Cucumbers are center stage this week on my kitchen cutting board and next to my keyboard for snacking. My garden may lack cucumbers, but there is no shortage of them sliced, diced and served in my kitchen. I’m lucky to have kind and generous green-thumbed family and friends who share their abundance of cucumbers growing in their gardens at this time every year. My subject plan this week was to cover another common viral illness but cucumbers took over my thoughts, taste buds and digestive system.
Besides being refreshingly delicious, cucumbers are very healthy. Cucumbers — cucumis sativus L. — are in the Cucurbitaceae family that includes melon, squash and pumpkins. It is actually a fruit. It is widely grown throughout the world dating back to over 3,000 years ago, native to the Indian continent.
This fruit that is culinarily grouped with vegetables has a long list of other nutrients: vitamin C, vitamin A, beta carotene, manganese, molybdenum, flavonoids, cucurbitacins, lignans, potassium, vitamin B-5 and vitamin K. These have various health benefits for various parts of the body; bones, tissues, blood and organs. Many health gains include preventing osteoporosis, decreasing fractures, decreasing cholesterol and strokes.
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