Cucumber is a tropical plant. In the tropics, this vegetable is still bio-organic and have all their seeds. These are more healthy. It is a great advise to grow your cucumber. In colder climates, you need a greenhouse. Originally the plant comes from India. Via Sumeria, Turkey, and Greece it ended up with the Romans. From there it was spread throughout Europe and since the 17th century, it is introduced in the Americas.
100 gram of cucumber contains 20% of the RDA of vitamin K. It is important to build up your bones and brains. This fresh tasting vegetable contains more vitamines, but in low percentages. What is more important is the fact that it is a great source of flavonoids like apigenin, luteolin, quercetin and kaempferol. Also, lignans can be found in cucumber. They are known to prevent cardiovascular problems. Next to this, lignans are known for their effect on estrogen-related cancers. They lower the risk of breast cancer, ovular cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer. In science never use cucumbers as a source of lignans to study this subject. They use lignans of flaxseed mostly.
Low-grade infections
All flavonoids together lower low-grade infections in the body. Since recently, low-grade infections or infections on a cellular level, are being pointed at as the main course of many food-related diseases that spread from the western, industrial world. Eating flavonoid-rich food like cucumber lowers the risk of any Western disease like obesity, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore cucumber can be used a great daily, tasteful snack to prevent you from some diseases. Researchers say that this great snack has many free radical scavenging abilities due to its high contents of active flavonoids.
Combine it
Research from 2014 shows that when you combine liked vegetables with less-liked vegetables, children eat the less-liked vegetables sooner and more. Cucumber is a vegetable that most children like. You can give it to children often and, in combination with other vegetables. For example you can serve it with avocado dip next to a piece of warm broccoli with some melted cheese on top. It is important to teach children to enjoy healthy food.
External use
You can apply cucumber topically against swellings and skin irritations. A mash of this long-shaped vegetable is a good medicine against sunburn. In cosmetic treatments, people use this vegetable a lot to treat the skin, especially the skin of the face. There are many scientific studies done that tell us cucumber is good for the skin. It can be used as an anti-wrinkle agent An Indian research group concluded in 2011: the rich source of ascorbic acid and this study thereby rationalizes the use of Cucumis sativus as a potential anti-wrinkle agent in cosmetic products.
Advise how to use cucumber in the medicinal kitchen
Cucumber is a vegetable that you have to eat raw. In raw vegetables, we find many enzymes. Enzymes tend to disappear during cooking. We need enzymes for good digestion. Therefore cucumber is ideal to eat daily next to your meal. It is perfect for a salad mix with onions, tomatoes, carrots and bell pepper. In the evening, it´s a perfect vegetable for a snack! Just buy an organic cucumber, wash it well, cut it and, enjoy your medicine!
Sources
- Free radical scavenging abilities: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3019374/
- Combination: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24433126
- lignans: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24611636
- Skin: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21153830
- General information: http://www.geneeskrachtigegroenten.nl/Groenten-en-hun-medicinale-werking/Komkommer/
