What is the relationship between melons being too sweet and sodium cyclamate?

Sannong Kitchen

Two-person talk show

China Countryside Radio "Sannong China" weekend special program

Using the radishes and cabbages, pots and pans, rice, noodles, vinegar and oil in the kitchen as a starting point, we chat about the big agricultural news of the week. Accessible, with clashes of opinion and witty humor, you can hear substantive agricultural information and viewpoints in a relaxed atmosphere.

Zhu Yi: Associate Professor, China Agricultural UniversityZhu Xu: Senior commentator

Today's topic:

Between cloyingly sweet melons and sodium cyclamate

what is the relationship?

Click the audio! Listen to "Zhu Zhu Talks About Melons"!

Clear the melon's name!

The melon is a very famous fruit among our summer heat-relieving fruits, and some people also call it the muskmelon. But many people say, this melon is so sweet, something must have been added, it absolutely must have been injected with sodium cyclamate!

But the melon is innocent. Because the melon's skin is fairly thick, when sodium cyclamate is sprayed on it, it is very hard for it to be absorbed, so spraying cannot make the melon sweeter. In addition, if the injection method were used, every melon farmer has so much land, and there are so many melons on the ground, it is completely impossible to get through them all, and even if sodium cyclamate were injected in, the melon could not last two days before spoiling, it simply would not keep.

So the melon is genuinely sweet on its own, and the claim that sodium cyclamate was injected is absolutely just a rumor.

Sodium cyclamate, to explain it, is something like saccharin. Adding it to beverages is legal, but adding it to melons and watermelons is illegal.

Melons are good, the whole melon is a treasure

Compared with the watermelon, a summer heat-relieving fruit we often eat, the melon, apart from having lower water and protein content than watermelon, is not inferior to watermelon in any other nutrient. But its aromatic substances, minerals, sugar and vitamin C are even higher than watermelon's. So it is especially sweet and very delicious.

And the melon has another advantage: eating it will not give you an upset stomach. This is mainly because the melon's flesh is very dense, so after a few pieces you have had enough, whereas with watermelon you will eat a lot in one go, so it is very easy to get chilled and have an upset stomach.

Here we also have to remind all you foodies that although sweet melons and fruits are very tasty, you must keep the amount under control, because eating too many sweet things makes it very easy to get internal heat~

Half a year of hard work, ruined overnight by a rumor

Whenever the melon and fruit harvest season arrives, many rumors appear, either this one has bugs or that one was sprayed with pesticides, deeply hurting the hearts of the farmers.

Sometimes it is because peers compete with each other, always hoping their own family's produce sells well and others' sells less, so sometimes there are acts of verbal slander.

But besides this, an even bigger reason is that some people, in order to get high click counts, spread such rumors wildly, and everyone else forwards them because they do not know whether they are true.

But the delicious fruit the farmers worked so hard to grow just cannot be sold, and indeed they are being wronged.

So friends, try not to spread such rumors, and if our foodie friends have any questions, you can come ask our Sannong Kitchen, and absolutely do not casually spread unverified information~

What matters most is that everyone eats happily!

Editors: Yi Liang, Qin Ziqing, Wang Feng

Responsible editor: Yang Lu