When it is (really) hot, the body loses a lot of water to sweating. To stay healthy and in shape, it is more than ever essential to make sure you hydrate yourself enough. As such, nothing better than to drink regularly. But did you know that vegetables can also hydrate you?
Water, major vegetable component
It is mainly water which hydrates the body. However, about a quarter of this water comes from food! Of course, you first think about milk – also a liquid – but fruits and vegetables are the “solid” foods richest in water. In fact, we can see it during heat waves: we naturally want to devour cucumber and tomato or take a bite out of a watermelon slice.
The top of fruits and vegetables to favour
Vegetables in particular are very hydrating especially when consumed as crudités/raw. The absolute summer champion remains cucumber with 96% of water. Followed by pink radish (95.9%), lettuce to buy from the greengrocer or packaged to get rid of chore of rinsing them (95.3%), zucchini (94.7% raw and 93.8 % cooked) or tomato (94.1 %). Other vegetables are a little less rich in water but raw carrots for instance have 89.6% which is rather significant. Noting that cooking vegetables reduce their water content. As for fruits, watermelon and cantaloupe (90.9 %) hydrate the most.
Let’s not forget juices!
Water is the body’s only essential need, but pleasure also counts a lot in a balanced diet. Very fashionable, juicers help in making “green juices” as healthy as delicious, by mixing vegetables with a couple of fruits to balance the flavours, if not a few herbs for perfumes: celery, cucumber, green salad, spinach, cabbage, citrus, apples, berries... The imagination has no limits! But beware, fruits and vegetables do not replace water as they bring calories!