Watermelon considered a powerfood, is recommended by American Council on Exercise as a good choice for a healthy diet.
Watermelon has only 92% of water and 6% of Sugar. It is low in calories and packed with minerals. It is rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, potassium, Beta Carotene, and magnesium. It is extremely alkaline-forming in the body. Due to its high fiber content it helps keep the colon clean. Its high potassium content enables balancing the high amounts of sodium in our diets and thus supports the kidneys. It can ease inflammation that contributes to conditions like asthma, atherosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and arthritis. This lowers the toxic load in the body.
Watermelon VS. Weight Loss
It is proclaimed that, one can lose one to four pounds a week by following a watermelon diet. You can stay on this calorie-restricted diet without risking nutritional deficiencies for three months. The diet involves a number of restrictions which need to be carefully monitored. This diet plan comprises of 10 days, involving two types of diet plan. A mono diet of only watermelons for 5 days and watermelons with some other nutritious foods. An average watermelon diet contains 150 kcal per serving during the day. You need to eat this portion 8 times a day without fail. As 97% of the fruit is water content, you can avoid drinking too much water.
A single food can never fulfil all the nutritional requirements of your body needs.
This mono diet should not exceed more than 5 days. You have to add some other foods in next 5 days along with watermelons. This type of diet is generally prescribed to one who strives for fast weight loss. Apart from this factor, the diet is also referred to people who desire to get rid of excessive toxins, water, salts, and other impurities.
Note: If you will feel any type of discomfort on the 1st day of the diet plan, immediately cancel the plan and consult your dietician or the doctor. It is normal to experience a bit of a headache while you are on a diet consuming watermelon only, due to the detoxifying effect of watermelon on the system
Other Health Benefits:
- Watermelon helps to increase the amount of arginine, a type of amino acid in the body, which is good for producing nitrous oxide for relaxing the blood vessels in turn.
- It helps prevent heart attacks and stroke.
- A watermelon diet increases the fertility power of men by increasing the sperm motility and numbers.
- It helps removing toxins from the bladder and kidney, and therefore keeps away the infections. A property called citrulline in watermelon helps speeding up the healing method. Drinking a watermelon juice like this can help detoxify your body
Shopping for Watermelon
- Choose one that feels firm, heavy and that has a yellow patch on one side, as that is proof it has been ripening outside on the ground like it should and that is natural and fresh.
- The more of the white part of the watermelon fruit that you eat, the part that is closer to the rind, the more you will receive the benefits of the antioxidant citrulline, which may helps relax blood vessels and reduce hypertension
- Watermelon is best eaten raw and at room temperature, so they do not lose their vitamin and lycopene content
- Watermelon can survive well for two days without refrigeration
- Do not store watermelon, even cut watermelon in the refrigerator for over four hours as the flesh will suffer injury from the cold and the fruit will be depleted of some of its nutrients
- Watermelon that is pre-cut into chunks will store it in the refrigerator, it will still be edible after about five days, but a bit less nutritious
- Always wash the entire watermelon before you cut it as even organic watermelon could have bacteria, dyes or pesticide on the skin
- Watermelon is easily cut into chunks by cutting the fruit into slices and then halving the slices, or by cutting the fruit into quarters and then cutting down to the flesh in slices and then into chunks
- Keep watermelon away from fruits that might cause them to ripen too quickly
- You can eat the seeds of the watermelon, which contain iron and zinc, but many people find them hard to digest properly
- Watermelon does cause gas and stomach cramps in some people and if that is the case then start off by consuming less of it before you work yourself up to consuming a cup a day
- Crash diets that involve a fair amount of fasting or eating only one food, such as the *Watermelon Cleansing Diet can also be done for three days or even just one day, but the resulting weight loss will be less
- While on a calorie restricted diet, do not over exert yourself by exercising very hard as your body will simply not have the calories to enable you to get through it without feeling terrible or even falling dangerously ill
- Do not take flax seed or chia seed products or any kind of carb-blocking product at the same time as a vitamin or you may not absorb the vitamins
Women Fitness does not advocate Watermelon diet for weightloss. Adopt a diet pattern which you can stick to for a Lifetime.
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