I used to drink this back in the late 1990s, only I used orange juice instead of water. The orange juice makes it taste really good. If the lemon was a gigantic lemon, like you sometimes get at the grocery store, I would use 1/2 lemon. If the lemon was on the small side, I used a whole lemon. I think it did a lot for my health. I'd wait half an hour to an hour and then drink carrot juice (which also heals a certain portion of the liver).