Zucchini: health benefits and harms

The history of zucchini

Zucchini began to grow about 5 thousand years ago. Its homeland is considered to be northern Mexico, where the locals ate mostly zucchini seeds.

This vegetable reached Europe quite quickly, back in the 16th century. But for another two centuries, zucchini was not eaten, but was grown as an ornamental plant. Zucchini was valued for large beautiful flowers that looked very exotic. Gradually, the vegetable began to be used as food, and they ate both fruits and flowers. Until now, in Greece, France and Mexico, zucchini flowers are stuffed, deep-fried and eaten raw.

Zucchini is actually a subspecies of pumpkin. Fruits can be of different colors and sizes depending on the variety, there are also unusual decorative forms. And special giant varieties can reach 60 kilograms. And in 2014, the longest zucchini was grown in Canada – 2,5 meters.

Farmers demonstrate similar achievements and interesting varieties at pumpkin festivals and fairs. Since the 20th century, the most famous vegetable festival in Britain has been held annually until now.

The composition and calorie content of zucchini

The benefits of zucchini

Despite the fact that the zucchini contains a large percentage of water, it contains a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals. The vegetable is rich in vitamins B1, B2 and especially C. 100 grams of zucchini contains about 17% of the daily requirement for vitamin C. Therefore, zucchini helps fight infections and maintain health.

There is a lot of potassium in zucchini, which has urine and choleretic properties. This vegetable is especially useful for people with urinary retention and bile retention, with edema due to heart failure. This is a good prevention of exacerbations.

Zucchini is a source of carotenoids: lutein and zeaxanthin. Most of them are in the skin of the fruit. They are necessary for the work of the visual analyzer and slow down the age-related decline in vision.

Given the very low calorie content and excellent taste, zucchini is an indispensable component of diets for weight loss. This vegetable has a lot of easily digestible carbohydrates. There are quite a few sugars in young fruits, although there is also little carotene. But mature yellow zucchini can be compared with carrots in terms of carotene content.

Zucchini seeds are no less useful: they contain a lot of Omega-3, which is an essential fatty acid and enters the body only with food. Omega-3 affects the health of the whole body, especially the quality of the skin and hair.

Harm zucchini

Zucchini is a product with a minimum number of contraindications, primarily individual intolerance. But, since the vegetable is not allergenic, this rarely happens.

— Carefully you need to eat zucchini for people with exacerbation of gastrointestinal diseases – you can only heat it and remove the rough peel. Also, due to the high concentration of potassium, zucchini can be harmful to patients with chronic renal failure with impaired potassium excretion. Raw zucchini should not be eaten by people with increased secretion of gastric juice, — advises nutritionist Yulia Pigareva.

The use of zucchini in medicine

Most of all, zucchini is known precisely in dietetics. After all, it has a lot of nutrients, and at the same time there are very few coarse fibers that irritate the intestines and stomach. Therefore, processed zucchini is perfect for feeding people with digestive problems, the elderly. Zucchini often serves as the first food for children.

Zucchini can speed up digestion. Fiber in the peel, especially in large zucchini, is sufficient. It swells, nourishes the microorganisms in the intestine, enhances peristalsis.

For people with urinary retention and edema, zucchini is useful because it has a diuretic effect. Potassium in its composition helps to remove excess fluid.

In folk medicine, zucchini seeds are also used. It is believed that the antiparasitic effect will be the same as from pumpkin seeds, since these vegetables are related.

The use of zucchini in cooking

Raw zucchini is not eaten so often, although it is quite possible to do this – the vegetable has a sweetish taste. Although this loads the intestines much more.

Zucchini is often stewed, fried in batter, baked and canned. You can make mashed soups, caviar from zucchini. The product is easy to cook, because it quickly reaches a state of softness.

Ratatouille

A simplified version of the traditional dish, which is quite simple to prepare, but takes a lot of time because the vegetables are baked in the oven for a long time. But the result will not disappoint.

If there is no time at all, then you can simplify even more. Replace the sauce with tomato paste diluted in a small amount of water, and sprinkle with seasonings and garlic on top.

Piperade Sauce:

First you need to prepare the sauce. Remove seeds from peppers, cut into small cubes. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water, remove the skin and finely chop. Peel the onion, chop finely.

Heat oil in a frying pan, throw coarsely chopped garlic cloves to fry. Once they change color, remove the garlic and discard. Throw the onion into the resulting garlic oil, fry until golden brown. Then peppers and tomatoes. Pepper, salt, add spices, mix and cover. Simmer over medium heat until soft.

In the meantime, let’s prepare the vegetables. You need to wash and cut into thin circles zucchini, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes. It is good if the vegetables are of the same diameter so that the circles are also approximately the same.

In a form (round or any other), put the piperade sauce, and mugs of vegetables on it, placing them vertically and tightly to each other. You need to rotate all types of vegetables. Sprinkle top with salt and pepper, then drizzle with olive oil.

Bake under foil in the oven at 180 degrees for about an hour. Then you need to remove the foil and continue to bake the vegetables for another 15 minutes.

Zucchini pancakes on kefir

Healthy snacks and a full meal. And to make the dish even more dietary, flour can be replaced by half with whole grain, oatmeal or rice.

Wash the zucchini, grate and squeeze the juice. Mix zucchini with eggs, kefir and salt. Add chopped parsley and stir.

Gradually add flour, mixing thoroughly each time. It may need a little less or more. At the end, pour in a spoonful of oil and soda, mix.

The dough should rest for at least 15 minutes, after which you can bake in a hot pan with a little oil on both sides. Serve with sour cream, squash caviar or cheese.

How to choose and store zucchini

On sale there are zucchini of all colors and sizes. The most common are light, slightly greenish. There is also a green-fruited variety of zucchini – zucchini. They are usually smaller, have small seeds and delicate skin. The taste is also somewhat different. Zucchinis are less common in our markets, because they are much more whimsical to grow.

When choosing, pay attention to the density of the zucchini – it should be elastic, smooth, without damage. Too large fruits are distinguished by large bones that will have to be removed. The stalk of the zucchini should be dry, without rot.

Good fruits are easily stored at room temperature, as long as there is no battery nearby, direct sunlight and dampness. If there are apples nearby, this can speed up the spoilage of the zucchini. For long-term storage, varieties with a dark rough skin are better suited.

You can also store zucchini in the refrigerator, but there it can start due to high dampness. To prevent this from happening, you need to wrap each vegetable in paper.