Originally from India, cucumber has become very popular in the Russian culinary tradition. In Lukhovtsy, Moscow Region, there is a monument to the cucumber breadwinner, a cucumber feast is celebrated in Suzdal, the "Nezhinsky" variety of this vegetable is considered one of the best in the country.
In Russia, cucumbers are eaten all year round: in summer they are fresh and lightly salted, in winter they are salted and pickled. No wonder the Russian people love this vegetable so much.
No table without cucumber: composition and useful properties
Useful properties of cucumber due to its unusual composition.
Substances contained in cucumber and their beneficial properties:
| Substance name | Content per 100 grams of product | What are the benefits for the body |
| Water | 95 - 97 g | 1. Cucumber water has an ordered molecular structure identical to the intracellular fluid, fully absorbed by the cells of the body. 2. Has an alkaline character, neutralizes the increased acidity of the stomach, prevents the formation of kidney stones and gall bladder. 3. Contains in an easily digestible form the ions of the elements necessary for the body (potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron). 4. Cucumber electrolyte dissolves slags and toxins, removing them from the body. |
| Squirrels Fat Carbohydrates | 0.8 g 0.1 g 2.5 - 2.9 g | The minimum nutrient content provides the nutritional value of cucumber. A large amount of food eaten gives a feeling of satiety without getting extra calories. |
| Potassium Sodium Magnesium | 141 mg 8 mg 14 mg | 1. The predominance of potassium ions over sodium (17 times more) provides a diuretic effect, which allows you to quickly remove the dissolved slags from the body. 2. Potassium along with magnesium are the elements that feed the heart muscle. |
| Iodine | 3 mcg | The iodine content in the cucumber is small (only 2% of the daily requirement), but it is easily absorbed, which helps the thyroid gland. |
| Organic acids | 0,1 | 1. Tartronic acid interferes with the process of converting carbohydrates into fats, creating unnecessary fat reserves. 2. Cucumber contains an enzyme that facilitates the breakdown and assimilation of protein foods, which is especially important in diseases such as tuberculosis. |
| Dietary fiber, fiber | 1 g | Cellulose cucumber cleans the intestines, a beneficial effect on its work. |
Cucumber fasting days
Of all the diets based on cucumbers, they are the most benign, without starvation stress and heroic violence against themselves. During these days you need to eat only cucumbers (300 - 400 grams five times a day).
Salt is not recommended to use, since the sodium contained in it will prevent the removal of water from the slags dissolved in it from the body. This diet once a week throughout the summer can cleanse the body; slimming effect due to the removal of excess water - 1 -1.5 kg.
Multi-day cucumber diets will lead to protein leaching from the body, which will do more harm than good.
Cucumber diets have contraindications for people with kidney failure, gastrointestinal diseases (colitis, gastritis, gastric ulcer).
Cucumber breadwinner: calorie fresh and canned fruit
Now we learn the calorie content of cucumber per 100 grams. As a food product, cucumber belongs to the lowest-calorie foods.
In order to fill the daily need for calories, you need to eat about 13 kg of cucumbers a day, this is impossible and harmful, because even with this amount of product, proteins, fats and carbohydrates will not be enough, and the load on the excretory organs is unbearable.
Therefore, cucumber is good not as an independent food product, but as an additive and side dish for food rich in carbohydrates and proteins. The properties and caloric content of cucumbers change after their preservation.
Table calorie cucumbers. Changes in the properties of canned cucumbers compared to fresh ones.
| Product type | Calorie content | Properties |
| Fresh | 15 kcal | Described in the table above. |
| Lightly salted | 12 kcal | 1. Reduced caloric content is due to saturation of cucumber with salt water. 2. Keeps all macro - and micronutrients and vitamins that are in a fresh vegetable. 3. If prepared with heat treatment, tartronic acid is destroyed, inhibiting the formation of fat. 4. whets the appetite. 5. Due to the presence of salt, it delays the excretion of water from the body, has contraindications for some diseases.
|
| Salty | 11 kcal | 1. Calorie salted (without the addition of vinegar!) The least cucumber. 2. All vitamins and microelements of fresh vegetables are preserved. 3. Instead of a diuretic, a salted cucumber has the property of retaining liquid, so it helps with alcohol syndrome with dehydration. 4. Contains lactic acid, which lowers the fat content and, therefore, cholesterol in the blood. 5. Contains fermented milk bacteria that improve intestinal fauna. |
| Marinated | 16 kcal | 1. Calorie high due to the use of sugar in pickling. 2. The composition of the elements is identical to a fresh vegetable, and all the vitamins are destroyed by acetic acid. 3. Acetic acid - a source of many contraindications for the use of pickled cucumbers |
How many cucumbers can you eat?
On the recommendation of the Institute of Nutrition, the human need for a product such as cucumbers is 10–13 kg per year: every day, 4 grams. Of course, in winter and spring cucumber consumption is minimal: greenhouse cucumbers are expensive, and there are a lot of nitrates in them.
Fresh cucumbers are consumed mainly in summer and autumn. At this time, a healthy person can eat from 2 kg (during diets) to 300-400 g per day, because they are an excellent additive to foods rich in carbohydrates and proteins.
Pickles in such quantities is harmful: an excess of salt, water retention in the body, swelling, increased pressure. On the day a person needs about 5 g of salt, this amount is contained in 2-3 salted cucumbers (150 g).
Even eat this amount - a big load on the heart and kidneys, because other food should also be salted. The number of pickled cucumbers is even lower due to acetic acid.
What harm can be from cucumbers
Cucumber - a product that rarely brings harm. Only people with contraindications for diseases should be careful about their consumption.
- Fresh fruits are contraindicated in peptic ulcer, colitis, gastritis; kidney problems: nephritis, kidney stones.
- Salted cucumbers are excluded from the menu, people with the same diseases, they are joined by those suffering from hypertension, obesity, hepatitis, dyskinesia.
- Pickled cucumbers are harmful for all the above cases, plus gout and salt deposits in the joints.
Tip: Fresh cucumbers should not be mixed with tomatoes: it is harmful to the kidneys, liver and interferes with the action of vitamin C.
- Tomatoes increase acidity, and cucumbers carry an alkaline environment. The combination of products in the stomach leads to a reaction with the loss of insoluble salts; they accumulate in the kidneys, forming stones, disrupt the liver.
- If a tomato contains vitamin C in large quantities, then antivitamin is present in the cucumber - the enzyme ascorbinase. Their action is the opposite. And if individually each vegetable promotes the assimilation of proteins, then together they become useless.
- To assimilate a tomato, the body secretes various enzymes that absolutely do not coincide with those that cucumber needs; while one vegetable is absorbed by the stomach, the other in it gradually sours.
Constant and proper use of cucumbers restores balance and harmonious work of all body systems, it is an excellent means of maintaining health.
From the following short video you can find out more information about the benefits of cucumber.
