Introduction: As the hot summer quietly approaches, medical nutritionists believe that the following three types of vegetables are most suitable for people (especially the elderly) to eat.
1. Gourds. The water in vegetables is natural, clean, nutritious, and biologically active, filtered through multiple biological membranes, which cannot be compared or replaced by any factory-produced drinking water. Summer is also the peak season for gourds to be on the market, and their common characteristic is that they all contain more than 90% water. Winter melon has the highest water content among all vegetables, reaching up to 96%. This is followed by cucumber, pumpkin, loofah, chayote, squash, bitter melon, watermelon, and others.
2. Cooling vegetables. After entering summer, the most significant factor affecting the human body is the "heat and dampness toxin." Therefore, eating some cooling vegetables helps to promote saliva production to quench thirst, relieve vexation and summer heat, clear heat and purge fire, as well as detoxify and promote bowel movements. Among the vegetables available in summer, which ones are cooling? For example, bitter melon, loofah, cucumber, vegetable melon, watermelon, and muskmelon are all considered cooling vegetables. Tomato, eggplant, celery, lettuce, asparagus, watercress, and yam are also cooling vegetables, so it is advisable to eat them frequently.
3. Bactericidal vegetables. Due to the high temperatures in summer, pathogens breed and spread rapidly, making it a season with a high incidence of human diseases, especially intestinal infectious diseases. At this time, eating more "bactericidal" vegetables can help prevent diseases. These types of vegetables include: garlic, onion, chives, scallion, green onions, garlic sprouts, and others.