant compounds in LEMONS) have been found to help lower cholesterol. It has also been demonstrated that walking and eating lemons every day is associated with a decrease in blood pressure.