What are the benefits of cucumbers?
According to the Botanical Classification, a cucumber is not a vegetable, but a berry, only green. Cucumber salads and masks for skin whitening, pickled cucumbers and as a diuretic. They are so familiar that many people don’t think about the benefits and harms of this “berry”. Is there anything special about it? What is known about contraindications?
Cucumbers from the garden
What is the benefit
The toxic effect of harmful substances in the body is reduced by an ordinary cucumber. Removes toxins from the kidneys, as it consists of 96% water. The remaining 4% contains a huge amount of potassium, which helps maintain blood pressure and kidney function. What additional properties does cucumber have?
Useful composition
As we already know, cucumber is an excellent “brush” that cleanses the body of toxins and waste, products of the breakdown of pathogenic cells.
- Crunchy, green fruits help normalize water balance.
- The vegetable contains a minimum of calories: it is the lowest nutritionally dense product, popular among people who want to lose weight.
- Excellent cosmetic properties: whitens, moisturizes, nourishes the skin.
- In terms of potassium content, cucumber is the champion among its vegetable counterparts.
The amount of vitamins is low, but the presence of tartronic acid blocks the processing of carbohydrates into fats, which allows the cucumber to take its rightful place among the fighters against excess weight. By eating one and a half kilograms of product per day, you can lose weight well even in a week.
To ensure normal metabolic processes in the body, sulfur contained in cucumbers is responsible. It also influences the nervous system during its formation, strengthens muscles in adolescence with the intensity of growth.
With the help of a diuretic effect, it will remove sand from the kidneys and dissolve gall bladder and duct stones. Rinsing your mouth with cucumber juice can have a refreshing effect and relieve gum inflammation.
The sulfur contained in cucumbers has a beneficial effect on metabolic processes in the body
Allowed dishes from tomatoes and cucumbers
During the period of remission, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes can be consumed in the form of salads. To season dishes, it is recommended to use sour cream with a fat content of no more than 15%, natural yogurt, refined sunflower or olive oil. From greens, you can add parsley, dill or lettuce.
Salt and seasonings should be used in minimal quantities so as not to provoke an exacerbation of gastritis.
Tomatoes can also be used baked and boiled, as part of vegetable stews and soups.
Tomato juice is allowed, but it must be diluted by half with another vegetable juice, such as carrot.
After a diagnosis of acute or chronic gastritis is made, it is necessary to completely review the diet and adhere to a strict diet prescribed by a medical specialist, especially in the acute phase of the disease, in order to prevent deterioration and progression of the disease.
It is also worth giving up bad habits and normalizing your work and rest schedule. To quickly overcome the disease, it is important to strictly follow the recommendations of your doctor. With due effort and a serious approach, the disease goes into remission for a long time, and the list of permitted products expands significantly.
Source: bolvzheludke.ru
Can children eat cucumbers?
Anxiety about the health of a child, especially a baby, will always force a mother to check whether this or that product can be eaten by her child. Cucumber is very useful for a growing body: the silicon in its composition helps strengthen bones. It also prevents anemia, hair loss and joint diseases. Sodium and potassium will support the muscular structure of the body, the nervous and endocrine systems. The functioning of the brain, heart muscle and many internal organs needs cucumber nutrition.
An expectant mother expecting a baby may wonder if cucumbers are ok for pregnant women. The only contraindication is a large amount of the product consumed if the woman suffers from edema, which usually happens in an “interesting” position. In this case, their use should be limited. But you can make cucumber masks and eat delicious and light cucumber salads! And enjoy making various cocktails and smoothies.
What are the benefits of cucumbers for men: The fact that cucumber increases the production of the male hormone testosterone gives cucumber the right to be an assistant to balding men. It is also useful as a component of a diet for weight loss, it will help in the fight against sludge in the body, because men are more prone to this.
Important: in order not to suffer from a hangover in the morning, you need to eat half a cucumber in the evening. Vitamin B, sugars and electrolytes in its composition will reduce headaches and hangovers.
Vegetable salads for gastritis
Since fresh vegetables contain antioxidants necessary for a sick stomach, salads should be eaten regularly. And since you can’t eat only fresh cucumbers if you have gastritis, the following vegetables are added to dishes:
- orange. These are fighters against erosive gastritis. These include: carrots and pumpkin, zucchini and corn, yellow tomatoes and bell peppers;
- red. Protect against cancer: beets and red potatoes - eat as often as possible, with caution - peppers and cabbage;
- green. Used only in boiled form. These are beans and peppers, asparagus and artichokes, Brussels sprouts and green onions, and more often than others you should eat broccoli;
- purple. Eggplants, potatoes, peppers, onions - prevent cancer, stroke, heart disease;
- white. Potatoes and parsnips become staple foods for gastrointestinal diseases.
After experimenting several times with different combinations of vegetables, you can easily come up with your own recipes for delicious and healthy salads.
Who should eat cucumbers and when?
Cucumber is a moisture compensator in the human body
- Ladies who love to take care of their skin have long appreciated the magical properties of cucumber juice. Cucumber helps reduce uric acid levels, so people with kidney disease will benefit from it, but in moderation.
