If there can only be one fruit or vegetable that qualifies as an excellent standalone juice or an addition to other juice recipes, it has got to be cucumber. Find out in this article how the versatile and delicious cucumber can be a refreshing drink and an effective detoxifier at the same time. Meet the cucumber cleanse..
You are not alone in thinking that the only thing cucumber is good for is to end up as a pickle. Most people aren’t even aware of the health benefits that cucumbers provide us from our heads down to our toes. Nutritionally, cucumbers are loaded with vitamins C, A, and K as well as minerals like potassium and calcium.
What is a Cucumber Cleanse?
This creeping vine is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family of gourds with three major varieties: slicing, burpless, and pickling. Cultivated for nearly 3,000 years, cucumber originated in India and may have been introduced by the ancient Greeks of Alexander the Great’s conquering army to Europe.
Records of its cultivation appear in France and England in the 9th and 14 centuries, respectively. By the middle of the 16th century, cucumber had reached North America by the regular trips of English settlers to what is now known as the U.S. East Coast. According to Pliny the Elder, the Roman Emperor Tiberius had cucumber day and night.
As mentioned, there are 3 major varieties of cucumbers:
Slicing Cucumbers
Eaten mainly in its green, unripe form, a slicing cucumber is grown for eating fresh.Most people avoid having slicing cucumbers ripen and turn yellow because they becomesour and bitter. “Slicers,” or how slicing cucumbers are nicknamed, are longer and haveskins that are more uniform in their color, tougher, and smoother.
Burpless Cucumbers
Sold in grocery stores, this variety is reputedly easier to digest, sweeter, and has thinner skin. Cultivated in greenhouses, burpless cucumbers have delicate skins and areoften nearly seedless. A variety that doesn’t require peeling was introduced as the “c-thru-cucumber” by Sainsbury’s, the U.K. supermarket chain, in the spring of 2008.
Pickling Cucumbers
These cucumbers are shorter, less regular in shape, thicker, and have small black or white-dotted spines on their bumpy skins, the “pickles” that we all know and have on burgers and hotdogs. The pickling of this cucumber variety all but removes the nutritive content, especially that of the antioxidant vitamin C.
How Does A Cucumber Cleanse Work?
Regardless of variety, cucumber has roughly 95% to 96% water in its composition, one of the primary reasons why it is becoming popular as a cleansing agent in detoxification diets. Its natural diuretic properties play a significant role in cell hydration, the waste removal process, and dissolution of potential kidney stones.
Juicing fresh, raw cucumbers enables you to absorb their fiber content for more nutrition. One cup of this vegetable blended with half a cup of water has 16 calories, in contrast to a 12-ounce serving of lemon-lime flavored soda with 151 calories. Drinking this vegetable’s juice even just once a week could help you lose two pounds a year.
The best way to obtain the health benefits of cucumber is to extract its juice using a juicer including the vegetable’s peel. Because of the nutritive value attached to cucumber juice, drinking two to three glasses a day with your meals ensures that you do not become deficient in the following:
- Vitamin K: this vitamin helps build strong bone tissues, nourish the kidneys, and activates proteins to trigger optimal blood clotting, meaning you automatically stop bleeding after experiencing damage to your tissues. Deficiency in vitamin K may lead to nosebleeds, bleeding gums, and bruising.
- Copper: most people are not aware of it but cucumber contains copper that helps create the chemical family of neurotransmitters which the brain cells require to communicate. Additionally, copper helps strengthen connectivetissues, boost the immune system, and produce healthy red blood cells.
- Calcium: an essential mineral that strengthens bones and teeth, calcium is vegan-friendly as well. Cucumber juice’s calcium content helps muscles tocontract, the nervous system to transmit important nerve impulses to the brain,and hormones to achieve balance.
Cucumbers contain both insoluble and soluble fibers. Juicing cucumbers without peeling them make for a more nutritious beverage that gets easily absorbed by the intestinal tract. Cucumber juice also contains plant lignans that bind with the digestive tract’s bacteria and converts these to enterolignans.
These enterolignans, in turn, bind themselves to estrogen receptors to decrease the risk of estrogen-related cancers such as those of the breast, ovary, and uterus. Additionally, lariciresinol, secoisolariciresinol, and pinoresinol are lignans found in cucumber that can also help reduce the risk for prostate and colon cancers.
Because of its high water content, cucumber becomes a perfect eliminator of toxins stored in the body’s fat cells which cause inflammation. Beyond this excellent characteristic of cucumber juice, however, is its exceptional ability to supply the body with electrolytes for restoring hydration to cells and balancing the body’s fluid levels.
Juicing cucumbers is an inexpensive way to maintain good health not only of your skin but your nails and hair as well. Cucumbers contain the trace mineral silica that can help strengthen connective tissues to strengthen nails and hair. We keep going back to cucumber’s high water content because this does a lot of good for our bodies.
Cucumber flesh contains vitamin C and caffeic acid, two compounds that you will discover, as soon as you start juicing, that are extremely useful for soothing any skin irritations. Juicing cucumbers for a cucumber cleanse is one of the best ways to obtain their detoxifying benefits because they are absorbed more easily in juice form.
