Welcome back to the blog! I thought this week I’d take a slight break from posting about vitamins and minerals and instead, start another set of blog posts centered around viral food trends. (I’ll be returning to the vitamins next time, never fear.)

Perhaps you’ve seen Logan’s videos on various social media platforms about eating an entire cucumber? This viral series of his has led to a shortage of cucumbers around the world as everyone scrambles to make these delicious recipes. As a dietitian, I’m always delighted when a healthy meal or snack goes viral. I have a theory that the reason people say they don’t like vegetables is they simply haven’t had them prepared right, and based on the fact that the world is now eating cucumbers, I think my theory is proving to be true.

So, now that we’re all wanting to eat a cucumber every day, what better time to learn more about this delicious and versatile vegetable?

What’s in a cucumber?

Ok so what exactly makes a cucumber healthy, aside from the fact it’s a vegetable? Does it actually have nutrients or is it basically crunchy water?

While the water content of cucumbers is indeed high, it is a lot more than crunchy water. Since we’re all eating whole cucumbers these days, I’ll give all the data about cucumber nutrition with a serving size as an entire medium cucumber (roughly 300g in weight).

Calories	45kcal	Fiber	1.5g	Calcium	48.2mg
Protein	1.96g	Magnesium	39.1mg	Folate	21.1µg
Fat	0.33g	Phosphorus	72.2mg	Beta-Carotene	135µg
Carbohydrate	10.9g	Potassium	442mg	Vitamin K	48.4µg

Let’s go over this chart and what those numbers mean. The easiest place to start are the macronutrients. As you can see, cucumbers are quite low in calories, protein, and fat, and entire cucumber doesn’t even have a full single serving of carbohydrate. For those who are wanting to find ways to feel full without consuming too many extra calories, a cucumber is definitely a good way to go. Now of course, you don’t want to eat only cucumber all the time, but as a side dish or snack daily, this is an excellent way to get a lot of volume of food for not a lot of calories.

So, what do the rest of those numbers mean? When it comes to vitamin K, the % of the recommendation depends upon your weight in kg. So, for example, someone who is 50kg requires about 50µg of vitamin K each day. For those of us who aren’t used to using the metric system, 50kg is 110lbs. So, if that’s around your weight, then a single cucumber contains almost your entire daily requirement for vitamin K. However, a lot of people weigh more than 110lbs, so let’s take a look at some other numbers. If you’re 165lbs then a whole cucumber is about 64% of your daily needs, and if you’re 200lbs, it’s roughly 53% of your daily needs.

The rest of the numbers can vary based on gender, so I’ll provide a range, but a single medium cucumber provides you with 7-10% of your magnesium needs, 10% of your phosphorus needs, 13-17% of your potassium needs, 5% of your calcium needs, 5% of your folate needs, and 1-2% of your beta-carotene needs.

Overall, the nutrient content paired with the low-calorie content of cucumbers makes them an excellent food to incorporate into your diet. I’ll leave you here with a couple of Logan’s more popular recipes to try, with links to his videos.

Let me know if you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation, and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button! Until next time!

Everything But The Bagel Cucumber

Ingredients (amounts are estimated based on the video)

• 1 medium Cucumber
• 1-2 tbsp sour cream
• 1-2 tbsp chive cream cheese
• 1-2 tbsp herb cheese sauce (can be substituted with extra cream cheese and a little water)
• 1-2 tbsp of everything bagel seasoning
• A pinch of sea salt
• ½ tsp MSG

Directions

1. Slice the cucumber into even slices and add into a container
2. Add remaining ingredients on top of the cucumber
3. Shake or stir (depending which container your chose) until ingredients are well incorporated

Den Thai Fung Cucumbers

Ingredients

• 1 medium cucumber
• 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 clove grated garlic
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp MSG
• 1 tsp chili crisp sauce

Directions

1. Slice the cucumber into even slices and add into a container
2. Add remaining ingredients on top of the cucumber
3. Shake or stir (depending which container your chose) until ingredients are well incorporated