Watermelon may taste great and quench thirst but it has powerful health benefits. It is high in 2 amino acids-- citrulline and arginine making it great for lowering high blood pressure or hypertension. It also contains lutein and zeaxanthin that prevent macular degeneration.
Watermelon contains over 90% water so no need to drink anything with it. When you are hot and thirsty, watermelon is the best thing to quench your thirst. It contains electrolytes. Fruit does not need to be digested like other foods so eat it on an empty stomach and wait 15 minutes before eating other foods that take hours to digest.
Tomatoes are famous for having lycopene. This is the most popular phytochemical. There are thousands of phytochemicals and over 900 have been identified so far. Probably the second most famous phytochemical is resveratrol in grapes. Resveratrol has been proven to be effective in anti-aging. Then the third most popular is curcumin in turmeric.
Watermelon has more lycopene than any other food including tomatoes. You can not get fat from eating fruit. Agricultural Research Service-- The in-house research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says:Results showed that watermelon has as much or more lycopene as raw tomatoes and that the amount depends on both variety and growing conditions.
The investigators found that all juice treatments increased the plasma concentration of lycopene. Lycopene concentration was similar regardless of whether subjects consumed 20 milligrams of lycopene from tomato juice or from watermelon juice, which was not heat-processed.
The investigators had expected lycopene availability to be greater from tomato juice because it had received heat treatment, which is believed to improve lycopene bioavailability.
On average, watermelon has about 40 percent more lycopene than raw tomatoes. Lycopene is exceptional in preventing cancer and cardiovascular problems. It is mentioned in this article: Fight Cancer With Different Foods. That will tell the specific cancers that it is best for. So the lycopene will help with the 3 main causes of death-- heart attacks, cancer and strokes.
If you eat a pound of watermelon, it contains about 600 mg of potassium. That is a lot of potassium. That will greatly help your cellular health and help to lower high blood pressure or hypertension. See the article Main Cause of High Blood Pressure for a lot more on this and how people have high blood pressure and heart attacks or strokes because their ratio of potassium to sodium that they consume is too low. Salt/sodium consumption does not mean much by itself.
Watermelon has a lot of citrulline and arginine. These amino acids are also called L-Citrulline and L-Arginine. The first is not an essential amino acid but the last one is. Citrulline's name is actually derived from the Latin word for watermelon-citrullus-because it was first isolated from the fruit in 1930.
They produce nitric oxide that relaxes the blood vessels helping to lower high blood pressure. Here is a webpage that tells about how they work together when you consume watermelon. Also, it explains how it can help increase sexual satisfaction in men and women and help with erectile dysfunction. The above webpage says:
Citrulline, like arginine, is important in vasodilation, the widening of blood vessels, resulting from relaxation of smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls, especially in the large arteries and veins and smaller arterioles. The endothelium (inner lining) of blood vessels uses nitric oxide to signal the surrounding smooth muscle to relax. This results in a relaxing of the blood vessels, and increased blood flow.
In the body, citrulline is converted to the amino acid arginine, which goes on to make another important substance-nitric oxide. When citrulline enters the kidney, vascular endothelium and other tissues, it can be readily converted to arginine, thus raising plasma and tissue levels of arginine and enhancing nitric oxide production. So now you have the potassium and these 2 amino acids helping with your cardiovascular health and helping to lower high blood pressure. The number one cause of age-related blindness is macular degeneration. The phytochemicals lutein and zeaxanthin help prevent macular degeneration. Watermelon has a lot of these 2 phytochemicals.
These antioxidants will protect your eyes from other age related ailments such as drying up of eyes and optical nerves, glaucoma and more. Phytochemicals or phytonutrients are substances in plant foods that help the health of the body. If possible it is better to get organic watermelon since then you know that it is not GMO, not irradiated and does not have lots of chemical pesticides.
Watermelon juice can also be diluted to make a healthy natural watermelon sports drink recipe that we can use to maintain good hydration during workouts and sports activities.
ReplyDeleteWatermelon happens to be high on the glycemic index. If you are sensitive to sugar, diluting watermelon juice is a great idea.
DeleteIf you dilute watermelon juice, you have to be careful with what you dilute it with since a lot of water can cause disease due to stuff in it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteam gonna give this is trial based on the various health benefits discussed. www.healthcentera.com
ReplyDelete