Tag Archives: cucumber health benefits

Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 5)

I no longer view cucumbers as a semi-useless vegetable nor as a pickles-only food. They are tasty, versatile, unique, and on my plate. Today’s recipe happens to be my favorite new way to eat them.

WHY WE LOVE THEM

Cures diabetes, reduces cholesterol and controls blood pressure– Cucumber juice contains a hormone which is needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin which has been found to be beneficial to diabetic patients. Researchers found that a compound called sterols in cucumbers may help reduce cholesterol levels. Cucumbers contain a lot of potassium, magnesium and fiber. These work effectively for regulating blood pressure. This makes cucumbers good for treating both low blood pressure and high blood pressure.

I think “cures” is the wrong word to use here, Natural News. Beneficial to diabetics? Sure, I’ll give you that. But cures? Nope. As for the rest of it, I’m going to repeat myself a bit: vegetables are awesome. They do so much more for our bodies that fill our bellies. God designed plants to optimize human health which is why the Garden of Eden diet was purely plants. So, (best Mommy voice and shaking my finger at you) eat your vegetables!

10. Promotes joint health, relieves gout and arthritis pain -Cucumber is an excellent source of silica, which is known to help promotes joint health by strengthening the connective tissues. They are also rich in vitamin A, B1, B6, C & D, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium. When mixed with carrot juice, they can relieve gout and arthritis pain by lowering the uric acid levels

Blah, blah, blah – Go eat a cucumber!

HOW WE EAT THEM

Cucumber Soup (Beatrice Snare)

Ingredients:

5 cucumbers (or more), peeled and with seeds removed, cut into quarters

1 onion cut into chunks

4-6 cups water

4 Tb butter or margarine (1/2 stick)

3-4 Tb flour

2 cloves garlic, minced

Salt to taste

Croutons (optional)

Cover the cucumbers and onion with water and boil until soft (10-20 minutes)
Ladle the cucumbers and onion into the blender along with some of the hot water they were boiled in – fill your blender as much as you safely can. Discard excess water. Blend until smooth.
In the same pot you used for cooking the cucumbers, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the flour, garlic, and salt and stir constantly. It should look like a bubbly paste.
Add ¼-1/2 cup of the blended cucumber to the paste in the pot and stir until smooth. Add another ¼-1/2 cup of cucumber liquid and stir until smooth. Keep adding ¼-1/2 cup of the blended cucumber and stirring each time until all of the liquid has been added. (Adding the hot liquid slowly prevents balls or chunks of flour from forming in your soup.) Your soup should have a creamy consistent texture.
Add croutons and enjoy! (I added Parmesan cheese for the picture, but this soup doesn’t need cheese…I’m a cheesaholic, so I don’t say those words lightly!)

Natural News article: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz3i5YLJT64

Stack of cucumbers photo courtesy of www.istockphoto.com

Posted by Katie Robles. Categories: Recipes, SOUP: Water and Vegetables. Tags: cucumber health benefits, cucumber recipe, cucumber soup, cucumbers and blood pressure, cucumbers and cholesterol, cucumbers and diabetes, cucumbers and joint health. 1 Comment

Aug. ’15

Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 4)

Cucumbers look like the great green torpedoes of the vegetable world, but they do so much more than blow up watermelon submarines.

WHY WE LOVE THEM

Hangover cure– To avoid a morning hangover or headache; eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish many essential nutrients, reducing the intensity of both hangover and headache.

I find this fascinating. I suspect that the one drawback to this plan is that the person who is going to have a hangover the next day is in no shape before bed to remember to eat a few slices of cucumber.

Aids in weight loss and digestion– Due to its low calorie and high water content, cucumber is an ideal diet for people who are looking for weight loss. The high water content and dietary fiber in cucumbers are very effective in ridding the body of toxins from the digestive system, aiding digestion. Daily consumption of cucumbers can be regarded as a remedy for chronic constipation.

Water and fiber, water and fiber, water and fiber. That, my friends, is a magic mantra that can change your digestive life!

HOW WE EAT THEM

Refrigerator Sweet Pickles (Grandma Trone’s Recipe)

Ingredients:

7 cups cucumbers sliced very thin

1 cup onion sliced thin

2 cups sugar

2 Tb salt

1 Tb celery seed

1 cup white vinegar

Mix sugar, salt, celery seed, and vinegar. Pour the mixture over cucumbers and onions in a large bowl and stir. Store in the refrigerator for 3 days, stirring at least once per day. After 3 days, ladle the pickles and liquid into glass jars for easier storage. Pickles are ready to eat right away and will keep in the refrigerator for up to one year.

Natural News article: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz3i5YLJT64

Cucumbers on the vine courtesy of: www.rhs.org.uk

Fridge pickles photo courtesy of www.tastespotting.com

Posted by Katie Robles. Categories: Recipes, SOUP: Water and Vegetables. Tags: cucumber health benefits, cucumber recipe, cucumbers and digestion, cucumbers and weight loss, improve digestion, sweet refrigerator pickles. 1 Comment

Aug. ’15

Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 3)

cucumber slice

This is a great time of year to experiment with cucumbers: they’re fresh, they’re numerous, and if you stop by local roadside veggie stands or markets, they can even be cheap! For those of you just joining us (or with poor memories), we’re exploring Natural News’ list of cucumber benefits.

