Watermelons are sweet and red. Are they injected? Will eating overnight watermelons cause poisoning? 8 truths that watermelon eaters must know!

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and sweet and juicy watermelon has become the first choice for people to cool down. However, the sayings such as "watermelon has been injected", "watermelon uses growth enhancers", "diabetics cannot eat watermelon", and "seedless watermelon has been injected with contraceptives" have made people worried. Can we still eat watermelon happily? You must not miss these truths about watermelon!

01Will watermelon grow if you swallow watermelon seeds?

Watermelon is delicious, but watermelon seeds sound troublesome, so some people wonder what if they don’t spit out the seeds?

Growing up, adults always told us not to swallow watermelon seeds, or a watermelon would grow in our stomachs! This "advice" left an indelible shadow on many children, and they were really scared to eat watermelons when they were young! However, can watermelon seeds be swallowed?

Experience tells us that you can’t grow a watermelon in your stomach.

But will eating watermelon seeds have a bad effect on the body? In fact, watermelon seeds are edible. Just imagine, if they were poisonous and could not be eaten, wouldn't there be many murders?

So far, there has been no reported case of poisoning from eating watermelon seeds.

Moreover, watermelon seeds are relatively hard, and there is a hard "quilt" on the surface, which can provide good protection for the seeds. The human body is basically unable to digest and absorb them. Even if they are swallowed, they will be excreted from the body with feces the next day...

02The watermelon is red and sweet, is it because of the injection?
The rumor of "watermelon injections" has been deeply rooted in people's minds. It is said that watermelon farmers will sweeten watermelons and inject red pigments and sweeteners to make watermelons redder and sweeter, which can also increase sales. Many people suspect that they have bought injected watermelons. Are watermelons really injected?

In fact, the saying of "watermelon injection" is most likely the imagination of people who do not know the truth, which is very different from the facts.

Watermelon is a naturally ripe fruit that is also durable in storage. Compared with many other fruits, it does not require any storage and preservation technology. In actual production, no melon farmer is so bored as to inject every watermelon. Whether injecting hormones, sugar water or pigments into the watermelon, it will not make the watermelon redder or sweeter.

On the contrary, the injection will cause the melon flesh near the needle hole to rot and deteriorate, greatly shortening the storage time of the watermelon, which is not worth the loss. . .

03The reason why watermelons are so big is because they have been injected with growth enhancers?
In the past, when we bought watermelons, we liked to pick the big ones. But now people always say that big watermelons have been treated with "enlargement agents", so we try to buy small ones, for fear of buying watermelons treated with enlargement agents. What are the harms of enlargement agents? Can we eat them safely?
The growth regulator is actually a plant growth regulator, which belongs to pesticides. Common growth regulators include chlorfenapyr and gibberellic acid, which have the effects of accelerating cell division and promoting cell enlargement. The most commonly used one is chlorfenapyr.

In fact, under normal use, no cases have been found where bulking agents cause any harm to the human body.

Moreover, plant growth regulators have strong self-limiting properties. A small amount can promote growth, but too much will be detrimental to growth. Improper use will cause fruit deformity, so farmers usually do not use too much. Therefore, normal use will not cause health hazards.

04Pregnant women and diabetics cannot eat watermelon?

Eating watermelon in summer is refreshing and comfortable. However, diabetics sigh at the sight of watermelon: it is said that watermelon is high in sugar and has a high glycemic index, so it cannot be eaten. Is it true that diabetics cannot eat watermelon?

The glycemic index of watermelon is 72 points, which is indeed a high GI food that can quickly raise blood sugar. However, to judge the impact of food on blood sugar, in addition to looking at the glycemic index, we also need to look at the glycemic load (GL). It refers to the product of the number of carbohydrates in the food and its GI value.

For example, the GI of watermelon and soda crackers are both 72, but 100g of soda crackers contains about 76g of carbohydrates, and its GL is about 55, while 100g of watermelon contains about 7g of carbohydrates, and its GL is about 5, which is a 10-fold difference between the two GLs. In other words, watermelon has little effect on blood sugar, but soda crackers have a big effect.

Of course, the premise of saying that watermelon has little effect on blood sugar is not to eat too much! But if you don't eat it in moderation, it will increase the blood sugar of diabetic patients. In general, diabetics are not absolutely forbidden to eat watermelon, and there is no need to worry too much about eating 2 taels of watermelon.

