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Watermelon Diet For Weight Loss
Watermelon refers to both fruit and plant of a vine-like (climber and trailer) herb originally from southern Africa and one of the most common types of melon. This flowering plant produces a special type of fruit known by botanists as a pepo, which has a thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy center (mesocarp and endocarp); pepos are derived from an inferior ovary and are characteristic of the Cucurbitaceae. The watermelon fruit, loosely considered a type of melon (although not in the genus Cucumis), has a smooth exterior rind (green and yellow) and a juicy, sweet, usually pink, red, or yellow, but sometimes orange, interior flesh.
Watermelon is firstly known to have been grown by the early Egyptians in approximately 4000 BC. It reached Europe only thousands of years later, in around 1300, and it has been very popular ever since. We don't know if our ancestors knew about its useful properties, but we do know now that with its help we can lose weight. The real challenge when trying to lose weight is staying focused and not neglecting your routine for a single day - that's why people want to choose programs that fit themselves most.
Watermelon is a very tasty fruit so anyone can easily create a habit of eating it everyday - that's why it's so useful. But you should be careful - if you eat too much you might get sick of it and not be able to continue with your habit. The fact that it's rich in antioxidants from the lycopene contained (a natural red colored pigment) and that it contains very few calories makes the watermelon perfect for a diet. Also, vitamins contained include C, A,B6 and B1. David Livingstone, an explorer of Africa, described watermelon as abundant in the Kalahari desert, where it is believed to have originated.
There, the ancestral melon grows wild and is known as the Tsamma melon (Citrullus lanatus var tastius).[citation needed] It is also known in Zimbabwe as 'nwiwa, mwiwa or iswe. It is recognizable by its pinnatifid leaves and prolific fruit, up to 100 melons on a single vine.[citation needed] For this reason it is a popular source of water in the diet of the indigenous people. The flesh is similar to the rind of a watermelon and is often known as citron melon (distinct from the actual citron, of the citrus family); it is used for making jam and other preserves, and because of its high content of pectin is popular as a constituent of jams, jellies, and other gelled preserves.
It has established itself in the wild in Baja California. Watermelons on display by a roadside vendor in Delhi, India. It is not known when the plant was first cultivated, but Zohary and Hopf note evidence of its cultivation in the Nile Valley from at least as early as the second millennium BC.Finds of the characteristically large seed are reported in Twelfth dynasty sites; numerous watermelon seeds were recovered from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, although the existence of the fruit in ancient Egypt is not certain because it is not depicted in any hieroglyphic text nor does any ancient writer mention it.
It wasn't present in any other culture of the ancient Mediterranean. Fresh watermelon may be eaten in a variety of ways and is also often used to flavor summer drinks and smoothies.Watermelon contains about six percent sugar by weight, the rest being mostly water. As with many other fruits, it is a source of vitamin C. It is not a significant source of other vitamins and minerals unless one eats several kilograms per day. The amino acid citrulline was first extracted from watermelon and analysed, Watermelons contain a significant amount of citrulline and after consumption of several kg an elevated concentration is measured in the blood plasma, this could be mistaken for citrullinaemia or other urea cycle disorder.
Watermelon rinds are also edible, and sometimes used as a vegetable. In China, they are stir-fried, stewed, or more often pickled. When stir-fried, the de-skinned and de-fruited rind is cooked with olive oil, garlic, chili peppers, scallions, sugar and rum. Pickled watermelon rind is also commonly consumed in the Southern US, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria.[citation needed] In Balkans, specially Serbia, watermelon slatko is also popular.
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