Now here's my take:
This is all very interesting... but I'm not going to stop with the lemon slices because frankly, if this is true, my body could use the disease causing bacteria.
Seriously. The immune systems of astronauts crash after so many days in space. It's because the shuttle/space station/whatever is a closed ecosystem. There are no new bugs coming in so the immune system has nothing to do - and so it shuts down. This is such a serious problem that it could have detrimental effects on, say, a manned Mars mission - not so much from the threat of "Martian bacteria" (I personally don't think anything is there) as the danger of coming home to a germ-filled planet with no immune system.
Now you might laugh and say "just wait until you're in the hospital with e coli," and I suppose you'd have a point. But here's my point: the last and only time I was hospitalized was when I was ten and had my tonsils taken out. I've been doing this lemon thing since junior high, long before it was fashionable. And you should also know that, not only do I squeeze lemons and dump them into my drinks - I've also been known to pull the slices out and eat them, peel and all.
In this era of over-prescribed antibiotics, disinfectant sprays, anti-bacterial soaps, and bottles of Purel in every pocket, we're collectively dumbing down our immune systems and setting the stage for a nasty, resistant superbug. So I'll take my chances with the lemon slices. I figure if they are as bad as all that, I'll have an advantage when that superbug does show up.
Besides, my body can also use the extra Vitamin C.
