Watermelon salad is a healthy choice

Who doesn’t love watermelon? Americans consume more than 4 billion pounds of it every year.

Watermelon is a hot nutrition item not only because of its lycopene, the antioxidant found in the red flesh, but also because of its tart white rind, which contains citrulline.

Citrulline is an amino acid that helps dilate blood vessels to improve circulation. It is converted into arginine, another amino acid, to help produce nitric oxide for muscle relaxation and to reduce muscle soreness, making it a popular energy drink ingredient. Other foods high in arginine are shrimp, spinach, sea vegetables and sunflower and sesame seeds.

To get the maximum benefits of lycopene, which also can be found in tomatoes, pink grapefruit and guava, watermelon needs to be fully ripe. Light pink flesh has significantly less lycopene than red flesh.

Watermelon seeds are a summer staple for chewing and spitting. Roasted seeds contain some iron and zinc, but the oxalates and phytates in them limit nutrition bioavailability. A little protein can be consumed from the seeds (1 gram per 24 seeds), but because watermelon is a fruit, it is not a good protein source. The white seeds found in seedless varieties are only seed coats and add no nutrition.

Grape and Watermelon Salad is a delicious way to enjoy the red flesh. And for a refreshing beverage, pop tart rind cubes, some lime juice and some diet lemon-lime soda into the blender. (Add gin and vodka, if you’d like.) The only thing that goes into compost is the tough outer skin.

This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 8:00 PM.