ELI5. Why is honey and lemon a popular cure for cold like symptoms. What makes lemon more effective than say an orange or lime?

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ELI5. Why is honey and lemon a popular cure for cold like symptoms. What makes lemon more effective than say an orange or lime?

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Answer 1

>ELI5. Why is honey and lemon a popular cure for cold like symptoms.

Because people believe it is a cure, and this belief passes through the population as a meme.

People see demand for products containing these ingredients, and so they make them in order to profit from their sale. The presence of these products in stores reinforces the belief that they do something, and so the meme perpetuates.

People looking for validation that the products work will try the product, and then will feel better, and will conclude that the product caused them to feel better even if they would have gotten better anyway. This also reinforces the belief.

We also have a compulsion to share our knowledge with others, even if that knowledge is wrong. So anytime you ask a question like this on social media you’ll find many people convinced of their beliefs who sound very authoritative telling you about the benefits of things like raw honey, lemon juice, or that magical fluid vinegar. This also perpetuates the belief.

There is evidence that a vitamin C deficiency hurts your ability to recover from illnesses. It’s very hard to be vitamin C deficient unless you’re on a pirate ship for a year, so vitamin C supplementation is almost always pointless. You’ll just pee it out. Your doctor can tell you if you are deficient in vitamin C.

In other words, there’s no actual evidence that any of these home remedies actually do anything aside from the placebo effect.

But it’s also relatively harmless, and if you’re drinking fluids or eating soup in order to get that bonus vitamin C or whatever the remedy is that you’re taking, you’re getting fluids. It’s important to be hydrated when you’re sick so that your immune system has access to all of your body’s waterways to fight off the infection. So even if putting lemon juice or honey in your water doesn’t help you directly, if it encourages you to drink more water, and reduces your stress, *it’s still helpful*. This is why your doctor may still encourage you to try things like this at home. It makes you feel better feeling like you have some control over your own recovery even if you don’t and you’re getting fluids, which really is what your body needs.