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Happy National Watermelon Day! Just in case you needed an excuse to snack on this fruit favorite, now you have one. There’s nothing quite as refreshing as chowing down on cool and juicy watermelon slices during a hot summer day. This popular fruit often gets a bad rap these days due to its high sugar content. While it’s true that watermelon contains natural sugars, it’s perfectly safe to eat in moderation. Not only that, it can provide you with a whole host of health benefits! Check out these five surprising facts about watermelon:
- Watermelon contains more lycopene than raw tomatoes
Lycopene is a powerful carotenoid antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables a pink or red color. It's most often associated with tomatoes, but watermelon is actually a more concentrated source. Compared to a large fresh tomato, one cup of watermelon has 1.5 times the lycopene.
- Watermelon juice may help relieve sore muscles
If you have a juicer at home, try juicing about one-third of a fresh watermelon and drinking the juice before your next workout. Watermelon juice contains l-citrulline, an amino acid that’s been shown to help protect against muscle pain.
- You can eat watermelon rind and seeds
Most people throw away the watermelon rind, but try putting it in a blender with some lime for a healthy, refreshing treat. Not only does the rind contain plenty of health-promoting chlorophyll, but the rind actually contains more of the amino acid citrulline than the pink flesh.
Citrulline is converted to arginine in your kidneys, and not only is this amino acid important for heart health and maintaining your immune system, but it has been researched to have potential therapeutic value in over 100 different health conditions!
You may be in the habit of spitting out watermelon seeds, but they’re actually edible and quite healthy. They contain iron, zinc, protein and fiber.
- Some watermelons are yellow
The Yellow Crimson watermelon has yellow flesh with a sweeter, honey flavor than the more popular pink-fleshed Crimson Sweet. It's likely that yellow watermelon offers its own unique set of nutritional benefits, but most research to date has focused on the pink-fleshed varieties.
- Watermelon is both a fruit and a vegetable
Watermelon is widely known as a fruit, but it’s actually part vegetable as well. It’s a sweet, seed-producing plant, and the rind is entirely edible — a characteristic of a vegetable!