A Fine Choice Among Vegetables: Melons for Preventing Summer Heat and Treating Illnesses
Cucumber: Regular consumption of cucumber can aid in weight loss. Wash it and eat it as a fruit, consuming over 250 grams raw daily for a significant weight-loss effect. It can also promote urination to reduce edema, and eating it cold can increase appetite and relieve bloating. Cucumber can also quench thirst and reduce internal heat.
Bitter Melon: Bitter melon contains various substances such as protein, fat, sugar, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and more. In particular, bitter melon extract has high medicinal value. It can stimulate the secretion of saliva and gastric juices, enhance appetite, lower blood sugar, and alleviate irritability and thirst. It is an excellent remedy for clearing heat and preventing summer heat, and also a good medicine for clearing heat rash and treating toxic boils.
Watermelon: With its rich juice and a sugar content of over 95%, it can promote urination, quench thirst, and clear summer heat. Besides its abundant sugars, it contains more organic acids, amino acids, and inorganic salts than other melons. In the hot summer, it is an excellent choice for replenishing the body's water and nutrients. It can lower blood pressure and treat nephritis.
Winter Melon: It contains various essential trace elements for the human body but no fat. It contains malonic acid, which can inhibit the conversion of sugar into fat, preventing fat accumulation in the body, and has the effect of reducing fat and lowering lipids. If one suffers from heatstroke, fever, or dizziness, a soup made with 500 grams of winter melon, consumed three times a day in one large bowl each time, shows a significant therapeutic effect. Chopping winter melon into small pieces and rubbing it on the skin is very effective for heat rash. It is also a good remedy for chronic nephritic edema; a soup made with 1000 grams of winter melon and one carp has excellent results.
Luffa: Its functions include regulating qi, strengthening the spleen, transforming phlegm, stopping coughs, relieving asthma and spasms, and cooling the blood to clear heat. Regular consumption can treat sores and carbuncles and relieve summer heat.