There is probably no vegetable, fruit, or berry in the world that overweight people don't try to use to lose weight. Watermelon is no exception. Many websites say it helps to reduce weight, cleanses the body of toxins, provides vitamins, minerals and other useful substances. Is this true or fiction? Let's reflect on this matter.
Watermelon Properties
Watermelon is a treasure trove of vitamins and minerals that provide enormous benefits to your body. Have you come across these phrases while surfing the Internet? Probably yes. But actually a watermelon is not a treasure. Instead, a small puddle. There are few vitamins and minerals in it. To get at least some of them in daily doses, the watermelon will have to be absorbed in pounds.
Watermelon has a pronounced diuretic effect. Certainly, lovers of this product know that you can only enjoy a good watermelon if you are not far from the bathroom. Some sources claim that, due to its diuretic effect, watermelon "frees the kidneys" and reduces the likelihood of urolithiasis. Forced to disappoint you - this is unlikely.
Buds are regularly "washed" without watermelon. There is a small chance that, with their help, you can actually reduce the risk of developing urolithiasis. But first, to convince yourself of this from experience, you would have to eat a watermelon every day for several years. Second, no one knows for sure whether watermelon prevents urolithiasis, since this information can only be obtained during clinical studies, which have not yet been carried out by anyone.
Benefits of Watermelon for Weight Loss
Watermelon is a food product. It has little nutritional value. Contains carbohydrates, although there aren't many. Therefore, it would be silly to say that watermelon contributes to weight loss. No, you can also get better with this, as with any other food. If you eat a watermelon in kilograms, you won't see a slender figure.
Of course, watermelon doesn't burn fat. The more you eat, the rounder your belly will become. But if you look at watermelon not as a way to lose weight, but as a dietary product, you can find some undeniable advantages.
- Low in calories.Obviously, the fewer calories a food contains, the more attractive it becomes to obese people. Even a sweet watermelon contains less than 30 kcal per 100 g. This is less than most fruits or berries. The nutritional value of watermelon is lower than that of some vegetables. After eating a kilo of watermelon you will probably not feel hungry, but at the same time only 300 kcal will enter your body.
- High water content.Why is this good? First, water provides a large volume of watermelon. When you eat, you feel like there is something in your stomach. In this way, it satisfies hunger, even if only for a short time. Second, a person trying to lose weight needs to drink a lot of water but often forgets about it. Lack of fluid in the body diminishes the effectiveness of the diet. Along with the watermelon, the person receives a sufficient amount of water.
Disadvantages of Watermelon for Weight Loss
As mentioned above, watermelon has a very low energy value, which gives us reason to call it a diet product. But it must be remembered that most calories enter the body with carbohydrates. What's more, they are simple sugars that are easy to digest and pose the biggest threat to your body.
Watermelon contains glucose, fructose, sucrose. All of these carbohydrates are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and stimulate the release of insulin, which converts glucose into fat. Watermelon has one of the highest glycemic indexes among all fruits and berries. This is your biggest flaw. And this is the only reason why watermelon should not be consumed in large quantities.
Among the disadvantages, we also highlight the low content of insoluble dietary fiber. Watermelon cannot satisfy hunger for long. It fills the stomach only for a short period of time, as it mainly consists of water, which quickly enters the intestines and then into the blood. There is very little fiber in watermelon, which could create the necessary volume and retain fluid in the digestive tract.
Watermelon can be a quick snack to quench your appetite. The simple sugars contained in its composition almost immediately enter the systemic circulation, interact with vascular receptors and numb hunger. But the feeling of fullness passes quickly, as the blood glucose concentration quickly returns to normal.
Exit
With the help of watermelon, you can lose weight, but only if you use it in place of other more caloric foods. You should not overindulge in watermelon as it contains simple sugars and has a high glycemic index. It has a low nutritional value, but consuming watermelon in large amounts can yield a lot of calories. Furthermore, these calories will enter the body with simple carbohydrates - the most dangerous nutrients for the figure.