Cucumber Nutrition And Cucumber Diet For Summers

Cucumber is the ideal cooling summer food. You can have cucumber slices seasoned with a little pepper and salt as a cool and crunchy snack. It has a high water content and helps to keep your body cool and refreshed. The term ‘as cool as cucumber’ probably has its origins in the cooling effects of this fleshy vegetable.

Salad is the ideal summer food, and along with tomatoes, lettuce and citrus fruits, cucumber is an essential part of it. It helps reduce oiliness, and imparts a fresh and cool feeling.

Cucumber Foods And Health Benefits Of Cucumber

• Cucumber belongs to the same family of vegetables as zucchini, pumpkin and other squashes. It has a light green skin, with a light green and sometimes almost white flesh. The flesh is crunchy and juicy.
• Cucumber has many medicinal benefits which make it an essential part of an ideal summer diet. It can also be used as a cooling beauty aid during summer. Its positive properties were known even in ancient times by the Japanese, Greek, Roman and Arab physicians, who recommended it to their patients, especially in the hot dry summer months.
• Cucumber has a diuretic property which increases the flow of urine. This is especially helpful in the dry summer months in order to flush toxins out of the body and maintain healthy tissue and skin.
• Researchers have found an enzyme called Erepsin in cucumber juice, which is invaluable for maintaining the health of the entire intestinal tract. This aids better digestion and is especially helpful in summer, when digestion tends to become sluggish.
• Cucumber has minimal amounts of sugar, carbohydrates and fats which decreases it calorie content which makes it ideal for a summer diet. It also contains significant amounts of Vitamin B, phosphorus, calcium, zinc and other minerals.
• Cucumber is helpful in providing relief from gastritis, stomach acidity and heartburn which occurs more frequently in summer.
• Cucumber helps control arthritis, eczema and gout.
• It helps those with high or low blood pressure problems, as well as those with diseases of the stomach, lungs or chest.
• Having cucumber juice regularly benefits those with gum diseases. It also helps healthy growth of hair, and prevents the nails of toes and fingers from splitting.
• Regular consumption of cucumber also helps those with diabetes.

While these are the ways the body benefits internally, cucumber has properties which make it an effective and healing antidote for skin and eye problems. Raw cucumber, or a paste of cucumber, or even the skin of this wonder vegetable is cooling when applied to inflamed eyes or skin. When placed directly on them, it helps reduce inflammation, swelling and heat.