Vitamins and Minerals Found Inside Honeydew Melons

All melons make delicious, creamy, energy-boosting juices, but honeydew melons (Cucumis melo) are, in my humble opinion, the sweetest of the bunch. A great source of vitamin C and provitamin A, potassium, zinc, and valuable digestive enzymes, honeydew melons can be both nutritious and delicious when juiced by themselves. Here are a few of the questions we attempt to answer about Honeydew Melons.

• What vitamins in Honeydew Melons make Honeydew Melons so good for us?
• What is the best method for juicing Honeydew Melons?
• What are some great buying tips for Honeydew Melons?

Plus, we'll do our best to provide some general information about Honeydew Melons that you might not find so easily elsewhere on the Internet.

Let's begin our exploration of Honeydew Melons...

Vitamins and Minerals in Honeydew Melons

Honeydew melons have similar nutritional benefits of summer and winter squash with several key nutrients that are particularly beneficial for healthy skin. Here is a snapshot of the vitamins and minerals found in honeydew melons.

Vitamins in Honeydew Melons

• Vitamin C
• Thiamin
• Riboflavin
• Niacin
• Pantothenic acid
• Vitamin B-6
• Folate
• Folic acid 
• Vitamin B-12
• Vitamin A
• Retinol
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K (phylloquinone)

Minerals in Honeydew Melons

• Calcium
• Iron
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Potassium
• Sodium
• Zinc
• Copper
• Manganese
• Selenium

Although I prefer to eat honeydew melons, they can be used to create a delicious skin tonic. The next time you think about Honeydew Melons... think about how they might add a powerful boost to your daily nutrition as a sweet fruit smoothie or through juicing.

Tips for Juicing Honeydew Melons

Juicing honeydew melons can add both flavor and valuable nutrients to most any home-juiced cocktail. Here are a few tips for juicing honeydew melons that may help turn your juicing experience into something you look forward to and thoroughly enjoy.

First, I recommend you eat melon and drink melon juice by itself because I believe, for their full food value, they should be digested without interference from other foods.

When you juice melons, they can be excellent tonics to help with elimination of waste from the body.

Juicing also extracts valuable vitamins and minerals from the rind so that instead of getting about 5 percent of the melon's nutritional benefits, you get 95 percent. That's quite a difference!

If you want to add just a dash of other flavor to your honeydew melon juice, try juicing just a slice of lime with it. 

Purchasing Tips for Buying Honeydew Melons

If you are unable to grow your own Honeydew Melons, then here are a few tips for buying Honeydew Melons that may help you get the freshest ingredients. We'll also include a few storing tips for Honeydew Melons that you might find helpful.

Honeydew should have a soft, velvety texture to indicate maturity and should be heavy for their size; overripe honeydew can have a bitter flavor. The rind should have a creamy white to yellow color, indicating ripeness.

Look for honeydew melons with skins that are covered with a lightly patched netting and that have a discernible honey aroma... you can "smell" its sweetness when properly ripe.

Honeydew melons that weigh about five pounds, have creamy yellow stem ends that give ever so slightly when pressed, are bound to be the sweetest and best-tasting.

Avoid melons that are as hard as bowling balls because they will be hard on the inside, too. They were picked too early and will not ripen.

Be sure to wash your honeydew melons before cutting them (as you would any fruit) because bacteria can reside on the rind.

Store honeydew melons at room temperature if you plan to eat it soon, or refrigerate it for a few days.

Honeydew can be frozen by slicing the fruit into cubes or slices and freezing it on a cookie sheet. Transfer to freezer bags for long-term storage. Honeydew can also be frozen with sugar or syrup.

General Information About Honeydew Melons

This article wouldn't be complete if we didn't include a little general information about Honeydew Melons.

While there is a great deal of historic background on muskmelons as a species, there is little specifically on the honey dew melon.

One of the earliest records of melons is found in an Egyptian tomb dating from 2400 B.C.

It is believed that 40 or more non-cultivated species of Cucumis are native to the tropics and sub-tropics of Africa and there is no substantial evidence on record to show that C. melo is an exception, but the plant has never been found wild in the Mediterranean region, in Africa, in India or the Indian archipelago.

Some experts agree that the Cucumis genus "came from the tropics of the Old World."

Wouldn't it be amazing if they actually originated from the mysterious Atlantis?

Charles VIII (1483-1498), king of France, is said to have brought them to Northern Europe from Italy and there are records from the days of Columbus that indicate honeydew melons were in Spain before 1493.

"Honeydew" is in fact the American name for the White Antibes cultivar which has been grown for many years in southern France and Algeria.

In China, honeydews are known as the Bailan melon; they are a locally famous product near Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province in China's northwest.

Also in China, the melon is sometimes called the "Wallace" after Vice President Wallace who is said to have introduced the Honeydew Melon to China when he brought seeds with him on one trip to the region. (Wallace was VP under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and also founder of the major seed company called Pioneer HiBred.)

Be sure to check out both our "Juicing" and our "Smoothies" sections for delicious recipes and more using Honeydew Melons!