Tis the season to eat healthy – Brief Article
Most people think watermelon when they think summer, but few among us probably think health food. Low-fat? Maybe. Delicious? Definitely. But it turns out watermelon has a lot more to offer than 92% water.
A 2-cup serving of watermelon contains an incredible 18.16 mg of lycopene, compared to the 4 mg found in one medium-sized tomato, the food most often associated with this promising carotenoid. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant and therefore there is evidence to suggest that consuming it lowers your risk of developing cancer.
Because higher temperatures break down cell walls, cooked tomatoes are better sources of lycopene than raw ones, but cooking lowers the amounts of other nutrients also abundant in watermelon: vitamins A, B6 and C. With recommended fruit servings ever increasing, summer is the perfect time to enjoy this delicious, low-fat, nutritious snack.
(National Watermelon Promotion Board; J. Agricult. Food Chem., Vol. 50, No. 8, pp. 1135)
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