WHY WE LOVE THEM

Home care– Eliminates a foggy mirror. Before taking a shower, rub a cucumber slice along a mirror and it will eliminate the mirror fogging up. Instead of WD40, take a cucumber slice and rub it along a squeaky hinge and your door will stop squeaking.

Shh! Hear that? Me neither. I want to try this, but nothing is squeaking in my house. Just speaking or squawking. No noisy hinges, but there’s plenty of noise from the sons department. I wonder if rubbing a slice of cucumber on children has a similar effect.

6. Relieves bad breath – Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

Come closer and tell me if it worked!

HOW WE EAT THEM

Cucumber Piña Colada Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 small or ½ large cucumber (peeled and de-seeded)

½ cup coconut milk

½ cup pineapple (fresh or canned in pineapple juice)

1 packet Truvia or other sweetener (optional)

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

Natural News article: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz3i5YLJT64

Cucumber slice picture courtesy of http://healthylatineating.com/

Posted by Katie Robles. Categories: Recipes, SOUP: Water and Vegetables. Tags: bad breath cure, cucumber health benefits, cucumber smoothie, cucumbers wd40, defog the mirror with cucumber, pina colada smoothie. 1 Comment

Aug. ’15

Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 2)

Cucumbers are like the little black dress of the vegetable world: they go with anything. Last week we blended them into a sweet Cucumber Peach Smoothie. This week we’re going green.

WHY WE LOVE THEM

Let’s continue the health benefit list from Natural News:

Skin and hair care– If you don’t like to eat the skin, it can be used for skin irritations and sunburns as aloe would be used. Place a slice over puffy eyes and its anti-inflammatory properties help reduce puffiness. The silicon and sulfur in cucumbers help to stimulate hair growth.

I got uncomfortably sunburned last week for the first time in a long time. I peeled a cuke and rubbed the peel on my sunburn. It felt good like aloe feels good – cool and refreshing. It didn’t leave a residue, which surprised me. The wetness evaporated within a minute and my skin felt great – not sticky or weird. The next day I was taking some more cucumber peels out to the chickens and remembered my sunburn. I stood there next to the coop rubbing cucumber skins on my shoulders and face like a crazy person. Luckily it was hot and my neighbors were all hiding inside in the air conditioning!

4. Fight cancers – Cucumber are known to contain lariciresinol, pinoresinol, and secoisolariciresinol. These three lignans have a strong history of research in connection with reduced risk of several cancer types, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer and prostate cancer.
Do you get the feeling sometimes that almost every vegetable fights cancer? Some more than others, I’ll admit, but as research is done, the list of cancer fighting plant foods just keeps growing and growing. Gee, it’s like the Garden of Eden Diet was purposefully created for maximum human health.

HOW WE EAT THEM

Cucumber Dill Salad (The BIG RED Cookbook from Betty Crocker)

Ingredients:

2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced

1/3 cup cider or white vinegar

1/3 cup water

2 Tb sugar

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Chopped fresh dill weed or parsley (I LOVE dill)

Place cucumbers in small glass or plastic bowl.
Shake remaining ingredients except dill weed in tightly covered container. Pour over cucumbers. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours to blend flavors.
Drain salad. Sprinkle with dill weed. Store covered in refrigerator.

(1 serving = ½ cup = 25 calories)

Natural News article: http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz3i5YLJT64

Posted by Katie Robles. Categories: Interesting Tidbits. Tags: cucumber dill salad, cucumber health benefits, cucumber recipe, cucumber skin care, cucumbers and cancer, eat your vegetables. 1 Comment

Aug. ’15

Invasion of the Cucumbers: Health Benefits and Recipes to Make You Love Cukes More (Part 1)

Cucumbers are cooler than you think. Honestly, I’ve always thought of them as a salad afterthought – a white-ish space filler that you can take or leave. Turns out they’re pretty potent nutrient bombs and are even useful outside of the kitchen.

Why talk about cucumbers now? Because for some reason, this has been a bumper year for cucumbers in my garden; I’ve been picking 6-8 cucumbers every couple days and my fridge and counter are full. Invasion of the Cucumbers! Over the next few weeks we’ll explore new ways to eat them and reasons why we want to.

WHY WE LOVE THEM

Natural News.com had a great list of cucumber benefits. Let’s look at the first two:

1.Quick pick me-up – Cucumbers are a good source of B vitamins. Put down your sodas and coffee and eat a cucumber slice.

I haven’t tried this yet. The thought of not having coffee in the afternoon makes me sad. Perhaps if I fill a coffee mug with cucumber slices…

2. Rehydrates body and replenishes daily vitamins – Cucumbers are 95 percent water, keeping the body hydrated while helping the body eliminate toxins. Cucumbers have most of the vitamins the body needs in a single day. Don’t forget to leave the skin on because the skin contains a good amount of vitamin C, about 10 percent of the daily-recommended allowance.

At 95% water, cucumbers are like portable, spoon-free soup. This also explains why I’ve been peeing so often this summer. They’re like water you can chew.

HOW WE EAT THEM