The nutritional value of bitter melon

Momordica charantia

Bitter melon is an annual climbing herbaceous plant of the Cucurbitaceae family. Its fruit is edible and has high nutritional value. It contains a variety of nutrients and is rich in vitamin B1. It can prevent and treat beriberi, maintain normal heart function, promote milk secretion and increase appetite. The vitamin C contained in bitter melon is 10 to 20 times that of cucumber and loofah. It can prevent scurvy, protect cell membranes, detoxify, prevent atherosclerosis, fight cancer, improve the body's stress capacity, prevent colds, and protect the heart. Bitter melon contains a substance similar to insulin - polypeptide-P, which has a more obvious effect on lowering blood sugar than bensulfuronbutamide, a drug for treating diabetes. Bitter melon also contains a protein lipid substance that can stimulate and enhance the ability of immune cells in animals to engulf cancer cells. It can play an anti-cancer role in the body together with quinine in alkaloids.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, bitter melon has the effects of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat, nourishing blood and replenishing qi, tonifying the kidney and spleen, nourishing the liver and improving eyesight, and has a certain effect on treating dysentery, sores, fever, thirst, heatstroke, excessive prickly heat, conjunctivitis, short and red urine, etc. Because bitter melon is cold in nature, people with weak spleen and stomach should not eat too much.

Bitter melon is cool in nature, refreshing and not greasy. Eating it in summer can make you feel cool and comfortable, and it has the effect of refreshing the mind and stimulating the appetite. Although bitter melon is bitter, it will never pass on the bitterness to "others". For example, when using bitter melon to cook or stew fish, the fish will never be stained with bitterness, so bitter melon is also known as "gentleman's dish". If bitter melon is brewed into herbal tea and drunk in summer, it can make people feel refreshed and relieve thirst.

Nutritional value of bitter melon

Bitter melon is bitter, non-toxic, cold in nature, and enters the heart, liver, spleen, and lung meridians;

It has the effects of clearing away heat and summer heat, improving eyesight and detoxifying, promoting diuresis and cooling blood, relieving fatigue and clearing the mind, and invigorating qi and strengthening yang;

It is mainly used to treat heatstroke, summer heat and thirst, summer boils, excessive prickly heat, red and swollen eyes, carbuncles and erysipelas, burns and scalds, oliguria and other diseases.

Bitter melon contains protein, carbohydrates, magnesium, calcium, multiple amino acids, momordica charantia, momordica charantia protein, selenium, zinc, vitamin C, potassium, carotene and other ingredients.

Bitter melon contains pectin, which can lower the concentration of cholesterol in the blood and prevent fat accumulation.

This ingredient can also combine with other cholesterol-lowering substances such as vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, manganese, selenium, etc. to form new compounds, thereby enhancing the lipid-lowering effect.

Pharmacological and nutritional studies have shown that bitter melon is rich in the "seventh type" of nutrients - dietary fiber. Dietary fiber can speed up the frequency of intestinal peristalsis and accelerate the excretion of intestinal contents. Dietary fiber can reduce the heat production of food, slow down the absorption of food, and easily produce a feeling of fullness, so it also has an inhibitory effect on obesity.

In recent years, studies have also found that bitter melon can lower blood sugar and blood pressure, prevent and fight cancer, lose weight, and relieve constipation.

Modern medical research believes that bitter melon is cold in nature and bitter in taste. It has the effects of clearing away heat, stimulating appetite, detoxifying and improving eyesight. It is suitable for treating symptoms such as irritability, heatstroke, bad breath, fever and thirst, dysentery, red eye pain, and various cancers.

Benefits of Bitter Melon

1. Promote diet, reduce inflammation and reduce fever:

The bitter glycosides and bitter substances in bitter melon can increase appetite, strengthen the spleen and stimulate the appetite; the alkaloid substance quinine contained in bitter melon has the effects of diuresis, blood circulation, anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing, and clearing the mind and improving eyesight;

2. Anti-cancer and anti-cancer:

The protein components and a large amount of vitamin C in bitter melon can enhance the body's immune function and enable immune cells to kill cancer cells; bitter melon juice contains a certain protein component that can enhance macrophage ability and is clinically effective against lymphosarcoma and leukemia; the trypsin inhibitor extracted from bitter melon seeds can inhibit the protease secreted by cancer cells and prevent the growth of malignant tumors;

3. Lower blood sugar:

The fresh juice of bitter melon contains momordica glycosides and insulin-like substances, which has a good effect in lowering blood sugar and is an ideal food for diabetic patients.

Bitter Melon Celebrity Profile

Name: Bitter Melon (as the name suggests, because of its special bitter taste)

Other name: Bitter melon (recorded in Guangzhou Flora)

Nickname: Gentleman (no matter what dish it is paired with, it will not make it bitter)