Cucumber: Superfood or Envious Banana?
Cucumbers— widely heralded for their greenness and high water concentration (95% to be exact)... But is a cucumber all it is heralded to be? We shall find out.
Cucumbers have been used for many years now for their cosmetic properties. A recent study found that cucumbers could help keep your skin soft and white, if used as a cream. It is cooling, soothing, and can help irritated skin (say, when you have a rash). These, of course, are not its only properties. These wonder fruits (yes, they are a fruit) have amazingly low, calorific values, as they are 95% water, thus are a good choice for slimming and combating obesity. It is also widely heralded for its internal cleansing properties, reducing uric acid and cleaning the intestine of faecal residues. (basically a laxative.)
Now, of course, after all of these good things, must come a bad thing. Many claim the cucumber is just an envious banana— same shape and even internal layout as can be seen in this picture:
*Bananas obviously have tougher skins, but that is only because they are thicker-skinned.
My theory for this copycat fruit is as follows: cucumbers are envious. Bananas have a much higher vitamin content, have more fibre, and have a much more distinct flavour. Cucumbers, on the other hand, are just water with shape.
Bananas have obtained most of their fame as an edible fruit, but this not totally true. Bananas are not actually a fruit. They are, in fact, a herb— another reason for cucumbers to be envious of their yellow-skinned brothers. Maybe, if cucumbers had this unique status, they would be more special than long green sticks of H2O.
There are also many varieties of banana:
Red banana (very high vitamin concentrations)
Baby banana (sweeter than normal bananas, about 12 cm long)
Cavendish banana (common banana)
Manzano banana. (The most expensive banana, by far because of its rarity and sweetness. This banana is slightly bigger and sweeter than the baby variety.)
There are much fewer species of cucumber that are so unique:
English cucumber (the long, green shafts of mostly-water you buy in the supermarket)
West Indian cucumber (the humble gherkin, or pickle as Americans know it as)
To conclude, I would like to think that in the end, it is the humble cucumber that should get all of the fame. Although it lacks variety, it has more uses than purely eating, unlike the banana, and, in my opinion, is better on ham sandwiches.
Thanks To:TheAmericanIdiot
Edited By: Junesetsfire
Coded By: Mageman