Wax gourd is the fruit of Cucurbitaceae plant, also known as white melon, cold melon, east melon, pillow melon, etc. It is native to southern China and India, and is now cultivated all over China. Its fruit is generally huge and its young fruit is long and fluffy. When mature, the fuzz fades, the peel is green, and there is white powder on the surface of the peel. The shape varies with different varieties, including cylindrical, round and flat. It is one of the vegetables listed in summer and autumn.

Wax gourd is a common vegetable suitable for all ages. Li Shizhen Day: Its meat can be cooked into eggplant, but honey can be the fruit; Its benevolence can also be eaten. Cover can be used as both vegetable and fruit. Wax gourd is also a good medicine to quench summer heat and quench thirst. The ancient doctor's "Dietotherapy Materia Medica" called wax gourd: the hot person eats well, and the cold person eats the patient; Cooking and practicing the five internal organs is also for the sake of getting angry. If you want to be decent, thin and light, you can eat it often; If you want to be fat, don't eat. The skin, seeds, meat, pulp, vines and leaves of wax gourd can be used as medicine.

Winter melon seeds, also known as melon rhinoceros, have obvious effects in treating phlegm-heat cough, lung carbuncle and intestinal carbuncle. Just like the "Herbal Description of Junyuan" day: Where the gastrointestinal sac, the most important medicine. Wax gourd peel is good at promoting diuresis to reduce swelling. In addition, it can also treat traumatic injury. The pulp of winter melon is also called melon practice. Washing your face with it can make your skin smooth. If you wring juice, you can stop fidgety, quench thirst, benefit the small intestine, treat five stranguria and suppress erysipelas.

Wax gourd can be eaten by frying, roasting, stewing, brewing, souping, stuffing, and candied fruit. It smells fragrant and is especially popular.

1.Nutritional value

Wax gourd is the only fat-free fruit among all melons and vegetables. Every 500g of wax gourd contains 2g of protein, 9g of carbohydrate, 3g of crude fiber, 95mg of calcium, 2mg of iron, 0.15mg of carotene and 75mg of vitamin C. It contains propanedioic acid, which can inhibit the conversion of sugar substances into fat and prevent the accumulation of fat in human body. It is not only a beauty product, but also a light and healthy body. Nutritionists tell us that wax gourd is a good product for patients with coronary heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease and edema disease because of its low sodium content. Winter melon is cold, so people who are deficient in cold and slippery should not eat it.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that wax gourd is sweet in taste and cold in nature. It enters the lung, small intestine and bladder meridian and has the effects of clearing away heat, promoting diuresis and reducing swelling. Wax gourd has a low sodium content, which has a good auxiliary treatment effect on arteriosclerosis, ascites due to cirrhosis, coronary heart disease, hypertension, nephritis, edema and swelling.

Wax gourd meat and pulp have the functions of diuresis, clearing away heat, resolving phlegm and relieving summer heat.

Wax gourd also has the function of relieving fish poison and alcohol poison. Regular consumption of wax gourd is beneficial to remove excess fat in the body and is also suitable for diabetics. In summer, heatstroke and polydipsia make eating more effective.

Wax gourd also has the effect of losing weight. The content of protein, sugar, vitamins and various minerals in wax gourd is high, and it contains no fat and low sodium, which helps to limit the absorption of fat. The B vitamins contained in it can promote the conversion of starch and sugar into heat energy, reduce the formation of body fat, and are beneficial to weight loss and bodybuilding. Eating it regularly can help to lose weight and fit. Use with caution for people with deficiency of vegetarian body, cold stomach and diarrhea.

2. Diet prescription

① Treating nephritis edema. L000 grams of wax gourd, carp 1 strip (about 250 grams), boiled without salt.

② Pregnancy edema. Take wax gourd1000g, adzuki bean150g, add appropriate amount of water to stew, and take soup instead of tea.

③ Treating fever and edema. Seed the pulp of winter melon, insolate or dry it, and store it. 30 grams each time, decoct for 30 minutes and drink frequently instead of tea.

④ Treating cough due to lung heat. 500 grams of fresh wax gourd, 1 piece of fresh lotus leaf, add appropriate amount of water to stew soup, season with salt, and drink soup to eat wax gourd twice a day.

⑤ Treat summer furuncle and miliaria. 400g of wax gourd and 50g of coix seed are decocted in water instead of tea, once a day or every other day 1 time.

⑥ Treat ascites due to cirrhosis. Wax gourd1000g is smashed and boiled, and the juice is filtered with gauze, 60 ml each time and taken three times a day, which can alleviate the symptoms.