Watermelon Nutrition: Benefits, Calories, Risks
While it’s unquestionably an exemplary natural product during warm climate months, you can discover watermelon all year at your supermarket — and surprisingly packaged as watermelon juice. What’s more, thank heavens, since that spill down-your-jaw goodness accompanies some huge medical advantages.
Watermelon Nutrition Facts
One cup of watermelon is equivalent to one serving. One cup of watermelon contains:
Calories: 46
Absolute fat: 0.2 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 1.5 mg
Absolute carbs: 11.6 g
Dietary fiber: 0.6 g
Sugar: 9.5 g
Added sugar: 0 g
Protein: 1 g
Watermelon Macros
Absolute fat: One cup of watermelon has 0.2 grams of complete fat, which incorporates 0 grams of soaked fat and 0 grams of trans fat.
Starches: One cup of watermelon has 11.6 grams of carbs, which incorporates 0.6 grams of fiber and 9.5 grams of normal sugars.
Protein: One cup of watermelon has 1 gram of protein.
Nutrients, Minerals and Other Micronutrients in Watermelon
Nutrient C: 14% of your Daily Value (DV)
One cup of watermelon contains different nutrients, including nutrient A (5% DV), potassium (4% DV), magnesium (4% DV), calcium (1% DV), iron (2% DV), copper (7% DV), manganese (3% DV) and zinc (1% DV).
At the point when you’re eating watermelon in the solace of your own kitchen, it’s not difficult to cut and apportion watermelon to a one-cup serving. All things considered, you may likewise appreciate eating watermelon cuts, small watermelons or individual estimated watermelons, and you probably won’t have the option to gauge them by a one-cup serving.
Here’s a bit more wholesome data about these sorts of watermelon.
One watermelon wedge or cut — which is around 1/sixteenth of a standard estimated watermelon, or 286 grams — contains 86 calories, 0.4 g fat, 22 g carbs, 1.7 g sugar.
Is the Sugar in Watermelon Bad for You?
You may see that watermelon is higher in sugar — however that sugar is normally happening. “As a dietitian, I urge my customers to not fear the sugar in organic product,” Mia Syn, RDN, tells LIVESTRONG.com. “While we should restrict added sugar, [watermelon] is a characteristic source that likewise gives a large number of nutrients, minerals and cell reinforcements,” she says.
Medical advantages of Watermelon
Watermelon isn’t calorie-thick yet is high in supplements, considering it an ideal bite or delectable expansion to plans.
1. Watermelon Is Packed With Antioxidants
Everything’s in the energetic, red-pink shade: Watermelon is loaded with plant synthetic compounds like lycopene, nutrient C and beta-carotene, takes note of a March 2019 audit in the International Journal of Food Properties. Each offers interesting wellbeing properties, yet in general, they go about as strong cell reinforcements.
Dietary cancer prevention agents help your body sop up harming free revolutionaries and neutralize the aggravation that is at the base of persistent wellbeing concerns like coronary illness and diabetes. Truth be told, watermelon is more cancer prevention agent rich than tomatoes, strawberries and guava, the March 2019 investigation found.
Watermelon and the Glycemic Index
At 72, watermelon has a high glycemic file (GI), per the Defeat Diabetes Foundation.
Yet, as we probably are aware, a food’s glycemic file doesn’t recount the entire story. Since watermelon is essentially water, the organic product has an exceptionally low glycemic load, which implies it’s probably not going to spike an individual’s insulin levels.
Consequently, the Defeat Diabetes Foundation says devouring watermelon in its entire natural product structure is a protected to eat with some restraint for individuals with diabetes and those in danger of creating diabetes.
As such, somebody with diabetes can appreciate watermelon. Watermelon juice, be that as it may, has a high glycemic load and ought to be kept away from.
