Monday Motivation Series: Bitter Melon Health Benefits & a Recipe

I never heard of a bitter melon until just a few weekends ago. I was working at the Farmer’s Market in Navarre, FL and one of the vendors had these out on their table and I had to ask what they were because they looked so odd. They told me that they are bitter melons and are extremely bitter so they have to be made a certain way. Well, I taste tested them raw because I was curious to see just how bitter they were, and they are definitely called bitter melons for a reason.

I saw that a bunch of recipes called out for onions and garlic and while I do love a meal with onions and garlic I wanted to see if there were any other recipes. Well, I found one for how to pickle them. I’m Polish, so I love anything pickled. Before diving into the recipe, I wanted to talk about some of the health benefits of these bitter melons. The information within this post was taken from an article created by Healthline, so if you want a more in depth article, go ahead and read that article.

Jam Packed with Nutrients

Fiber
Vitamin C
Vitamin A
Folate
Potassium
Zinc
Iron

Blood Sugar Benefits

When I was at the market, the vendor told me that a lot of her customers buy it to help lower their blood sugar. As someone who has blood sugar issues within the family, and has been told by my doctor that I need to watch it, I had to buy it. Of course, I’m sure pickling it doesn’t benefit me as much as just cooking it, but I really wanted to pickle them.

Cancer

The article that I read talked about how this bitter melon might have cancer fighting properties. I don’t want to just copy word for word all of the research they did, so read the article (here).

Weight Loss

Just like a lot of vegetables, or clean eating in general, this can help with weight loss. It might not be ideal to constantly eat healthy food, but it’s all good for weight loss. As Americans we eat a lot of processed foods which are never going to help with weight loss or even maintaining a healthy weight.