Are cucumbers magical? - Yes, I think so

Can I just say that I am in love with cucumbers lately. My fresh cucumber and cucumber juice craze was brought on by the recent abundance of the fruit that has been showing up in my household this entire summer.

My husband is the sprout house manager at a rejuvenation center that was recently harvesting more cucumbers than its cafe could use before going bad. The garden manager was gifting us about 10 cucumbers a week. I could not eat them fast enough to keep up with the gifts. On top of that, the cucumbers we had grown in our little community garden plot also started exploding and begged to be eaten. I didn't want to waste these vibrant, lovingly and veganically grown beauties so I started juicing them.

I ended up having cucumber juice every day for several weeks, either on its own or as the base form my green shake. I knew cucumber juice was good for me, but there were a few surprising effects that I noticed.

• Relief from premenstrual bloating and any bloating in general
• weight loss
• Softer skin
• More efficient digestion and elimination
  

This really piqued my interest. I started doing a little research on cucumbers and cucumber juice and this is what I learned. Cucumber juice also helps

• Lower extremely high blood pressure.
• Promote hair growth, healthy nails and skin (due to the high silica and sulphur content of the fruit).
• It is a diuretic, so helps with edema, and conditions of the kidney, bladder, pancreas and liver.
• It helps to relieve under eye puffiness when applied topically and may heal skin inflammations when applied directly to affected areas.
• It has a cleaning and toning effect on the skin when applied topically.
• It is cooling to the body in hot weather.
• Could be helpful to diabetics.
• Eating one or two cucumbers daily helps to relive constipation, which is especially useful to pregnant women. (My friend who recently birthed shared that one with me.)
  

These are but a few of the benefits of cucumber juice. I just never realized that it was this beneficial. It is easy on the palate and blends well with almost any other type of vegetable or fruit juice. It is ideal as the principal component of a green juice fast (or any juice fast) given it's low sugar content. Their watery constitution creates a lot of juice, even using a cheap juicer and thus making them very cost efficient for what they can produce.

I am continually stunned at how helpful a daily glass of this amazing juice is to my health. Cucumber juice is truly sunshine for the body.

They are also great eaten fresh with a sprinkle of Himalayan Salt. 1 or 2 whole fresh cucumbers enjoyed this way, daily, will really ease constipation and in the long run contribute to radiant beauty and caloric reduction (they are very filling and hydrating but don't pack on the pounds.) They are easy to carry around in a tote bag or back pack with a small paring knife and a salt shaker. So whether you are at your desk at work or at the mall, you are safety-proofed to have a healthy, inexpensive snack that keeps the vending machine at bay.

If you don't have a juicer, you can slice an average sized cucumber into about 5-7 pieces (with skin) and blend it with a cup of water, herbal tea (cool) or aloe juice and then strain through a strainer or nut mylk bag. (Home Depot has nylon mesh bags in their spray paint section for about 2 bucks each that work perfectly - if you don't want to pay $10 for one like most sites demand.) Store what you don't use in a glass jar in the fridge. By the way this makes an excellent toner for your face...just dab on your freshly cleansed face with a cotton ball. It dries fairly quickly. Wipe surface of the skin with a damp cloth and proceed to moisturize as usual.

Do let me know your experiences with this beautiful non-sweet fruit (yes it is a fruit because it has seeds...just like tomatoes and avocados and olives if you can imagine.)

in peace and cucumber radiance

Eden