We all know about Cucumber. Cucumber is beneficial for your health due to its calories and nutrition. Cucumbers are usually eaten as a salad. Cucumber is composed of water and important nutrients, which are essential for the human body.
Cucumber helps you to keep hydrated and weight loss. Apart from this, there are many benefits of cucumber, so let’s know about its health benefits.
Some Important Facts About Cucumber
The scientific name of cucumbers is Cucumis sativus. It is also used as a medicine. It comes within the Zucchini, Watermelon, Pumpkin and other types of the summer squash family. The plant in which the cucumber grows is a creeping vine that produces these fruits throughout the year.
There is a different type of cucumber for making pickle which is called gherkin cucumber and normal cucumber is called slicing cucumber. Slicing cucumbers are available throughout the year, but they are most commonly bred between May and July.
Cucumbers contain very low carbohydrates and calories, as well as many essential vitamins and minerals.
Nutrition of Cucumber
- Calories: 45 Cal
- Total Fat: 0 Gm
- Carbs: 11 Gm
- Protein: 2 Gm
- Fibre: 2 Gm
- Vitamin C: 14% of the RDI
- Vitamin K: 62% of the RDI
- Magnesium: 10% of the RDI
- Potassium: 13% of the RDI
- Manganese: 12% of the RDI
RDI stands for Reference Daily Intake (Daily body requirement)
There is a lot of water present in cucumber or say that it contains only 96% of the total water.
Given its nutrition, eating cucumber without peeling is more healthy. If you peel it, it reduces the amount of fiber, vitamins and minerals in it.
Benefits of eating cucumber
1. Great Source of Antioxidants
Antioxidants are molecules that inhibit oxidation, thereby protecting you from many diseases. To prevent oxidation of fat-rich food, a certain type of antioxidant must be added to the food and cucumber plays an important role in it.
If oxidation does not stop, oxidative stress also increases the risk of cancer and diseases such as heart, lung and autoimmune. But the antioxidants present in cucumbers reduce this risk.
In one study, their strength was measured by giving antioxidants and cucumber powder to 30 adults. Which found that cucumber powder gave more benefit in antioxidant activity.
2. Helps with Weight Loss
Cucumbers are commonly known to reduce weight. It can also prove to be helpful in losing weight in a different way.
The first one is that cucumber is very low in calories.
A cup (104 Gm) of cucumbers has only 16 calories, while a cucumber of (300 Gm) has 45 calories. This means that you can consume plenty of cucumbers without consuming extra calories, which does not cause weight gain.
In addition, the high water content in cucumbers can also help in weight loss. An analysis of 13 studies on 3,628 people found that a significant amount of water and low-calorie foods helped to reduce body weight.
3. Beneficial for skin
You must have seen many places that women or men place a piece of cucumber on the eye or apply it on the skin.
In fact, cucumbers contain high amounts of potassium, magnesium and silicon, which is very beneficial for glowing skin and makes the skin shiny. Black spots are also reduced by cutting cucumber slices over the eye.
4. Helpful in reducing blood sugar and blood pressure
Several studies have shown that cucumber helps to reduce blood sugar levels and reduce diabetes complications. Cucumber seed oil is very beneficial for this purpose
Actually, its juice contains ingredients that activate the pancreas and insulin is produced in the body when the pancreas is activated. After which insulin helps in fighting diabetes.
At the same time, it contains fiber, potassium and magnesium which keeps blood pressure right.
The research investigated the effects of various plants on blood sugar and found that cucumber can reduce blood sugar to a great extent.
5. Helps in food digestion
Cucumber also acts as a great detoxifier because of the amount of water present in it and therefore helps to clear the toxic materials present in the stomach. This in turn helps with digestion and keeping the stomach healthy.
At the same time, it contains an enzyme called epsin which is good for the stomach. Eating it does not cause stomach related diseases like constipation, indigestion, ulcers and more.
You must be aware of this that your overall health is right from the stomach.
So now you must have understood that eating cucumber has many benefits. So what is the delay, you should also include it in your diet so that you can get its benefits.
