Cucumbers are not just great for your overall health but they help in weight loss too. They have plenty of nutrients, including vitamin K and C. They have high nutritional value and bear properties that make them great for weight loss. They can be a friendly addition to our weight loss recipes. You can have them plain or in combination with other foods.
With its high nutrient content, cucumber helps you remain healthy in your journey towards weight loss. Consuming half of unpeeled cucumber meets the daily requirement of vitamin K by about 33%. Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting. Your requirement for vitamin C is also met by cucumber as it provides 7% of what is needed daily.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which supports the production of collagen – a structural protein in the skin, essential for keeping the hair, skin and bones strong. Cucumber also has plant-based essential nutrients that provide antioxidant benefits and prevent against several health conditions, including diabetes. Besides, cucumber seeds are beneficial in constipation. So, these are the benefits of cucumber that indirectly aid you in your journey weight loss.
You can use it in salads. When you consume low-calorie cucumber salad, it makes you feel full. This gives you a signal not to overeat your main course. Make a salad out of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes and lemon juice for a low-calorie meal or you can slice the cucumbers and add red grapefruit to it to have a sweet-sour option. Also, you can mix chunks of cucumber with spinach and red peppers.
Cucumber Beverages Which Are Low in Calories
When you are dieting for weight loss, you need to be extra careful with your intake of calories from liquid sources. This is because liquids are light and do not make you feel full enough as solid foods. And, these calories can really cause much damage.
Around 50% Americans take sugary drinks daily. And, 1/4th of the people take in about 200 calories from sugar-based drinks. Cucumber drink is a great option as it is not boring like plain water yet extremely less in calories when compared with sugary drinks. So, it is the mid-way out. You will be able to get that amazing flavor and at the same time not get enough calories.
You can steep water with cucumber and add lemon juice to it. Add mint leaves to it to give an herbal tinge to the drink. You can add frozen cucumber to your smoothies too. Cucumber goes well with lime juice, frozen pineapple and unsweetened coconut water.
Low-Calorie Cucumber Noodles
You can use a spiral cutter for making noodles of cucumber instead of having pasta as this will help you cut out on calories. Although cucumber is nowhere close to real pasta, its crisp texture and flavor can go well in pasta-based dishes. Add raw tomato sauce to cucumber noodles and season it with olive oil and garlic.
Replacing pasta with cucumbers will definitely save you from consuming a lot of calories even if you make noodles from an entire cucumber and eat a few cups. Consuming a medium cucumber instead of eating a cup of rice noodles will save 166 calories.
Interestingly, if you make this change three times a week for a year, you will lose 7 pounds of weight without taking into account weight loss from other dietary changes. Consuming cucumber noodles instead of spaghetti saves you 197 calories or 9 pounds of fat if you had it for three times weekly in a year.
