Cucumbers
Cucumbers help us hydrate our bodies and they have so many other benefits including the fact that they taste great (to me) and they can improve our lung health, just by being themselves. How cool is that!
I love cucumbers, I always have. I’ll pull one straight out of the fridge, bite the top off it and eat away. I can even just pull one out of the grocery bag and munch on it whilst I’m driving home. Love, love, love them!
They always taste fresh, crunchy and juicy to me. Not juicy like an orange but juicy in that it’s full of liquid (mainly water) and it tastes refreshing.
I love cucumbers on their own, in salads and I’ve even eaten cucumber sandwiches, which are fine, but my favourite way to eat them it whole.
About Cucumbers
Cucumbers are technically fruits, because they have seeds on the inside. Also, did you know, they come from the watermelon and pumpkin family (yes, pumpkins are considered a fruit too!) and are about 95% water, hence the refreshing taste!
They contain:
- Carbs – 6 grams
- Fats – 0 grams
- Proteins – 1 gram
- Fibre – 1 gram
The fun part of a cucumber is what it contains on a vitamin and mineral level:
- Fibre – 1 gram
- Whilst not a vitamin or mineral, the amount of fibre we eat (or don’t eat) can indicate the quality of our stool, therefore, with more fibre, we can tend to have a stiffer stool – if that’s what you’re aiming for.
- I generally find my stool is softer, and I wonder if this is because of the mucus moving through my body i.e. I cough it up and I swallow it, therefore it has to go somewhere. Just food for thought, no hard facts or proof.
- Studies have also demonstrated that increasing fibre in our diet can positively impact our lung health through increased lung function:
- Vitamin C – 6% of the recommended daily value
- Vitamin C is what we turn to when we’ve got the flu, because it’s so good in helping our bodies to heal. Vitamin C supports our bodies against free radical (that can lead to disease) and helps in the growth and rejuvenation of our bodies. Including supporting the health of our blood vessels, repairing and rebuilding cartilage, muscles and collagen in our bones.
- I believe our lungs are healing and rejuvenating themselves all the time. They detoxify the air we breathe and they’re smart, so including Vitamin C, through Orange Juice, has been really supportive for me – you’ll often find me drinking straight from the bottle at the fridge door!
- I like my orange juice 100% oranges and I choose pulp, I love it! Also, I choose Australia made, making sure the benefits I receive from these oranges aren’t diluted by travel and other ingredients. Of course you can make your own, it’s not something I’ve ever gotten into.
- Source: Mayo Clinic
- Vitamin K – 40% of the recommended daily value
- Vitamin K is a group of compounds, mostly Vitamin K1 and Vitamin K2, how cool is that. Vitamin K1 usually comes from leafy greens and other vegetables, so I’m including cucumbers in that category. Vitamin K2 generally comes from meat, cheese and eggs, think animal products.
- Vitamin K1 helps with blood clotting. An issue that I’ve had on my lung journey, from time to time, is I get an infection in my lungs or an irritation in my lungs (which can come from toxic cleaning products or smoke) causing my lungs to bleed. I know my body’s doing the best it can to try to heal the area, but where there’s an infection I use antibiotics to fight it and Vitamin K then comes in to clot the bleeding. When there’s an irritation, I know that if the bleeding clears in a day or so, then my body has done the work.
- Source:
- Magnesium – 5% of the recommended daily value
- The benefits of magnesium in our life are multifaceted and there are many different compounds to magnesium so you need to do your research to discover what magnesium your body needs.
- Magnesium’s important for enzyme function (source: University Hospitals). Enzyme function is the chemical reaction within cells (source: National Library of Medicine). These chemical reactions are one of the many amazing things our bodies do naturally for us without us even knowing.
- Enzymes support cellular respiration. What this means is we breathe in oxygen, that oxygen goes to our cells and our cells use it to break down glucose and release energy. One of the big challenges with bronchiectasis, in particular, is fatigue. We can look healthy but we’re exhausted, so having good quality enzyme function can be very important. (source: study.com. This source was consistent with other information I read and I chose to use it as it was the most concise for the purpose of this post.)
- Other benefits include heart, bone and metabolic health (metabolic health is mostly the regulation of blood glucose levels in the body), sleep and stress management.
- Resistance training can be important as we age and it’s known to support bone health. That said, when we’re exhausted because our lungs aren’t functioning optimally, it can be tough to get out of bed and get that movement in.
- Sleep and stress can be interlinked too, as one can affect the other. For me, I’ve always been a good sleeper but now I dream more than ever, so sometimes I feel like the quality of my sleep isn’t great. Then adding in the layer of bronchiectasis and night sweats, sleep isn’t comfortable.
- Stress deserves its own bullet point because it’s a sneaky one. We can think we’re managing our stress levels but really, I believe, stress is managing us.
