Winter melon, this seemingly ordinary ingredient, actually hides extraordinary medicinal value. According to Chinese medicine, winter melon tastes sweet and light, is slightly cold in nature, and enters the lungs, large and small intestines, and bladder meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat and promoting diuresis, promoting body fluid and resolving phlegm, and detoxifying. It is often used for edema, stranguria, beriberi, phlegm and asthma, summer heat and depression, thirst, carbuncle, hemorrhoids and fistula; and it can also detoxify cinnabar, fish, and alcohol.
"Shennong's Herbal Classic" records: "It is slightly cold in nature, sweet and mild in taste, non-toxic, and enters the lungs, large and small intestines, and bladder meridians. It can clear lung heat and resolve phlegm, clear stomach heat and relieve restlessness and thirst, and has the effects of sweet and mild infiltration of dysentery, removing dampness and relieving heat, promoting urination, and eliminating edema."
"Suixiju Diet" records: "(Winter melon) clears heat, nourishes the stomach, promotes fluid, cleanses filth, eliminates restlessness, eliminates carbuncle, promotes water flow, and resolves fish and crab poison. Pregnant women often eat it to nourish the fetus and detoxify, so that the child is disease-free."
Research shows that the content of ascorbic acid, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin in winter melon vitamins is relatively high, and vitamin B1, which has the effect of preventing and treating cancer, is quite rich in winter melon seeds; There are 8 mineral elements, including potassium, sodium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, phosphorus, and selenium. The potassium content is significantly higher than the sodium content. It is a typical high-potassium and low-sodium vegetable, which is very beneficial to patients with kidney disease, hypertension, and edema who need to eat low-sodium salt food. The element selenium also has multiple functions such as anti-cancer. It contains 8 essential amino acids for the human body except tryptophan, with high content of glutamic acid and aspartic acid, as well as ornithine and γ-aminobutyric acid and histidine for children. Winter melon does not contain fat, and the dietary fiber is as high as 0.8%. It is rich in nutrition and has a reasonable structure. The calculation of the nutritional quality index shows that winter melon is a high-quality food that is beneficial to health.
Although winter melon is not good-looking, it is a treasure all over. It is a medicine all over. Winter melon seeds, winter melon leaves, winter melon peel, winter melon vines, and winter melon pulp can all be used as medicine. Winter melon is the only vegetable among fruits and vegetables that does not contain fat. It has a very low sugar content. The succinic acid it contains can inhibit the conversion of sugars into fat, has a diuretic and detumescent effect, can remove excessive body fat, and can be used for weight loss. In addition to being used as a vegetable, winter melon fruit can also be soaked into various candies; the peel and seeds are used as medicine, with anti-inflammatory, diuretic, and detumescent effects.
Winter melon peel
It can be used to diuretic and detumescent, and can be used to treat edema caused by nephritis;
Winter melon vine
It can be used as a decoction to treat prolapse, and can also be used for beauty and skin care with fresh juice.
Winter melon pulp
It is also called melon lian, and its leaves can be used as medicine.
Winter melon leaves
It tastes bitter and is cool in nature. It can clear away heat and dampness, detoxify, and is used for thirst, summer-heat and dampness diarrhea, malaria, sores, etc.
Winter melon seeds
It tastes sweet and is slightly cold in nature. It belongs to the lung and large intestine meridians. It has the functions of clearing lungs and reducing phlegm, eliminating carbuncle and draining pus, and promoting dampness. It is mainly used to treat phlegm-heat cough, lung carbuncle, intestinal carbuncle, leucorrhea, edema, stranguria, etc.
Reminder: Although winter melon is good, people with spleen and stomach deficiency and qi deficiency should be careful when eating it; in addition, eating winter melon and crucian carp together is a dietary conflict, which will cause increased urine volume. If you are not suffering from edema, it is best not to eat them together.
The following is a delicious and nutritious health-preserving soup - winter melon soup. This Shunde specialty not only tastes delicious, but also clears heat and relieves summer heat. It is suitable for Guangdong people who are in the scorching sun.
Winter melon soup
Ingredients: one green-skinned winter melon, half a chicken, 100 grams of lean meat, one soaked octopus, fresh shrimp, mushrooms, diced ham, scallops, fresh chicken gizzards, large oyster drums, and ginger in appropriate amounts.
Method:
1. Wash the winter melon, cut off the top and tail, and then cut off the sac with some melon flesh in the middle. For a good appearance, you can use a knife to saw the winter melon into flowers, peel the bottom and cut it into semicircles to make it stick to the pot better;
2. Wash the chicken, cut it into pieces and blanch it, add ginger and dry it, then pour water to boil the soup base;
3. Heat the pan and add oil, first stir-fry the sac-free diced melon flesh and other ingredients, then add them to the soup base;
4. Heat a large pot and add a large winter melon, turn it twice to press the winter melon and the pot together, put cold water outside the winter melon, pour the soup base with ingredients inside, cover the lid and stew for 40 minutes, and add fresh shrimp and seasonings before eating.
Efficacy: Clears lung heat and resolves phlegm, clears stomach heat and relieves restlessness and thirst, sweet and mild to penetrate diarrhea, removes dampness and relieves heat, can promote urination and eliminate edema.
Here is another porridge for removing dampness and nourishing the spleen: Winter melon, coix seed, lotus leaf and duck porridge
Ingredients: 100g winter melon, 50g raw coix seed, 15g lotus leaf, 4g tangerine peel, 100g duck meat, 100g rice, and salt.
Method: Wash the duck meat and cut it into small pieces. Put the above ingredients into the pot and add appropriate amount of water to cook porridge. Cook until soft and add appropriate amount of salt to taste.
Effects: Nourishes yin and removes heat, relieves summer heat and removes dampness, and nourishes the spleen and stomach.
