Winter melon is a food many people often eat, but are you fully aware of its benefits? According to authoritative health experts, the entire winter melon plant is a treasure, useful for both medicinal purposes and weight loss. The main reasons for this are reflected in the following two aspects:
One, the entire winter melon plant can be used for medicinal purposes: Winter melon flesh clears the lungs and detoxifies; Winter melon seeds resolve phlegm and promote diuresis.
In early winter, the weather starts to get colder. To keep warm, people begin to use heating methods, whether it's burning a boiler at home or central heating, which greatly pollutes the air. This requires everyone to eat more foods that clear the lungs and detoxify. For this reason, the editor now highly recommends winter melon flesh, as it is a special and effective product for both clearing the lungs and detoxifying. It is also the only food that contains no fat, making it especially suitable for friends who are losing weight!
Winter melon, known in ancient times as "shui zhi" or "di zhi," and also because of its long, round shape resembling old-fashioned pillows, it was also called "zhen gua" (pillow melon). Traditional Chinese medicine considers winter melon to be cool in nature with a sweet and bland taste, entering the lung, large intestine, and bladder meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat and relieving summer heat, promoting urination and bowel movements, helping the body to clear the lungs and detoxify, and is suitable for treating conditions like edema, bloating, phlegm-induced wheezing, and hemorrhoids.
The entire winter melon plant can be used for medicinal purposes: Winter melon peel promotes urination to reduce swelling, clears heat and relieves summer heat, and is often used for edema and edema due to deficiency. It can also be used to induce lactation. Winter melon seeds have the effects of clearing the lungs to resolve phlegm, promoting diuresis to drain pus, and are used for conditions like lung-heat cough and leukorrhea. Winter melon flesh has the effects of promoting urination, clearing heat, resolving phlegm, and detoxifying. It can treat edema, cough and wheezing, summer heat, thirst, diarrhea, dysentery, and fistula. It can also neutralize alcohol and fish poisoning.
Nutritional research has found that winter melon is very low in sodium, so it has a good therapeutic effect on arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, nephritis, and edema. Winter melon seeds contain substances like trigonelline, which can clear lung heat, drain pus, resolve phlegm, and promote diuresis, making them suitable for treating chronic bronchitis and lung abscess.
The most prominent features of winter melon are its large size, high water content, and low calories. It can be stir-fried, made into soup, pickled raw, or candied into winter melon strips. The orange juice winter melon strips taught today is an example.
Two, winter melon promotes urination and is known as the "slimming melon".
Winter melon is the only vegetable and fruit among gourds that contains no fat, earning it the name "slimming melon." The "Shennong Ben Cao Jing" records that "long-term use makes the body light and prevents aging." Tao Hongjing's "Bencao Bie Lu" says: "Winter melon promotes urination and treats abdominal edema and bloating." Later medicinal books also often mention its effects of reducing swelling, clearing heat and toxins, and promoting urination. Winter melon contains malonic acid, which is very effective in preventing weight gain and promoting a beautiful figure. The B vitamins in winter melon can accelerate the conversion of sugars and starches into heat energy, thereby reducing body fat and aiding in weight loss. Eating winter melon frequently in spring and summer is very beneficial to human health, especially for people who are overweight.
It should be noted that because winter melon is cool in nature, people with long-term, unresolved illnesses, or those with yin deficiency and excess fire, or a weak spleen and stomach, should consume it with caution. In addition, because winter melon relieves heat and promotes urination, it should be avoided when taking tonic medicines.
Topic: Orange Juice Winter Melon
Ingredients: 200g winter melon, half a bottle of orange juice, white sugar, 1 sweet orange, 1/2 lemon
Instructions: 1. Wash the winter melon, peel it, and remove the seeds. Cut it into strips about 1 cm thick. Take a large bowl, pour in the orange juice, add white sugar, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Slice the sweet orange and lemon and set aside. Prepare a bowl of iced water;
2. Bring water to a boil in a pot, add the cut winter melon strips, and remove them once the water comes back to a boil. Rinse with cold water and soak in the iced water from step 1;
3. Remove the winter melon strips and drain the water. Soak them in the prepared orange juice from step 1. Cover the melon strips with slices of sweet orange and lemon. Seal with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the winter melon strips have fully absorbed the flavor of the orange juice.
This dish can clear heat and resolve phlegm, relieve vexation and thirst, and promote urination to reduce swelling and expel dampness.
Warm Tip: After reading the above introduction, have you come to understand the wonders of winter melon? If you have, and you are a foodie, why not try making orange juice winter melon yourself following the recipe above? Let your lungs get a clean along with the delicious food. After all, foods that can both clear the lungs and detoxify and help with weight loss are rare!