2. It Keeps You Hydrated
You’re on the right track to desire it on a hot day: “What I love about watermelon is that it is extraordinarily hydrating. It’s comprised of around 91% water,” says Syn. Furthermore, indeed, that tallies toward your water portion for the afternoon. Around 20% of your day by day water admission can emerge out of food, as indicated by the Institute of Medicine.
Why’s that significant? Keeping your body hydrated guarantees supplements are conveyed to your cells and microorganisms are flushed from your bladder, just as controls your processing, as per Harvard Health Publishing.
A few group say watermelon is useful for gout or that watermelon is useful for joint pain. While more exploration is expected to comprehend watermelon’s job in calming indications of these conditions, the way that watermelon is so hydrating could be promising.
Drinking a great deal of water is suggested for patients with gout, per the Mayo Clinic, so eating watermelon can be essential for remaining hydrated.
3. Watermelon May Boost Exercise Performance
Simply look at watermelon as a characteristic games drink. As well as containing electrolytes potassium and magnesium, which are vital for legitimate hydration and muscle work, watermelon additionally offers L-citrulline.
Burning-through this amino corrosive consistently has been displayed to expand the creation of nitric oxide, which can help blood stream and subsequently ship more blood to muscles during perseverance exercises, as indicated by a January 2017 investigation in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care.
Prior to a since a long time ago run, take a stab at nibbling on watermelon pieces or taste on watermelon juice to hydrate pre-exercise. (Note that watermelon doesn’t contain a lot of sodium, which is commonly present in sports drinks, so you’ll need to get sodium somewhere else.)
4. It’s Linked to Good Heart Health
The delicious organic product is additionally a heart-keen tidbit. In a September 2017 meta-investigation of 14 examinations, lycopene admission was related with a 17 percent lower hazard of coronary illness and stroke, per research distributed in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
Another investigation supported up those discoveries: In a September 2017 meta-examination of 28 investigations, individuals who had the most elevated blood levels of lycopene were seen to have a 26 percent lower hazard of stroke, 14% lower hazard of coronary illness and, in general, a 37 percent lower hazard of death from these infections, per research in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.
Lycopene is connected to forestalling blood clumps, making courses more adaptable so that blood can stream unreservedly, and further developing vein work, among other heart-glad advantages, as indicated by a May 2017 investigation in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.
Also, watermelon has been connected to bringing pulse thanks down to the L-citrulline, the January 2017 examination in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care found.
5. Watermelon Is Tied to a Lower Risk of Cancer
As a cancer prevention agent, lycopene in watermelon might assist your body with battling an assortment of sicknesses. Notwithstanding, research shows it’s especially proficient at guarding against one specifically: prostate disease, which is the most well-known malignant growth in American men second to skin disease, per the American Cancer Society.
In a meta-investigation of 42 examinations, which included almost 700,000 men, high dietary admission and blood levels of lycopene were related with a lower hazard of prostate malignancy, per December 2017 exploration in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.
6. Watermelon May Help Support Weight Loss
Since 90% of a watermelon’s weight is water, it’s an extraordinary pick for the individuals who are attempting to expel midsection fat. You can feel fulfilled by watermelon, which will top you off with not many calories.
As well as aiding the body stay hydrated, nibbling on watermelon will help you feel full so you will not have desires between meals.A 2014 examination highlighted in the American Journal of Hypertension tracked down that this organic product may reduce heart stress and aortic pulse in grown-ups with heftiness.
Lycopene, perhaps the most bountiful cell reinforcements in watermelon, may assist with bringing down the danger for diabetes and coronary illness, per June 2014 exploration in EXCLI Journal.
Eating watermelon can expand the measure of an amino corrosive called arginine in the blood, which exploration recommends may assist with consuming fat rapidly.
An August 2020 meta-examination in the Journal of Functional Foods saw human investigations in which L-arginine was given as a dietary enhancement, finding that gatherings given the enhancement saw decreased BMI, midriff outline and fat mass.
More examination is expected to all the more likely comprehend the impacts arginine has on weight.