- Source: University Hospitals
- Making sure we get the right amount of magnesium for our bodies, can really support our overall health – and our stress.
- Potassium – 7% of the recommended daily value
- Found in an abundance of foods, potassium is an electrolyte that helps your muscles contract and acts as a counterbalance to sodium – Cleveland Clinic
- How cool is that! Potassium is an electrolyte, naturally found in nature – in cucumbers – and supports our muscles. Our lungs are surrounded by muscles that help us to breathe. I believe, the more we support our muscles (and organs aka our lungs) to do their thing, they’ll allow us to do our things.
- Electrolytes help our bodies to balance the fluids in our cells, contract muscles and transmit nerve signals to the brain. Whenever I physically work out too hard or I’ve been out in the garden weeding, planting or moving rocks (whatever the task is that day) then I always look for an electrolyte to support me. I typically take it in the form of a drink like Hydralyte, I also have coconut water, a great source of electrolytes, in my juice. Source: Cleveland Clinic
- Think of potassium and sodium as partners, Yin & Yang so to speak, it’s important to find a balance of the two and if we have too much sodium in our bodies, potassium can help balance that out, and vice versa.
- Too much sodium in our lungs can cause inflammation and scaring (source: National Library of Medicine). Too little sodium in our bodies can cause Hyponatremia (source: Mayo Clinic).
- Too much or too little potassium can lead to difficulty breathing, chest pain and can be quite severe (Too much potassium source: Cleveland Clinic. Too little potassium source: National Library of Medicine).
- It’s important to find our balance and as always, speak to your doctor if you have any concerns.
Source:
Properties of Cucumbers
Cucumbers contain antioxidant properties, supporting our cells to be healthy. The particular antioxidants are:
- Flavonoids – healthline.com says flavonoids are compounds found in many plant products and they help our bodies detox.
- Lignans – National Library of Medicine says lignans are plant compounds and they can be helpful in the prevention of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.
- Triterpenes – National Library of Medicine says they’re natural compounds and can have anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.
Let’s talk about water content
Something I’ve learnt during my lung journey, in particular, is how important water is because it helps break down mucus. My mucus used to be clumpy or chunky, but when I started drinking more water my mucus thinned out. This made it easier to expel and ‘lightened the load’, so to speak, for my body. Coughing can be exhausting and it’s not nice when a piece of mucus flies out of my mouth like it has it’s own mission.
Given that cucumbers are, on average, 95% water, this water content can help break down mucus. Our bodies are also, on average, 80% water, so it’s a win-win when we’re eating cucumbers because our bodies will be happier and so will our lungs.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
In Chinese Medicine, cucumbers are considered Yin and a cold food. Therefore, I find I have to be mindful of eating cold cucumbers (straight from the fridge is exactly how I like them) because it can dampen my digestive fire and possibly ‘kick’ mucus up to my lungs, which I then cough up.
Whilst I love them, I’m aware that there’s a side effect that can happen and it doesn’t always happen but it’s a balancing act. I want to eat them because I love them and they’re good for me, but they can create more mucus which I’m doing my best to get rid of.
Joy is a funny thing because whilst eating cucumbers brings me joy, sometimes I have to find the joy in not eating them.
Source: Chinese Nutrition
Ayurveda
In Ayurveda cucumbers are cooling, for example, we can cut up a cucumber and put the pieces over our eyes to reduce puffiness (this isn’t from Ayurveda specifically but you see what I mean). Ayurveda also talks about the detoxification benefits, how cucumbers can help us reduce fluid retention, cleanse our liver and help us decrease stress.
From this perspective it’s a very calming vegetable and you can taste the calmness from the cucumber. It’s not super strong in flavour, it’s not shouting ‘come and eat me’, it’s inviting us into an experience that we ultimately get to define.
Source: Joyful Belly
Chakras
Cucumbers generally have a green skin connecting us to our Heart Chakra, which means they open us up to love. The Heart Chakra also connects our lower chakras – root, sacral & solar plexus or earth chakras – to our upper chakras – throat, third eye and crown or spiritual chakras. Think of our heart chakra like a bridge.
Their white flesh, or maybe you have a white skinned cucumber (yes they do exist and they’re yummy too!) connects us to our Crown Chakra – opening us up to universal consciousness.
Cucumbers help us heal on multiple levels.
In summary
People either love cucumbers or hate them, and some don’t even notice them but there’s no denying that they can definitely support our lung health, and of course our overall health.
If you love cucumbers, find a way to bring them into your life and create more joy with them. If they’re not your thing, don’t worry, there’s plenty of other plants out there that can, in their own way, bring the value that cucumbers bring because, as I know, there’s always more than one way to do anything and Mother Nature has created an abundance of ways for us to nourish ourselves.
Disclaimer: Please remember to consult with your medical professionals before making changes in your life that can impact your health and wellness.
