It’s time to pucker up! No, we’re not talking about smooching…today we’re talking about the power of sour!

While most commercial foods today are primarily laden with the flavors of sugar and salt, we’ve lost our taste for the flavors of bitter and sour. Even foods that are considered savory, such as a loaf of bread, are loaded with sugar, because that’s what we’ve trained our palates to enjoy.

But what most people don’t stop to consider is that taste is medicine. We have bitter, sweet, salty, bland, and pungent tastes available to satisfy our body’s needs.

The taste of sour in our bodies actually encourages important processes to take place. If we’re unaware of its importance or mentally averse to challenging our pampered palates, our bodies will pay the price.

Sour is the taste of fruit acids and antioxidants. For the most part, the energetic qualities of the sour taste are cooling and moist. Sour moves the energy downward in the body, grounding us, and helping to reduce heat and excitation.

I don’t know about where you live, but it’s hot as hell in Texas right now. If I’m not mindful, the heat can make me irritable and agitated, which tells an important story…

The fruits of the summer season are not a coincidence: Nature provides the antidote to the weather. And when nature gives us lemons, we make lemonade to cool down! See how smart we are.

The taste of sour also stimulates gall bladder function. This points to the wisdom of drinking a warm glass of water with freshly squeezed lemon upon waking. All night long, your amazing liver has been making bile, and your gall bladder has been concentrating and storing it, preparing for a high-fat, adequate protein, low-carb breakfast of champions.

Bile is the body’s natural laxative and aids fat digestion and detoxification. You don’t want to neglect this amazing part of your digestive system. Just because you can live without your gall bladder doesn’t mean that you don’t need it! Sour is the taste of self-care for healthy gall bladder function. Bringing intention to the healthy foods you eat is just as important as actually eating the healthy foods.

If warm water with lemon juice is appealing to you, go for it, but I am going to share with you how I like to consume my lemon in the form of sugar-free lemonade.

Happy sour sippin’, my friends!

Sugar-Free Lemonade

• 2 quarts filtered water (We love our Berkey)
• 1 cup fresh-squeezed, organic lemon juice
• 1/2-1 tsp stevia extract*

Add all ingredients to a large pitcher, mix well, and serve over ice.

Here are some other variations:

• Strawberry Thyme Lemonade – blend 1 cup of organic strawberries and the leaves from a few sprigs of thyme with the lemon juice in a high-speed blender. Then add all other ingredients and mix until combined. Pour over ice in glasses and garnish with strawberries.
• Pink Lemonade – steep 1 quart of hibiscus tea and use this in place of one quart of water. Pretty AND delicious!
• Blueberry Lemonade – blend 1 cup of organic blueberries with the lemon juice in a high-speed blender. Then add all the other ingredients and mix until combined.

*Just a note about stevia. While some people do not like the taste or aftertaste of stevia, I find that it does very well in acidic beverages, like lemon and unsweetened cranberry juice. So please try this even if you don’t like stevia. LiveSoda is my favorite brand of kombucha for this very reason. I don’t like that vinegar-y taste of most kombuchas and these guys cut through that with a touch of stevia. They nailed it! So be sure to try one of their beverages as well. Their Dreamy Orange flavor is incredible. You may discover that you like stevia after all!

One last tip, the pH of your mouth is alkaline, while the pH of lemon is acidic. You want an alkaline pH in your mouth to encourage mineralization of teeth and healthy bacterial balance. So please preserve the health of your mouth by eating a xylitol mint after your cool glass of lemonade. My favorite brand is Zellies.

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