Fast Break: Cucumbers

Summer is a time for fresh fruits, vegetables, and crisp drinks. Gardens are in full swing and you’re surrounded by fresh tomatoes, zucchini, squash, herbs, broccoli, and potatoes. The vegetable that tops them all is cucumbers: crunchy, refreshing, and good in almost every salad imaginable.
 
There’s one word that sums up the benefits of cucumbers: relief. Cucumbers are 96% water, and all that water can be put to good use. Feel dehydrated? Eat a cucumber. Sunburnt? Put cucumber on your skin. The most cliché use of cucumbers is putting slices of cucumbers on your eyes while you’re at the spa, but there’s a grain of truth to that. The vegetable is full of nutrients your skin loves: magnesium, potassium, and silicon.
 
Besides spa treatments cucumbers can help heal numerous ailments. They can help heal diseased gums, giving your mouth a cleaner healthier feel. Full of fiber they help with digestion, as well as keep uric acid low which promotes kidney health. Cucumbers are also full of a compound called sterols, which help reduce cholesterol.
 
Still not sold on cucumbers? How about its ability to stabilize blood pressure and assist with weight loss? It seems cucumber is the super vegetable no one appreciates.
 
At Sunny Street Café we’ve made a special smoothie dedicated to the power of the cucumber: Cucumber Chill Smoothie. Cucumbers, apple, lemon, pineapple, honey, low fat milk and yogurt make a refreshing, crisp, and satiating smoothie on the hottest days of summer. Find your nearest location and come and try one today!

–Anna Hetzel, Content Manager