Zucchini

Russians have long been difficult to surprise with any exotic fruits. Now it is difficult to imagine, but quite recently such a familiar now zucchini was considered an extremely amazing and unusual vegetable. And now a relative of zucchini, a vegetable with the outlandish name "zucchini, " is gaining more and more popularity. Translated, the word means "little pumpkin. "

Zucchini is a light or dark green zucchini introduced to us from Italy. Therefore, zucchini is often called Italian zucchini. Despite the similarities in the chemical composition between zucchini and zucchini and belonging to the same family - pumpkin, these vegetables are significantly different. The pulp of ordinary white courgette is coarser and denser, the flesh of zucchini is more tender and tasty, it can be eaten along with the skin, we peel courgette before cooking.

Extremely unusual for a vegetable is that zucchini can be eaten raw, while courgette is recommended to be heat treated. In storage, zucchini is unpretentious, it lasts at room temperature for a whole year, white zucchini are prone to cracking and decaying after a while. Thus, it is much easier and more convenient to grow and store zucchini, its taste is more pleasant, and the beneficial properties of zucchini are the same as those of its white brother.

Benefits of zucchini

Zucchini contains a huge amount of dietary fiber, which has an extremely beneficial effect on the activity of the gastrointestinal tract. The benefits of zucchini are due to its rich composition. The composition of zucchini includes mineral salts of potassium, calcium and phosphorus - in the amount necessary to maintain an excellent state of the body. Strikingly, carotene is found in zucchini far more than carrots and vitamins A and C more than pumpkins. Zucchini is also not deprived of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and polysaccharides.

The presence of significant amounts of pectins explains the truly magical dietary and medicinal properties of zucchini. They have the ability to remove slags and toxins from the body, have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular, urinary systems, which indicates the undoubted benefits of zucchini.

As already mentioned, zucchini can be eaten raw, while all useful substances are preserved. If, nevertheless, you have a desire to cook a vegetable, then you should not do it for longer than one minute, while all the beneficial properties of zucchini will remain. Of course, the ideal option for zucchini will be to steam it. Zucchini dishes are amazing in variety, but invariably they are one thing - they are all amazingly tasty and healthy. For all the obvious advantages of a vegetable, one more thing should be noted - the calorie content of zucchini is only 21 kcal. per 100 gr. , which is a lower rate than that of his close relative - zucchini.

Harm of zucchini

The harm of zucchini lies in its negative effect on people with kidney disease. This is due to the large amount of potassium, which tends to accumulate in the body. In addition, there is an individual intolerance to zucchini, which, however, is extremely rare.