- A moisture compensator, cucumber will perfectly quench thirst, especially if for certain reasons a person is limited in water consumption. It will also benefit those who suffer from constipation. The product cleanses the intestinal tract and removes everything unnecessary with ease.
- It will also be useful for those suffering from bags under the eyes. Just a slice is enough and the swelling will subside. It will also nourish the delicate skin under the eye and contribute in the form of minerals, the skin will glow with freshness and a healthy appearance.
- The pancreas needs a hormone responsible for the production of insulin. And cucumber will help here. It also contains fiber, sterols (substances responsible for cholesterol) and a mineral complex of potassium and magnesium, blood pressure regulators. Therefore, cucumber is a pressure regulator, both low and high.
Contraindications
It is necessary to exclude fresh cucumbers from the diet during exacerbation of gastritis. You should also not eat them pickled or salted. These vegetables are contraindicated for erosive gastritis and peptic ulcers. With such diseases, even the slightest increase in hydrochloric acid levels can cause serious harm.
During the period of remission, it is allowed to include cucumbers in the diet in small quantities. It is important to only eat vegetables that have been grown without adding any chemicals.
Toxic substances can not only aggravate the course of the disease, but also harm the body as a whole. Cucumbers should be introduced into the diet gradually as the condition stabilizes. If you experience the slightest discomfort, you should discard them.
Source: vnorg.ru
What's the harm?
Who shouldn't eat cucumbers? In some forms of urolithiasis they are contraindicated, especially in the presence of phosphate stones. Due to their alkalizing properties, cucumbers cause a reflex increase in the secretion of gastric juice and promote the formation of crystals in the kidneys.
Homemade cucumber is healthier than greenhouse cucumber from the counter
Increases the amount of acid in gastric juice. Therefore, use with caution for those who suffer from diseases of the duodenum and stomach. If water-salt metabolism is disrupted, those suffering from swelling, nephritis, decreased activity of the thyroid gland, as well as atherosclerosis and hypertension are not advisable to eat a lot of cucumbers.
Due to the nitrates contained in greenhouse cucumbers not grown at home, it is necessary to remove the skins in which they accumulate. Also, cutting off the ends will help you eat such cucumbers without fear.
Features of cultivation
How to grow cucumbers: since they love humidity and do not tolerate drafts, the best conditions for them would be a greenhouse or greenhouse. But there are many varieties for open ground. At least by growing a homemade product, you can be sure that it is not poisoned by chemicals. So even a bitter homemade cucumber is much healthier than a tender greenhouse cucumber from the counter.
- Everyone knows about cucumbers blooming with male flowers. To avoid barren flowers, it is necessary to choose fresh seeds for planting, feed with phosphorus-containing fertilizers and not water with cold water.
- Basic conditions: fertile soil and moisture. It is better to hang it in a greenhouse. Mulch, the addition of peat and humus are common agrotechnical integrated measures to increase productivity and will come in handy for cucumbers. But the choice of variety will affect how it can be used in the future.
- Knowing how to choose cucumbers, you can be sure that you will get a glorious harvest, the most delicate salad or the best rolls.
Important: never take a cucumber with yellowish spots and wrinkled skin.
The best varieties for salad:
“Agate”, “Adam”, “Aelita”, “Biryusa”, “Graceful” and “Saltan”. For salting, take “Siberian Salting F1”, the wonderful “Nezhinsky 12”, “Parisian Gherkin”, “Salting”. Station wagons: “Zakuson F1”, “Kapelka”, “Ira F1”.
There is probably not a single nationality that does not use cucumber. It is good for snacks and pickles, as a simple crispy refreshing dish, but will be especially interesting for people who are losing weight and cleansing the body.
Salad with lightly salted cucumbers
Recipe for weight loss
The cucumber-honey diet is designed to help you lose five kilograms of weight within a week. Contraindicated for: people with allergies to honey products. What is it: cucumbers become a daily diet, but you can eat them with honey.
Such a “cocktail” will not leave the body without vitamins, and you can eat as many cucumbers as you like. But! Consult a doctor if these products are contraindicated!
Delicious cucumber rolls
Everyone is familiar with the many ways to pickle cucumbers for the winter. But for the seaming to become unusual, it is not necessary to follow the norms of the generally accepted combination of products. By experimenting, the chefs created masterpieces. It is worth adding pods of hot red pepper, currant leaves, linden, cherries, and even sweet and sour plums to the usual pickles - and you will have spicy cucumbers on your table, and even with a bright, unusual addition.
The simplest recipe
Place a container with 4 liters of water on the fire, add 200 grams of sugar, vinegar and salt, and boil. At the bottom of sterilized liter jars put several branches of dill, 3-4 cloves of garlic, 2 bay leaves, pieces of sweet pepper, 2 leaves of cherries, currants, raspberries, 10-12 plums (Hungarian), pitted. Pour boiling syrup over, cover with lids and place in the oven for 12 minutes. Roll up, turn over, cover with a warm blanket. Once the jars have cooled, transfer to a cool place. Believe me, such cucumbers with a piquant plum will simply be swept off the table by grateful guests.