How are you eating vegetables this summer? Salads? Roasted or grilled? How about cold soups? If you’ve never indulged in a cold summer soup, now’s a good time. Our Keto Zone Cold Cucumber Soup is creamy, delicious, and nourishing.
Here’s how to make it and why you should add more cucumber to your diet.
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition Info (per cup): 55 calories, 8 grams fat 4 grams net carbs (5 grams carbs and 1 gram of fiber), 8 grams protein.
If you’d like to add more fat when using yogurt, add a drizzle of 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil before serving for great health benefits and 14 grams fat.
Cucumbers have many nutrition and health benefits. They boost beneficial fiber, antioxidants, anti-cancer compounds, and more.
Here are the specific benefits:
Cucumbers contain powerful antioxidant compounds. In fact, these antioxidants help scavenge free radicals, reduce oxidative stress that harms cells and tissues, and reduce the formation of plaques in artery walls. Cucumber antioxidants include vitamin C, beta-carotene, and manganese.
Ever heard of lignans?
Lignans are polyphenol fibers contained in cucumbers as well as other fruits and vegetables. Lignans have been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease as well as several cancer types, including breast, uterine, ovarian, and prostate cancers (1).
Cucumbers’ anti-cancer compounds don’t stop with lignans. They also contain cucurbitacins.
Cucurbitacins are compounds and triterpene phytonutrients that may inhibit cancer growth and risk. How?
Experts believe they may disrupt cancer cell signaling pathways (2).
In an age when we all want less inflammation, better immune function, and better health at the cellular level, cucumbers also offer anti-inflammatory compounds.
In lab studies, cucumber extracts have shown promise in reducing endothelial inflammation. The endothelial cells are located in the walls of blood vessels.
Cucumber anti-inflammatories may also inhibit the activity of pro-inflammatory enzymes. Reducing any endothelial inflammation is important to heart health and anti-cancer efforts (3).
Sometimes, our cells and tissues swell in the summer heat.
Fresh cucumbers have gentle diuretic effects. They help reduce bloating and fullness that can occur during hot summer months, with poor circulation, or after eating high sodium foods. Since cucumbers have a high water content, they encourage the body to produce more urine to remove extra toxins.
Need more ideas for cucumbers? Try these favorites:
Cucumbers may seem like a plain jane, but they are actually a delicious, fresh, potently nutritious summer food. Plant them, harvest them, buy them, or just get your hand on them any way you can. Keep eating fresh, enjoy our cold cucumber soup, and stay in the Keto Zone!