What Are The Streaks In The Watermelon Pulp Talking About?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Watermelons are different - dark and light, large and small, sweet and not so. Cutting these ripe fruits, we see not only juicy pulp and a great variety of watermelon seeds, but also a huge number of veins in the pulp, which can be both white and yellow. Moreover, recently, more and more watermelons with coarse veins, with loose flesh or even bitterness have come across more and more often. What do these factors indicate, and how safe is it to feast on such watermelons?

What do the yellow and white streaks tell us?

The many yellow and white veins in the watermelon pulp indicate an overabundance of nitrogen fertilizers in such fruits, in particular, such nitrate fertilizers as saltpeter. Of course, nitrogen is vital for the full development of all plants without exception, but an excess of it can easily lead to poisoning. Nevertheless, some modern melon growers do not hesitate to apply nitrogen-containing fertilizers in quantities exceeding the permissible norms, because this approach allows them to get fruits up to ten kilograms in just two or three weeks! And this is an economic benefit, and therefore they do not care at all that they derive this benefit at the expense of the health of consumers!

Abundant feeding and watering with a solution of nitrate lead to the fact that watermelons begin to grow, as if by yeast, often ripening a whole month earlier (and after all, the time interval from seventy to ninety days is considered the norm for their ripening!). And each such fruit is literally replete with nitrates, unsafe for human health!

Yellow and white streaks are formed in watermelons precisely due to the action of saltpeter - the regular use of such watermelons adversely affects the functioning of the digestive system, has a depressing effect on the nervous system and disrupts metabolic processes in the body. The immune system begins to gradually deteriorate, and the supply of oxygen to various tissues deteriorates markedly. Such watermelons are especially dangerous for children.

Loose pulp inside the fruit - why?

Another indication of the presence of nitrates in watermelons is too loose flesh inside the fruit. At the same time, such pulp is characterized by low consistency, some compaction, and in some cases - and an unhealthy shade.

However, watermelons can become loose even if stored improperly. For example, plucked watermelons lying under the scorching sun in just a couple of weeks can lose an impressive proportion of moisture, and their flesh will take on the appearance of dry whitish or reddish grains.

Why can a watermelon taste bitter?

Many modern consumers periodically come across bitter watermelons. And the reasons for the occurrence of such a nuisance, again, may be different. The most harmless is improper storage, as a result of which the fruits lose their original taste under the influence of natural causes. But the second reason lies in the same aforementioned saltpeter. Watermelon ovaries, into which saltpeter falls, begin to develop at a truly lightning speed, as a result of which the fruits often reach the desired weight of ten, and sometimes even twenty kilograms. After that, unscrupulous melon growers give the watermelons a few more days to lie down - during this period they turn red, but they still fail to gain the proper sweetness. In the course of such transformations, glucose and fructose accumulated by the fruits are gradually converted into sucrose, and under its influence, the watermelon pulp begins to gradually sour, changing its taste to a repulsive sourish-bitter.

The third reason is if the fruit stuffed with nitrates was bought immature: in this case, the culprit for its unpleasant taste will be a substance called cucurbitacin, thanks to which cucumbers with momordica also become bitter. This natural toxin is a common cause of digestive upset and stomach pain. There is usually very little cucurbitacin in ripe watermelons, but greens literally abound in them. That is why the fruits collected in the summer can taste bitter. If the watermelon was purchased in winter, this means that it is imported (from Turkey, Thailand, and you never know where else), and in this case its bitterness will be due to the content of ethylene gas, with which the fruits are processed for the best preservation.

In all of the above cases, watermelons are unsuitable for good nutrition, which means that, ideally, they should be abandoned altogether! Do you often come across such watermelons?