In daily life, many people have eating habits like eating a cucumber followed by a tomato, or having a dish of "scrambled eggs with tomato" and then a plate of "stir-fried pork with cucumber" on the dinner table. Professor Du Liyang, Director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, cautions that cucumbers and tomatoes should not be eaten together.
This is because cucumbers contain an enzyme that breaks down vitamin C, which can destroy the vitamin C in other vegetables. The higher the vitamin C content in a food, the more severely it is destroyed by the enzyme in cucumbers. Tomatoes are a typical vegetable rich in vitamin C. If the two are consumed together, the vitamin C absorbed from the tomatoes is then broken down by the enzyme in the cucumbers, making it completely ineffective for nutritional supplementation. Additionally, vegetables like chili, cauliflower, and bitter gourd also contain significant amounts of vitamin C and should ideally not be eaten with cucumbers.
However, cucumbers themselves are delicious and nutritious. They contain protein, fat, carbohydrates, various vitamins, dietary fiber, as well as minerals like calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. In particular, the fine dietary fiber in cucumbers can lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, promote intestinal peristalsis, accelerate waste excretion, and improve the body's metabolism. The malic acid in fresh cucumbers can also effectively inhibit the conversion of carbohydrates into fat. Therefore, eating cucumbers often can aid in weight loss and help prevent coronary heart disease.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, cucumbers are cooling in nature and sweet in flavor. They can promote the production of body fluids to quench thirst, relieve restlessness and summer heat, and reduce swelling and promote urination. They are used to treat conditions like a sore throat and swollen limbs. However, because cucumbers are inherently cooling, individuals with stomach pain or chronic diarrhea caused by a deficiency and coldness in the spleen and stomach should consume them in moderation.