Can Bitter Melon Soaked in Water Help You Lose Weight? A Full Analysis of Its Benefits, Effects and Contraindications

In summer, a green vegetable that clears heat and removes toxins—bitter melon—appears on people's dining tables. Bitter melon goes by different names in different places, such as balsam pear, cool melon, brocade litchi, and warty melon. Many people who are trying to lose weight make it their first choice. So can bitter melon soaked in water really help you lose weight? What are its benefits, effects and contraindications? Let's take a closer look below.

Can drinking water soaked with bitter melon really help you lose weight?

1. In fact, drinking water soaked with bitter melon can achieve the goal of losing weight, because bitter melon not only promotes digestion and helps expel toxins from the body, but also helps expel excess fat from the body, making it arguably the top choice for healthy weight loss.

2. But some people who drink bitter melon soaked water still fail to lose weight, because obesity is caused by many factors, such as disliking exercise while liking high-calorie and high-sugar foods, or genetic causes, or familial hereditary obesity. In cases like these, it is impossible to lose weight by relying only on bitter melon soaked in water. To successfully slim down, you need to be targeted, make a weight-loss plan, and combine it with drinking bitter melon soaked water before weight loss becomes possible.

3. How do you drink bitter melon soaked in water?

(1) Ready-made bitter melon tea is now sold on the market. You can buy it in stores or online yourself, and simply brew it according to the brewing instructions.

(2) Besides buying ready-made bitter melon tea, you can also make it yourself and then brew it. The specific method is as follows:

a. Go to a vegetable market or supermarket to buy fresh, intact bitter melon,

b. Wash the intact bitter melon clean, cut it into thin slices, and place them in the sun to dry,

c. After drying, store them in a ventilated and cool environment. When you need to brew some, take out a few slices (according to how much you can tolerate), brew them with boiling water, and if it tastes too bitter, you can also add a little honey or rock sugar.

What are the benefits, effects and contraindications of bitter melon?

1. The benefits and effects of bitter melon

(1) Bitter melon can clear heat and remove toxins: bitter melon can dispel irritability and heat in the heart and remove toxins from the body. The best way to eat bitter melon is still as a cold dish. Serving it cold can preserve the vitamins contained in bitter melon very well.

(2) Bitter melon can nourish the face and tenderize the skin: regularly eating bitter melon can enhance the vitality of the skin layer and make the skin delicate and healthy. Using fresh bitter melon mashed into juice or decocted as a soup is an excellent auxiliary dietary remedy for red eyes due to liver fire, stomach duct pain, and damp-heat dysentery; applying mashed fresh bitter melon externally can treat carbuncles and boils; in summer, children are prone to prickly heat, and wiping the prickly heat on the body with sliced bitter melon can help it heal sooner; boiling bitter melon in water or preparing it as a dish can dispel heat and relieve summer heat.

(3) Bitter melon can lower blood sugar and blood lipids: making a clam meat and bitter melon soup is the top choice of soup for lowering blood sugar. The crude extract of bitter melon contains substances similar to insulin, with an obvious blood-sugar-lowering effect. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that bitter melon is sweet-bitter in flavor and cold and cool in nature, can clear heat, and is suitable for people with diabetes who tend toward stomach yin deficiency with heat. It also has the health-care benefit and effect of improving human immunity.

(4) Bitter melon can nourish blood and enrich the liver: bitter melon tastes bitter, is cold in nature when raw, and warm in nature when cooked. Eaten raw, it clears summer heat and purges fire, and relieves heat and irritability; eaten cooked, it nourishes blood and enriches the liver, moistens the spleen and tonifies the kidney, and can remove pathogenic heat, relieve fatigue, clear the heart and brighten the eyes, and boost qi and strengthen yang. But when eating bitter melon, you should also be careful not to damage the qi of the spleen and lungs. Although the summer weather is hot, people should not eat too much bitter-flavored food.

(5) Bitter melon can fight cancer: some active ingredients in bitter melon can inhibit the cancerous transformation of normal cells and promote the restoration of certain mutated cells.

2. The contraindications of bitter melon and who should not eat it

(1) People with low blood pressure and low blood sugar: bitter melon has the effects of lowering blood sugar and clearing heat and reducing fire. For people whose usual diet is relatively greasy or whose blood sugar is on the high side, it is a fairly suitable food. However, if you single-mindedly pursue the health benefits of bitter melon and consume it in excess, it may harm the “heart” and have a bad effect on heart health. Bitter melon can lower blood pressure and blood sugar. If your blood pressure or blood sugar is relatively low, you should not eat bitter melon, so many foods, including bitter melon, should not be eaten in large amounts!

(2) People with deficient cold of the spleen and stomach: if you have deficient cold of the spleen and stomach, do not eat too much bitter melon. Because bitter melon is a cold and cool food, people whose stools are relatively loose, whose urine is relatively clear and long, who are relatively afraid of cold, and whose complexion is pale should not regularly eat bitter melon, otherwise they are prone to symptoms such as stomach duct discomfort, abdominal distension and pain, and even vomiting and diarrhea.

(3) People who need calcium supplementation: the oxalic acid in bitter melon will hinder the absorption of calcium in food. Before eating, you should first blanch bitter melon in boiling water to remove the oxalic acid. If you need to supplement a large amount of calcium, you should not eat too much bitter melon.

(2) Pregnant women and children

Preschool children should not eat too much bitter melon. Young children are of a pure yang constitution, with the stomach often in excess and the spleen often deficient; in addition, bitter melon contains a substance called quinine, and quinine can stimulate contractions of the female uterus, easily causing miscarriage in pregnant women, so it is better not to eat bitter melon.

What is the price of bitter melon?

1. Prices differ from place to place, and the price of bitter melon is different too. The table below shows the compiled bitter melon prices in some urban markets in our country:

2. Bitter melon tea on the market is mostly sold in boxes or bags. Prices differ among different manufacturers and brands. Friends who want to buy it can ask in physical stores themselves or check online shopping malls.

How do you make bitter melon taste good?

1. Make bitter melon and dried scallop soup

Ingredients: bitter melon, edible salt, some yuba, a small bowl of water

The method is:

(1) First soak the bitter melon in clean water for 120 minutes, then wash the bitter melon clean and cut it into thin slices, and put them into lightly salted water to soak.

(2) Put an appropriate amount of cold water into a clay pot and bring it to a boil over high heat. After boiling for five minutes, put the soaked bitter melon slices and yuba into the pot together. After the water boils, add salt and cook until done.

2. Make pan-fried bitter melon

Materials needed: bitter melon, edible salt, fresh green chili peppers, light soy sauce, water, garlic

Method:

(1) First cut the bitter melon into sections and blanch them in boiling water to remove the bitterness.

(2) After removing the bitter melon, cut it into 3-5 cm long pieces. Heat oil in a wok, add the bitter melon and pan-fry until both sides are yellow, then add the chopped garlic and stir-fry until fragrant.

(3) After stir-frying until fragrant, add the cut chili peppers. When the mixture is stir-fried and almost done, pour in light soy sauce and a little water, add salt, and then it is ready to serve.

Some professional knowledge comes from the internet