“I carried a watermelon?!”

Like music, food can evoke many different emotions within us. That sentence from one of my all-time favourite films, Dirty Dancing, plunges me right back to a carefree life as a teenager when I had my girlfriends all around me and the world at our feet.

Moreover, whenever I taste watermelon, it immediately transports me to Ibiza, circa 1992, where I enjoyed my first beach holiday abroad. Since then, those same feelings of happiness, warmth, sea, sun, fun and family are conjured up every time I taste this exotic fruit.

As you would expect, watermelons are highly nutritious. Their water content (around 95%) is highly mineralised. They are also rich in vitamin C and beta-carotene which gives the flesh its bright red colour. Furthermore, the citrulline in watermelon plays a role in the production of amino acid arginine which boosts immune function and speeds wound healing.

The nutritional value is, of course, hugely important. However, as with all foods, it is easy to get consumed (pardon the pun) with the fat content, how many calories we are taking in versus how many we have burned off etc. etc. Food is an energy source and we need it to survive, but it is also a source of joy. This can be confused with using food as a comfort blanket which can occur for a myriad of reasons and tends to lead us towards poor food choices. For help with making better food choices, rebuilding a healthier relationship with food and finding the joy in nutritious foods, book a free 20 minute consultation with me today.

Which foods evoke memories for you?

Watermelon is also a great way to spark up a conversation with children about healthy foods. Try these child friendly recipes from Lucinda Miller, the Nature Doc.