Saw it on Social: Dirty Lemon Water
Feb 5, 2018
Can a charcoal infused lemon water really make you healthier? And can their Instagram ads convince you to spend $10 on a bottle of water?
Dirty Lemon advertisements pop up in my Instagram feed daily. Pictures of skinny, California girls eating heaping plates of chicken drumsticks, while sipping from the brand’s striped bottles. The insinuation is clear: drink our water, and you can eat anything.
But does it live up to the hype?
Dirty Lemon water is a mixture of non-GMO lemons (as opposed to regular ones), “pharmaceutical grade” activated charcoal, dandelion root, and “reverse osmosis” water. The company touts improved digestion and a system cleansed of impurities. They refer to their water as an “elixir” and the description is filled with as many medical-sounding words as possible.
I originally purchased Dirty Lemon water after reading this xoJane article. The author touted her bloat-free weight loss and clear complexion since drinking the water. She used phrases like “not-yet FDA approved” and “detox” to make the product sound like health food. This Allure article talks about altering your “body’s pH,” but also mentions that drinking the water can’t counteract a diet of pizza and pancakes. (Thanks for the tip.)
You can only order Dirty Lemon via text message. It costs $65 for 6 bottles. The company recommends drinking it daily. Those are cocaine prices.
Let’s cut to the chase. In my opinion, this is a complete scam. When I was drinking it, I did feel a little bit less boated and my skin cleared up a little bit. However, you can add lemon to your water, drink dandelion root tea to reduce water weight, and take activated charcoal to reduce gas and bloating to achieve a similar effect. There’s no reason to be suckered into paying a social-media savvy company a small fortune for bottled water summoned to your door via text.
Translation: don’t get sucked into the trap of paying $10 for a bottle of lemon water.
The products on SioS are purchased by me with my money. No sponsored items or freebies are solicited or accepted. The question every post seeks to answer is “Would I spend my money on this twice?,” which I can only do if I spend my own money on it once.
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“Those are cocaine prices.” – I literally laughed out loud! Thanks for this post and for always keeping it real!
+1 – I started choking on my lunch laughing when I read that sentence! Thanks for the laugh today.
Ditto. Wish I could use that line, but being from Miami, I worry people would think I had first-hand knowledge.
I thought you were kidding with “You can only order Dirty Lemon via text message” but I guess that’s what SioS is all about! Hilarious!
Aside from everything else, the ordering by text is when I really realized this was Not For Me. But this post was so hilarious, I’m 100% glad you tried this out.
This post was hilarious, and I love the ethos of SioS. Keep it up!
Add to the laughs that there are no GMO lemons.
That’s what I was going to point out! The non-GMO labeling is another scam. Non-GMO salt, anyone? (Not commenting on whether people should be concerned about GMOs, but so many things are labeled non as marketing when there isn’t a commercially available — or, in the case of something like salt, possible — alternative.)
This is a non-GMO, BPA-free, Gluten Free water bottle. https://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/there-actual-gmo-free-water-sale-us/
Chiming in on the “SCIENCE!” thread to add that while activated charcoal IS used in the ER for certain acute poisonings/toxic events, there is little to no peer-reviewed research supporting the benefits of activated charcoal as a general lifestyle aid. For example: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/activated-charcoal-the-latest-detox-fad-in-an-obsessive-food-culture/ and https://www.consumerreports.org/dietary-supplements/activated-charcoal-fad-not-a-magic-health-bullet/
Are you still doing the alternatives – dandelion root tea, lemon water, charcoal pills? Curious if you think those more direct and less commercialized options are worth the time and energy based on results?
I try to drink hot lemon water every morning, and it seems to help with my digestion. I don’t take activated charcoal because it can interfere with the absorption of medications. As for dandelion root tea, I don’t drink it too often, but around my period, it really helps.