Over the years, we have learned just how important it is to be physically active whilst maintaining a healthy diet. Within this context, vegetables are often seen as the cornerstone of every good diet and, according to the US Department of Agriculture, men require three cups of veggies daily, while women need a little less.

Today, we are going to show you what makes cucumber so special among the other types of vegetables, and why cucumber juice (or cucumber water) should be in everyone’s diet all around the world.

Health Benefits of Cucumber Juice

Of course, cucumber juice offers the generic benefits that come with many vegetables such as lowering the risk of obesity and fighting some cancers. Cucumbers contain two types of cancer fighting compounds Cucurbitacins [1,2] and polyphenols (pinoresinol, lariciresinol, and secoisolariciresinol), both of which help diminish the risk of some types of cancers.

However, they also have their own unique advantages so let’s take a look at the nutrients you would find in them.

Copper

First, cucumber juice holds a healthy dose of copper which your body can use to produce the chemical needed for the communication in your brain cells. Furthermore, red blood cells can be produced more easily. Strengthening the connective tissue and providing a boost to the immune system also comes as a result of the copper content.

Today, we also know that free radical damage is a huge problem with the sun exposure and environmental toxins circulating our living space. And copper helps to protect you from these sources. Finally, cucumber juice will support your active lifestyle because copper helps the cells to produce energy much more easily.

Vitamin K

When you think of cucumber, you immediately think of vitamin K and this is for good reason. With a main focus of building bone tissue and boosting the kidneys, vitamin K also plays a pivotal role for the blood. After suffering tissue damage, vitamin K will activate proteins that help with coagulation thus stopping the bleeding.

As obvious as it sounds, it will also prevent vitamin K deficiency which has its own symptoms including bleeding gums, nosebleeds, and bruising.

Calcium

Cucumber juice, just like some other types of juices, is a fantastic source of calcium for the vegans among us. With this supply of calcium, your teeth and bones can strengthen and bone density will improve. Furthermore, calcium is also utilized in the contraction of muscles as well as the nervous system using the mineral to transmit nerve impulses. Importantly, calcium will also maintain a healthy hormone balance because this mineral in the blood will control the release of hormones themselves.

Potassium

Cucumbers are great source of potassium as well. Potassium is connected with heart health, together with sodium it maintains the proper functioning of the body as a whole, regulates muscle contractions and transmission of nerve impulses, and helps lower blood pressure naturally.

Fisetin

Fisetin is a natural flavonoid substance found come fruits and vegetables, including, persimmon, strawberry, onion, and you might have guessed already,cucumber. This inflammatory chemical seems to be playing an important role in brain health. With its strong n europrotective effects fisetin improves your memory, protects your nerve cells, and prevents age related brain tissue degeneration. [3] It also seems to have a neuroprotective effects against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. [4]

Antioxidants

We all know about the importance of antioxidant rich food for optimal health. Cucumber juice contains a lot of them. For example, vitamin C, beta-carotene, kaempherol, quercetin, luteolin, to name just a few. Kaempherol is useful for preventing heart problems, while quercetin [5] is one of the four best natural antihistamines. The other three are Stinging Nettle, Bromelain, and Vitamin C (lemon juice). Preventing the release of histamine is essential if you have problems with hay fever, rhinitis, or any type of seasonal allergy.

Detoxification

Cucumber juice alone or in combination with other detox juices can be a powerful detox drink. The reason is simple: there is plenty of water in there: as much as 95 percent of cucumber is pure organic water. It will hydrate your body and help remove some toxins from it.

Digestive health

Cucumber supports your digestive health mainly because of its two main components: fiber and water. Now if you consume cucumber juice, you will leave out the fiber, which is not so beneficial in this case. Making a cucumber smoothie is a much better solution for promoting digestive health. Low in calories, cucumber has as many as 50 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories.

Cucumber juice is helpful if you have problems with acid reflux. The high water content of this juice will raise your stomach pH and provide a temporary refuge from the acute symptoms of heartburn.