Pregnant women can't eat watermelon? The main reason why pregnant women can't eat watermelon is that watermelon has a high sugar content, which can increase blood sugar and easily cause gestational diabetes. In fact, this is the same reason why diabetics can't eat watermelon.

05 1 watermelon equals 6 bowls of rice?
It is said that you should never eat watermelon as a midnight snack, as it can easily make you gain weight. Eating one watermelon is equivalent to eating six bowls of rice! Is this true?
I'm sorry to tell you, but from a calorie count perspective, this is true.
The calories in 100 grams of watermelon are about 25 kcal. A watermelon weighing 8 to 10 kilograms can provide 1000 to 1250 kcal. The calories in a bowl of rice (200 grams) are about 230 kcal. This statement is basically accurate in data calculation.

Moreover, most of the sugar in watermelon is fructose. The characteristic of fructose is that it is not easy to feel full when eating it. Therefore, it is difficult to control the amount of food when eating watermelon, and it is easy to eat too much.

Therefore, it is best not to eat too much watermelon outside of the three meals, otherwise it is easy to consume too many calories.

06Don’t eat overnight watermelon, it will cause poisoning?

In summer, when the temperature is too high, people prefer to eat chilled watermelon. However, it is said that chilled watermelon that has been left overnight cannot be eaten! There is even a rumor that a family of three was hospitalized because of eating chilled watermelon. Is it true that overnight watermelon cannot be eaten?

Whether the watermelon is left overnight is not the main issue, the main issue is whether there are pathogenic bacteria. If it is just ordinary bacteria, the fact that the number of ordinary bacteria (i.e. the total number of colonies) exceeds the standard does not necessarily mean that there is harm.

Moreover, the news that this family of three was hospitalized after eating watermelon is really ambiguous, and it cannot be concluded that watermelon is the culprit. You don’t know whether they have a history of illness or whether they have eaten anything else.

However, watermelon has high sugar content and is rich in water, which does make it easy for bacteria to grow. Although it is cold in the refrigerator, various bacteria are hidden there. Therefore, do not keep the watermelon for too long after cutting it. It is best to eat it as soon as possible.

07Is it more likely for bacteria to grow when watermelon is covered with plastic wrap?

In the hot summer, for fear that the watermelons will go bad, we will put plastic wrap on the leftover watermelons. Even the watermelons sold in the supermarket will be wrapped in plastic wrap after being cut.

However, there are claims that wrapping food in plastic wrap will not only fail to preserve and inhibit bacteria, but will breed more bacteria. Can plastic wrap still be used safely?

As the name suggests, plastic wrap is a film designed to help keep food fresh. It can wrap food and isolate it from the outside environment, prevent flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches and other pests from eroding it, and prevent dust and impurities in the air from falling on the surface of watermelon, which is actually good for the preservation of watermelon.
So why is it that watermelons covered with plastic film have more bacteria? There are actually many reasons.

First of all, is the plastic wrap you use qualified? If the plastic wrap is not up to standard, it will be difficult to keep food fresh, and bacteria will naturally multiply more over time.

Secondly, it depends on the condition of the food before using the plastic wrap. If the watermelon is already contaminated with a lot of microorganisms and bacteria before applying the film, then there will naturally be more bacteria after applying the film.

This also reminds us that when buying plastic wrap, we must choose reliable and regular plastic wrap. When cutting watermelon, remember to wash your hands, clean the cutting board and knife, apply plastic wrap as soon as possible, and refrigerate it in time.

08Are seedless watermelons injected with birth control pills?
Spitting out watermelon seeds is troublesome, so seedless watermelons are also available on the market. But some people say that seedless watermelons are processed with contraceptives and contain a lot of hormones, and frequent consumption is harmful to the human body. Is this true?
In fact, the creation of seedless watermelon has nothing to do with the contraceptives used by humans.
Seedless watermelons are bred by hybridization. Ordinary watermelons are diploid plants, which means that they contain two sets of chromosomes in their cells and can produce seeds normally. People treated watermelons with colchicine and hybridized ordinary diploid watermelons with tetraploid watermelons to form triploid watermelons. Triploids have no reproductive ability, so they cannot produce seeds, and therefore have no seeds.

This seedless watermelon is just incapable of normal development of the next generation, and it does not produce any toxic or harmful substances, and it has nothing to do with contraceptives. As for plant hormones, they will not have any hormonal effects after being ingested by the human body, so there is no need to be afraid of "hormones". Just enjoy your watermelon.