WATERMELONS | Health Benefits
- Sabrina Szesny
- Aug 4, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 9, 2023
The perfect refreshment on hot days with great advantages for your health. Everything you need to know.
The melon is actually a vegetable. However it's called a fruit vegetable because of its sweet taste, and is usually placed with the fruit in supermarkets.
While originally from Africa, there are over 150 varieties in total, which differ in color, shape and taste.
This article is about the watermelon, which when ripe has an aromatic sweet taste and is characterized by dark red flesh with dark green skin. However it's not only a perfect refreshment on hot days (it already became an iconic symbol of summer), it contains important nutrients such as minerals and vitamins and has only a few calories.
What are its benefits on our body and overall health? I will also highlight some practical tips on how to buy the perfect watermelon and some creative ways to incorporate it in your daily food life so that you don't get bored.
Overview
Nutrition Facts
As their name indicates, watermelons have a high water content, which helps to keep the body hydrated. Besides many other things, the fruit contains vitamin A - a necessary vitamin for healthy eyes, skin renewal and hair growth. Beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, is also found in watermelons, as well as vitamin C, various B vitamins, and the minerals calcium, potassium, magnesium, and iron. Thus, the melon provides a wide variety of micronutrients needed for numerous bodily functions while keeping the calories low.
Watermelons are rich in the antioxidant lycopene, which is, among other things, responsible for its red color. This is why red watermelons have a naturally higher lycopene content than yellow or pink watermelons.
Health Benefits
Protect against heart disease
Watermelon is rich in the amino acid citrulline and the antioxidant lycopene. Citrulline is transformed into arginine. Both play an important role in the synthesis of nitric oxide, which helps prevent blockages and lower blood pressure by dilating and relaxing your blood vessels.
Watermelon is high in compounds that may offer antioxidant effects, help improve lipid profiles and reduce inflammation. The contained carotenoid Lycopene plays a major role in protecting the cardiovascular system.
Good for your skin
Watermelon contains antioxidants, which are known to fight oxidative stress. The antioxidant lycopene in watermelon e.g., might help slow aging effects related to UV damage, minimize wrinkles and overall protect the skin from sun damage.
Support in athletic performance
Not only watermelons source of L-citrulline, which increases nitric oxide production and L-arginine bioavailability, but also an L-citrulline supplementation can support exercise performance for athletes and recovery.
Watermelon is also linked to improved metabolic health and decreased muscle soreness after exercise.
Do they have anticancer properties?
Generally speaking, you are helping your body better defend itself against cancer by eating lots of foods that are rich in antioxidants. Animal studies found that watermelon had good effects on cellular proliferation, probably due to L-citrulline and nitric oxide boosting effects. Watermelon can also regulate the expression of anti-cancer DNA repair enzymes in mice.
May help you lose weight
Watermelon contains a lot of fiber and water (about 90-95%), which can reduce the appetite. Considering this, it can prevent you from overeating that could otherwise result in weight gain. Despite its sweetness, watermelon contains only about 6 grams of sugar per 100 grams of flesh. It also provides only 8 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams (including the 6 grams of sugar). This makes them ideal for supporting weight loss in a balanced diet.
Eating two cups of watermelon daily for four weeks can lead to a reduction in body mass index, weight and waist-to-hip-ratio, as found in a study. The comparison group consumed isocaloric, low fat-cookies which resulted in an increase in body fat.
Can they be used to help treat ulcerative colitis?
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. It's a risk factor for a variety of other diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, colorectal cancer and ankylosing spondylitis.
Watermelon may help with UC by increasing antioxidant activities while reducing inflammation.
What About the Seeds?
Though they are usually avoided, even the seeds of the watermelon are healthy. Besides fiber, which supports healthy digestion, the small black seeds contain nutrients such as B vitamins and unsaturated fatty acids, iron, magnesium and calcium. You can safely eat them, best chewed well, so that the intestines are not irritated and the nutrients of the seeds can be made use of. If the seeds are too bitter for you, you can either dry them, roast them or lightly salt them. Doing so makes them a delicious topping on a salad or soup.
What To Look Out For When Buying Watermelon
Each melon develops a yellow spot on the side with which it contacts the ground during ripening. This spot indicates its degree of ripeness: The yellower the spot, the riper and sweeter the fruit. The fresher it is sold, the firmer the flesh. If the watermelon can be easily pushed in at the stem end, it's already too ripe and the flesh will be mealy.
How to know if the watermelon is ripe? Tap the rind with your knuckles.
When you hear a dull and dark sound, the watermelon has ripened to perfection.
After harvesting, melons are allowed to be waxed for preservation. To ensure that the preservative doesn't come into contact with the inside of the fruit when it is cut open, you should wash waxed melons briefly before cutting them open. Once this has been done, you can enjoy the healthy and low-calorie watermelon.
How To Store Watermelon
To prevent early ripening from the ethylene gas that other produce such as bananas emit, store watermelon separately from other fruits and vegetables.
If you want to let the watermelon cool down before eating it, you can put it in the refrigerator long enough for it to get cold.
However, whole watermelons keep best at room temperature. It's even better to store them at about 10° C, where they will last at least 7-10 days. Once the melon is sliced, place it in a sealed container in the refrigerator, where it will last another four to seven days.
It is not recommended to freeze watermelons, as this will crack the rind and result in a mealy and mushy consistency.
Creative Ways to Enjoy Watermelon
While watermelons are predominantly eaten fresh, they can also be frozen, made into juice, or added to smoothies. Wondering about other ways to incorporate watermelon into your daily meals? Here are some ideas:
add to a mixed greens or fruit salad
make a watermelon vinaigrette to add to salads
make grilled fruit skewers out of watermelon pieces, orange, grapefruit, honeydew melon and berries
add cubes of them to plain water to give it a refreshing watermelon flavor
combine it with coconut milk and other fruits like frozen bananas to make a watermelon ice cream
use them in cold soups
Watermelons are in fact a healthy snack - they offer a variety of different vitamins and minerals. Despite their sweetness, they likely won’t spike your blood sugar when you eat them since they still turn out to be low on the glycemic load scale due to their high water content.
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