Cucumber is one of the most popular water-rich fruits, especially during the hot summer season. It has a unique mild taste which blends in perfectly with many recipes and salads.
Cucumbers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, however, their nutrient contents are mostly similar irrespective of its type.
While consuming raw cucumber helps you to reap most of its nutrition quotient, social media and the popular blogs on the internet has been screaming about the benefits of cucumber water. So, can cucumber water be of any use to your overall health? Let’s find out.
Why cucumber water?
You have to accept the truth that drinking plain water is boring and unappealing. It is one of the major reasons why we stay away from it and reach for a bottle of sweet sugary beverage instead. And it is a no brainer that sugary beverages are bad for your health.
Cucumber water or adding some cucumber to your drinking water increases its appeal and you might just prefer to reach for it in place of other appealing beverages. Additionally, cucumbers are loaded with many vital nutrients, antioxidants, and fibers that are good for your health.
By placing cucumber slices in water for several hours, it is believed that water-soluble vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in cucumber become readily available for your body to absorb.
Note: There are other fat-soluble vitamins like Vitamin-A and Vitamin-K present in cucumbers that can only be absorbed if you decided to consume the cucumber water along with the cucumber slices.
How to Prepare cucumber water?
Make a generous amount of cucumber slices to add to your bottle of drinking water. You can make the slices small or generous, small-sized cucumbers in generous amounts will help you to munch on some while drinking the water.
Leave the cucumber slices to soak into water overnight or for a minimum of four hours. You can refrigerate the water if you want it cold.
Note: Consume the water within a day or two max.
Without further ado, let’s look into the benefits of drinking this cucumber water every day.
It keeps you hydrated
While health experts recommend drink around 2 to 3 liters of water every day, most of us fail to meet this recommendation. Reason? let’s face the truth, water is plain and boring with almost no taste of its own. When you make your drinking water more desirable like adding a few pieces of cucumber, you enrich its taste and increase your chances of going for it.
When you drink cucumber water every day, you are obviously doing your best to keep you hydrated and prevent dehydration.
It might prevent cancer
Cucumbers contain two vital phytonutrients namely cucurbitacins and lignan. According to a 2010 study published in Scientific World Journal (1), cucurbitacins blocks the signaling pathways for cancer cell mutation and growth. Another study on cucurbitacins done 2009 (2) found that it inhibits the growth of pancreatic cancer cell.
Lignan is also believed to reduce the cancer risk by working with the good bacterias found in your digestive tract. A study published by the Journal of Nutrition (3) found that women who intake high levels of lignan through their diet significantly reduced their risk of ovarian cancer.
It protects your skin
For the starters, cucumber has a cooling and soothing effect on your skin, which helps to bring down swelling and irritation on the skin surface if you have any. However, cucumber water is not something you use for that purpose.
If you consume cucumber slices along with the water, you will increase your chances of absorbing numerous antioxidants that are present in cucumber, which includes beta-carotene, vitamin-C, vitamin-A, zeaxanthin, and lutein.
Antioxidants present in cucumbers will reduce the oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen species, which are basically free radicals that can potentially accelerate your aging process.
Additionally, cucumbers also contain pantothenic acid, which is one of the important ingredients used in commercial products intended for treating acne.
Not to forget that cucumber water keeps you hydrated and well-hydrated skin is healthy skin.
It strengthens your bones
Surprisingly cucumber is a rich source of vitamin-K. Before we proceed any further, you need to know that vitamin-K is a fat-soluble vitamin, and if you throw away the cucumber slices in your water or not consume it, you will not gather this vital vitamin from cucumber water.
That being said, Vitamin-K is important for bone strength, and this is more so in women than in men. According to a review study published by Nutrition (4), Vitamin-K works with vitamin-D (which your body needs for the proper absorption of calcium) and reduces the risk of fractures.
A scientific study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (5) revealed a vital link between vitamin-K and bone density in women. The study also found that this vitamin is more vital in women than in men. Another study done by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (6) found that vitamin-K deficiency increased the risk of hip fractures in middle age women.
It protects your heart
Cucumber is a good source of potassium and it has low levels of sodium. Potassium helps to regulate and reduce excessive sodium levels in your body. An excess of sodium is linked to water retention and increased blood pressure, both of which is bad for your heart’s health.
Furthermore, cucumber also has good amounts of magnesium, another vital nutrient for your heart health. Magnesium plays a big role in the relaxing action of your heart muscles. Deficiency of magnesium would increase the levels of calcium in the blood leading to irregular heartbeats and palpitations.
A study published by Public Health of Indonesia (7) found that older people who drank cucumber juice for 12 days daily reduced their hypertension and blood pressure levels.
It improves your digestive health
Your body needs two things for better digestion, those are fiber and enough fluids. Cucumber is rich in both. Dietary fiber and enough fluid levels your body gathers by drinking cucumber water will ensure your digestive system functions smoothly.
Drinking enough fluids also reduces the risk of kidney stones.
It may help with weight loss
No, I do not mean to say that you will bring down the size of your waistline just by drinking cucumber water every day. However, cucumber is rich in water and fiber and low in carbohydrates which should help you to reduce your cravings for snacks and calorie-rich foods.
Most of the time we misunderstand thirst for hunger, and this contributes to snacking and excessive calorie intake. This habit believed to be one of the major reasons for weight gain. Next time when you feel hungry and it is hardly the time for your regular meals, then try to drink some cucumber water and check if it is helpful.
It helps to fight bad breath
Dry mouth is a breeding ground for odor-causing bacterias. The good thing is when you drink cucumber water, it increases your saliva secretion and prevent dry mouth and dislodge odor-causing bacterias in your mouth.
