7 Secret Health Benefits of Melon

Do you ever wish there was a superfood that could keep your heart healthy, ease your aches and pains and keep your skin looking young? There is. Even more good news: it doesn't involve reaching for healthy-but-unpleasant kale smoothies or boring spinach salads. This new superfood is not only good for you, it's delicious.

I'm taking about watermelon. Although it's 92% water, watermelon is jam-packed full of nutrients and vitamins that make it the perfect healthy snack.

July is National Watermelon Month in the US, so there's no better time to chow-down on this fantastic superfood.

However, remember to not eat any food 30 minutes before or after you eat melon. Remember, eat melon alone or leave it alone, or else it will make your stomach groan.

So, let's explore seven of the biggest secret health properties of this superfood:

Improve Heart Health

Watermelon has 1.5 times the lycopene gram for gram than tomatoes. This makes it effective at preventing heart disease. Not only does eating foods rich in lycopene reduce the risk of stroke by almost 20%, a study at Purdue University found lycopene actively protects cells from damage and may prevent heart disease.  

Apart of lycopene, watermelon is also bursting with Arginine and Citrulline. Citrulline improves circulation. Arginine can also help improve blood flow, and may prevent the build-up of excess fat. A 2011 study published in the American Journal of Hypertension found that watermelon lowers blood pressure in obese adults, leading to a lower risk of future cardiac events.

Ease Aching Muscles

The high levels of lycopene in watermelon make it a natural anti-inflammatory, so it's the perfect thing to eat if you're aching after a long jog. Not only does lycopene reduce inflammation, it is also an antioxidant that neutralises free radicals (unstable molecules in the body).

Watermelon also contains choline, which was found (in a 2006 study, published in the journal Shock) to suppress inflammatory responses. Another anti-inflammatory property in watermelon is cucurbitacin E, which blocks a pain- and inflammation-causing enzyme called cyclooxygenase

Reducing inflammation can benefit people with a wide variety of conditions, from long-term illnesses such as arthritis, to people will temporary aches. Another study found that men who drank unpasteurised watermelon juice prior to working-out had reduced soreness a day later to those who took a placebo.

Protect Against Cancer

The humble watermelon has another claim to fame: it could help protect against cancer, probably due to the antioxidant properties of lycopene.

READ Melons: Refreshing, Sweet and Healthy

A study with mice found that lycopene suppressed the growth of breast cancer cells, and another study suggested it may prevent the proliferation of prostate cancer cells.

Perhaps even more encouragingly, 2014 meta-analysis of 10 studies showed that consuming foods high in lycopene may help protect against ovarian cancer in postmenopausal women. Ovarian cancer is known as "the silent killer", as symptoms rarely appear until it's too late. This means that the protective potential of watermelon could be a lifesaver.

More Secret Health Benefits of Melon

Fight the Summer Sniffles

Because watermelon is so high in - say it with me - lycopene, they boost our ailing immune systems. However, it isn't only lycopene that lifts our immune system and fights off that summer cold. Watermelon is also bursting with immunity-boosting Vitamin C, with 21% of your RDA.

Did you also know: much of our immune system is located in the digestive tract. Due to the fibre, Watermelon is uniquely good for our digestive system, helping us reboot our digestion and fight infection.

Are you a stress-head? Watermelon is especially good at boosting the immune system of people whose immunity is reduced by stress. So if you don't want to be sniffling and sneezing through summer meetings, grab yourself some watermelon.

Get a Good Night Sleep

Watermelon contains choline. Choline is the same nutrient found in turkey and eggs. In the daytime, it keeps you alert and awake, improving memory and helping you concentrate on your work. At night, it helps you sleep by filtering out noise and other interruptions, and helping to regulate your internal body-clock.

Beat the Bulge

Watermelon is the ultimate healthy snack food: it has 0% fat and just 46 calories per cup, giving it less than half the calorific-load of similar fruits. That means you can enjoy snacking on something sweet and tasty without worrying about gaining weight. If you changed a banana snack, three times a week (134 kcal) to a watermelon snack (46 kcal), you would save 13,728 kcal, and lose 4 lbs, in one year without making any other change.

However, that's not the only benefit melon has for your waistline.

Watermelon's water content makes it great at flushing toxins from your body. The Citrulline in them will also help reduce water retention and bloating by supporting your kidneys to work more efficiently.

Preliminary animal studies also suggest that Citrulline may prevent the accumulation of excess body fat by blocking the enzyme, tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (or TNAP).

READ Most Refreshing Non-Alcoholic Summer Drinks

Get Great Skin and Hair

If your skin and hair are looking tired, don't reach for expensive products. Reach for watermelon. Watermelons contain one-quarter of our RDA of vitamin A, which helps keep our hair and skin moisturised and promotes the growth of new collagen and elastin cells that keep us looking young. Vitamin C is also essential for healthy collagen growth.

Watermelon is also a really good source of manganese. Manganese improves the appearance of your skin by increasing collagen production and reducing inflammation.

Watermelon Warnings

If eaten sensibly, watermelon is very safe and shouldn't cause harm.

However: if you eat too much, you may end up with very high levels of lycopene or potassium.

If you have a kidney disease or hyperkalaemia (high blood potassium), you should monitor the amount of potassium you consume. Talk to your doctor about the safe consumption of watermelon. One cup contains less than 140 mg of potassium, and should be regarded as a maximum for anyone with these conditions. Some patients may be advised to avoid watermelon entirely.

Diabetics should be aware that, although the sugar is natural, watermelon can be quite high in sugar. Fructose converts to glucose. Moderation is needed.

Be aware: more than 30 mg of lycopene daily may cause side-effects, including nausea, diarrhoea, indigestion and bloating.

Choosing a Melon

If you're looking for a watermelon, what should you choose?

These tricks should help you find one that's tasty when you open it:

• Look for a buttery-yellow spot on the underside (neither white nor green)
• It should be heavy for its size
• The rind should be smooth
• To top should be dull
• The thump test: a ripe melon is said to have a hollow bass sound.

When you get your watermelon home store it in a cool area until it's cut, when it must be refrigerated. Those good healthy nutrients will remain undisturbed for a week.

Happy eating!