Whenever we go out to eat at a restaurant, the first question that most servers ask is what would we like to drink. While everyone would rattle off their drink order, we guarantee there would be at least one person ordering water or diet coke. Whether you like it or not, restaurants serve water with lemon. Have you ever wondered why?
Here is the answer. The primary reason restaurants tend to put lemon in water is that their water quality is poor. Instead of spending on expensive filtration systems, they prefer spending money on countless lemons to make the water taste fresher and free of germs. Without lemons, the water served at most restaurants has a strong taste of chlorine.
Is a Restaurant’s Lemon Water Bad?
There is no lie in it when we say that lemon water helps cleanse our body, with the skin looking healthy and glowing, and maintaining the body weight. But while we encourage you to drink lemon water twice a day, there is one place we would like to recommend you to stick with regular or plain water. Restaurants.
What is the reason? At 76% of the restaurants, the lemons served in water are full of germs, bacteria, and other microbes. They are most likely to cause diseases like E.coli. Another research showed that one of every ten restaurants has lemon wedges contaminated with traces of human waste.
How Are Lemon Wedges Contaminated?
The health standards of restaurants are less strict when it comes to garnishing. Therefore, workers are often found holding lemon wedges without wearing gloves or tongs. Suppose they did not wash their hands after using the toilet or touched any other dirty spot. In that case, there are 100% chances that your lemon would be contaminated with millions of germs already before dropping it into your iced water.
Here is a video on why you should never drink lemon water at a restaurant:
The Good Part
Before you give a death glare to your server serving lemon water, know that a bit of garnish is less likely to make you sick. A study in 2008 revealed there haven’t been any outbreaks or diseases because of lemons. This still holds intact today. We have a robust immune system that lemon water cannot easily affect.
What Can Be Done?
If you are still concerned about the after-effects of the restaurant’s lemon water, ask your server to get you plain water without lemon. However, if you cannot live without it, order a lemon separately and squeeze out the juice, putting the wedge aside. Although the half lemon wedge juice is also contaminated with bacteria, at least you would not have the germs floating from the glass right into the water.
Furthermore, we recommend not to skip drinking lemon water at home because doing so has incredible health and beauty benefits. Before adding lemon to your glass, just be sure to rinse it with clean water, and you are good to go!
