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FOOD OF THE WEEK
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Healthy Nutrient Rich Melon!
 
We are eating a lot of these lately as they are coming in season in the lower desert of our state. Also found on many a table through the summer months  a refreshing vine grown fruit that is 89% water containing lots of minerals and vitamins! There are numerous types of melon but I'm only going to cover one today, my favorite!
 
* Fat-free
 
Growing up we ate a lot of melons of all kinds but cantaloupe is one of my most favorite. Living in the Phoenix area with all types of melons grown all around us it was inevitable and I am now grateful to have had that healthy experience.
 
June and July is the typical season, here in lower Arizona desert, for full-swing cantaloupe harvest.
 
The best melons are slightly golden (not green), heavy, and fragrant at the tender, indented end. Avoid discolored ones, but don't worry about smooth a discolored patch; that's where the growing melon rested on the ground.
 
Contains the Minerals;

Calcium - is essential for healthy bones and teeth, normal blood clotting, and nervous system functioning. Necessary to regain the proper pH balance
Iron - Iron is part of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of the blood. Iron is also part of myoglobin, which helps muscle cells store oxygen. Necessary for healthy blood chemistry and is essential for recovery from illness.
Magnesium - needed for bone, protein, and fatty acid formation, making of new cells, activating B vitamins, relaxing muscles, clotting blood, and forming adenosine triphosphate (ATP; the energy the body runs on). The secretion and action of insulin also require magnesium. Is a natural tranquilizer. Known as an "anti-stress mineral," it aids in relaxing nerves, relieving tension, assisting digestion, activating enzymes important for protein and carbohydrate metabolism, and modulating the electrical impulses across all cell membranes. Is important in the production and transfer of energy, muscle contraction and relaxation, and nerve conduction. It also aids regularity, is necessary to keep vertebrae in their proper position, induces restful sleep, purifies and purges body tissues (combats acids, toxins, gases, impurities, and neutralizes poisons), and lowers fever. Magnesium is stored in the bowel, nerves and ligaments
Phosphorus - contributes to bone health, is often regarded as a twin nutrient to calcium. Is involved, either directly or indirectly, in nearly every biological or cellular function in the body.
Potassium - the mineral of life! Needed for growth, building muscles, transmission of nerve impulses, heart activity etc. Potassium, together with sodium - work together for the nervous system to transmit messages as well as regulating the contraction of muscles. Potassium also regulates water balance, assists recuperative powers, aids rheumatic or arthritic conditions - detoxing acids to leave the joints and ease stiffness - is vital for the elimination of wastes, is a natural pain desensitizer, helps control convulsions, headaches, and migraines, promotes faster healing of cuts, bruises and other injuries, and generally contributes to a sense of well being. Potassium is stored in the muscles...
Sodium - A mineral that regulates fluid balance by controlling the flow of liquids in and out of each cell, sparks nerve impulses, helps the body to process and digest proteins and carbohydrates.
Zinc - Zinc is an essential mineral that is found in almost every cell. It stimulates the activity of approximately 100 enzymes, which are substances that promote biochemical reactions in your body. Zinc supports a healthy immune system, needed for wound healing, helps maintain your sense of taste and smell, and is needed for DNA synthesis. Zinc also supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence.
Copper - Copper is needed to absorb and utilize iron. Copper is needed to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - promotes healthy hair follicles to prevent balding, the energy the body runs on. Synthesis of some hormones requires copper, as does collagen (the "glue" that holds muscle tissue together) and tyrosinase (the enzyme that puts pigment into the skin) copper is needed for healthy hair.
Manganese - is needed for healthy skin, bone, and cartilage formation, as well as glucose tolerance. It also helps activate superoxide dismutase (SOD)an important antioxidant enzyme. 
Selenium -  activates an antioxidant enzyme called glutathione peroxidase, which may help protect the body from cancer. Selenium has also induced ?apoptosis? (programmed cell death) in cancer cells.
 
Contain the Vitamins;

C (carotenoids) - Is a water-soluble vitamin that functions as a powerful antioxidant. One of vitamin C?s important functions is to protect LDL cholesterol from oxidative damage. Keeps the immune system strong and help build healthy gums.
Thiamin - is necessary for normal growth, normal carbohydrate metabolism and   normal functioning of the heart, nerves and muscles.  Thiamin deficiency results in retarded growth and nerve disorders, and a condition known as beriberi.
Riboflavin (B2) - required for normal growth, vigor, healthy skin and mucosa, and  normal  eye  function.
Niacin (B3) - is  necessary  for  normal growth and skin health, normal functioning of the stomach and intestines, nervous and circulatory systems, and for carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism.
Pantothenic acid - a B-complex vitamin, is essential for humans and animals for growth, reproduction, and normal physiological functions. It is a precursor of the coenzymes, CoA and acyl carrier protein of fatty acid synthase, which are involved in more than 100 different metabolic pathways including energy metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, and the synthesis of lipids, neurotransmitters, steroid hormones, porphyrins and hemoglobin.
B-6 - helps control metabolism, benefits nervous system and immune function.
Folate - is associated with the prevention of colon, rectal, cervical, lung, stomach and esophageal cancers. Increasing your intake of folate decreases the homocysteine levels in your blood. High homocysteine levels are associated with heart disease, and suspected to increase your risk of all the other ailments we listed above.
Folic acid - strengthens your immune system and boosts energy
B-12 - aids in digestions and said to prevent anemia, is needed for normal nerve cell activity, DNA replication, and production of the mood-affecting substance called SAMe (S-adenosyl-L-methionine). Vitamin B12 works with folic acid to control homocysteine levels.
A (Retinol) - an antioxidant that keeps skin soft and supple good for the eyes. helps cells reproduce normally?a process called differentiation.
E (Tocopherol) - an antioxidant said to prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer, improves circulation, promotes healthy skin and hair.
 
With all those nutrients it would seem to me that 1/8 or more of a cantaloupe would be a great health builder!
 
Store at room temperature; refrigerate when fully ripe. I discovered that store bought cantaloupes are best left to sit out for a few days to really sweeten up.
 
Many ways to eat that will improve your health!

Great when sliced tossed with lime juice and fresh ginger for a refreshing breakfast.
Freeze peeled chunks and blend into smoothies.
Skewer cantaloupe and pineapple pieces and grill.
Cantaloupe is great snack after exercise. Helps rebuild and replenish energy without gaining weight.
 
A little side note of interest, probably to nobody but me. If you've ever passed a melon field where vines are being turned over, preventing the melons from rotting on the ground side, with a device pulled behind a tractor, my father - who worked on a farm his whole life and saw a problem - invented that vine turner in my teen years!
 
Enjoy your cantaloupe!
Lena

PS: Sadly food alone can yield all the necessary healthy nutrients, as they did in centuries past, so we can't rely totally on our food intake, because of the lack of nutrients in our soils and the pollutants added in the form of air pollution, pesticides and fertilizers. Read the 1936 Report Click Here to understand why and how today is worse than most never think about!

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 HEALTH TODAY
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