Other Benefits

Some other less obvious reasons to include cucumber juice in your diet are the following:

• Helps you get rid of bad breath. Just a glass of this juice in the morning can be enough to fight the bacteria in your mouth which is the cause of bad breath. Or you can put a slice of cucumber in your mouth and keep it there for some time. Ayurveda teaches us that the excess heat in the stomach can be the main reason behind someone’s bad breath, and cucumber juice also helps release this excess heat.
• There is no better and more helpful ingredient for weight loss than cucumber. It is included in many popular diets as one of the safest types of food. Cucumber juice can help you feel full whilst cutting down calories.
• If you want to fight constipation in a natural way, prepare a glass of this juice.
• Believe it or not, in this vegetable there is quite a lot of silicon. Silicon is one of the forgotten, but very important nutrients, especially in its biologically active form present in cucumber juice. It is great to improve the condition of the connective tissues in the body, such as the health of the joints, but it can also help with the hair and nail condition.
• Sulfur is also present in this juice, which can help with hair growth when applied directly on the scalp.

Cucumber Juice Recipes

Ginger and Cucumber Juice

Check out this refreshing combination of Ginger and Cucumber here.

Cucumber Ginger Apple Juice For Smooth Skin and Strong Hair

Great Cucumber juice with added ginger, apple, lemon, and celery. It makes a beauty tonic in a glass. Use the power of Cucumber juice to improve the quality of your skin and hair! Check it out on this page.

Energizing Cucumber, Beetroot, and Ginger Juice

If you want to give your body a good support to stay healthy and provide a lot of energy to it, this is a great recipe. It contains the cleansing beetroot, refreshing cucumber, and super healthy ginger. It takes just five minutes to make, with easy to find ingredients and it tastes pretty amazing. Check the recipe here.

Strawberry-Cucumber Juice

This is a healthy refreshing juice with cucumber and strawberries as main ingredients. There is also some apple and carrots, so that its taste is somewhat improved. You can make a juice but also blend the produce into a healthful smoothie. See the entire recipe here.

Summary

As you can see, these key advantages alone provide a number of health benefits for your body and mind. However, there is actually a disadvantage of taking in cucumber juice as opposed to a cucumber and that is that you lose the fiber content.

Therefore, you cannot rely on juice solely and you should always keep vegetables in your meal plan. Also, you can gain good levels of fiber from foods like nuts, whole grains, and legumes (although the grains and to some extent the legumes are somewhat more questionable source).

If you get a little bored of cucumber juice alone, why not try it within a smoothie with lots of different flavors? For example, it will taste great as a base along with mint and melon balls or even basil and strawberries. As long as you have this juice, you have a key that will unlock many doors for your diet!

Remember, whenever you purchase cucumber to prepare cucumber juice or smoothie, select them in their organic version. The pesticides and other harmful chemical in the non-organic types will greatly diminish the health benefits of cucumber juice as a whole. And the organic cucumbers come with additional benefit: you can leave the skin on (full of additional beneficial nutrients) while juicing or making smoothie!

Cheers!

References

1. Ujjwal Kaushik, Vidhu Aeri, and Showkat R. Mir Cucurbitacins – An insight into medicinal leads from nature Pharmacogn Rev. 2015 Jan-Jun; 9(17): 12–18.

2. Lee DH, Iwanski GB, Thoennissen NH. Cucurbitacin: ancient compound shedding new light on cancer treatment. ScientificWorldJournal. 2010 Mar 5;10:413-8

3. Naghma Khan, Deeba N. Syed, Nihal Ahmad, and Hasan MukhtarFisetin: A Dietary Antioxidant for Health Promotion Antioxid Redox Signal. 2013 Jul 10; 19(2): 151–162

4. Nabavi SF, Braidy N, Habtemariam S, Sureda A, Manayi A, Nabavi SM. Neuroprotective Effects of Fisetin in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases: From Chemistry to Medicine. Curr Top Med Chem. 2016;16(17):1910-5.

5. Supplement quercetin