How many of you love “karela” which is called Bitter Gourd/ Bitter Melon in English? Not many, I guess. The taste is bitter and the appearance shows you ridged skin. It looks like warty, pale green version of a cucumber, don’t you think? Run away from it, is what you might want to be doing.
But, Bitter Gourd is a “Beauty” Gourd, considering the benefits it gives to skin, hair and health. Let’s find out how.
What Is Bitter Gourd Juice?
The juice of bitter gourd offers you plenty of reasons to drink it. Anything special about it? Well, it has Iron, Magnesium, Potassium and Vit C. And then, it is an excellent source of dietary fiber.
Did you know, bitter gourd juice has twice the calcium spinach offers, twice the beta-carotene broccoli provides, and twice the potassium of a banana?
What Does A Bitter Gourd (Karela) Fruit Look Like?
Call it bitter gourd or bitter melon, it is a veggie-fruit that can be used as food and medicine. Both! It is the most bitter among all the fruits and vegetables that you know of.
It is a green oblong-shaped fruit with an exterior that has ‘warts’. Ya, I know this might make it look yucky, but the benefits it provides overshadows its unimpressive looks. Let’s see how karela juice fares in the edible section!
Benefits Of Bitter Gourd Juice For Skin
1. Glowing Skin
Smooth looking skin is every girl’s pet desire. Bitter gourd juice helps in flushing out toxins from the body, thereby giving you the skin to die for!
2. Treats Acne
With the onset of puberty, acne is a common skin ailment which young teenagers to adults face. Drink the bitter gourd juice mixed with lemon on an empty stomach for 6 months without break to ward off acne forever.
3. Cure Blemishes
Karela juice gets you problem-free and “blemish-free” skin, provided you drink it regularly, without any break.
4. Anti Aging
Bitter Gourd is blessed with Vit C – the antioxidant which fights and eliminates harmful free radicals in the body. This helps reduce wrinkles, and slows down the ageing process.
5. Deep Skin Infections
Whether it is skin infections, eczema, or psoriasis, regular intake of bitter gourd juice helps in warding off fungal infections like ringworm and athlete’s foot and improve upon psoriasis.
6. Itching
On applying juice of the karela leaves to the affected skin patch, you will experience relief from the constant and irritating itching.
Benefits Of Bitter Gourd Juice For Hair
7. Shiny Hair
Want a natural shine in your hair? Go bitter, as in bitter gourd. All you need to do is mix a cup of bitter gourd juice with some yogurt (dahi) and apply it on your scalp. After half a hour or so, wash off your hair locks.
8. Treats Dandruff
Make a hair pack by mixing bitter gourd juice and cumin seeds. Then apply it on your scalp. This is an effective way to say goodbye to dandruff, provided you follow it for a month.
9. Hair Loss Treatment
Karela is Kadwa! And this property of it works in fighting hair loss. Make a paste of karela juice and some sugar (put a dash of it) and apply this paste on your hair and scalp for best results.
10. Dry And Itchy Scalp
Dryness of scalp gets on the nerves. In order to combat it, rub fresh gourd on your scalp in circular motion. Then rinse it off with water.
Want to give “itchy” scalp a big blow? Mix karela juice with avocado or banana (either of them) and apply it on your scalp. Do this remedy once a week for an itch-free scalp.
11. Grey And Oily Hair
Now you have an impressive reason to apply juice of bitter gourd on your scalp. It helps you say goodbye to grey hair. Just apply bitter gourd juice on your grey strands, once in every ten days. The results will be good.
When you take too much of oily foods, it will most likely lead to oil build-up on your scalp. The first thing you have to do is reduce your oily food intake. Secondly, go ahead and apply a mixture of bitter gourd juice and apple cider vinegar (ACV) on your hair. This will knock off excess of oil from your hair.
12. Treats Split Ends
Facing trouble due to hair split ends? No worries. Just apply bitter gourd juice to the split ends, and then gently comb your hair. Do this twice a week, at least.
13. Rough And Tangled Hair
Uh! With hair tangled and “far from smooth”, even the best of days go drab and lifeless. Bring back the verve by pouring a cup of bitter gourd juice on your dull hair, and giving it a soak time of 10-15 min. Now rinse off your hair. This will smoothen your hair texture and make you smile.
Benefits Of Bitter Gourd Juice For Health
14. Diabetes
Bitter gourd juice takes care of people suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. This ailment happens when the body cells are unable to absorb the sugar in the blood due to lack of insulin. Karela juice activates the protein-kinases in the cells which increases sugar absorption.
15. Cancer
Yeah, I know the very word is scary. But bitter gourd is a cancer-fighting food. Thanks to several studies, bitter melon has been found to be effective in preventing various types of cancers: from lymphoid leukemia, and lymphoma, to melanoma, breast cancer, skin tumor, prostate cancer, carcinoma of the tongue and larynx, bladder cancer etc.
16. Antioxidant
A cup of bitter gourd juice has 26 mg of Vitamin C (which is an active antioxidant). This protects the cells from damage and prevents oxidation of DNA. It also boosts collagen-production.
17. Asthma
Patients suffering from asthma can thank bitter gourd juice for the immense relief it brings from allergens.
18. Digestion
There is evidence that the extract of bitter melon can help reduce stomach and intestinal disorders, and improve overall digestive health.
19. HIV/AIDS
Going by the studies conducted on natural antidotes of HIV/AIDS, juice of a karela can prevent damage of the skin cells.
20. Helps In Weight Loss
Are you a regular drinker? Don’t read me wrong, I am talking about bitter gourd juice. If yes, then you are on your way to losing weight fast, faster, fastest.
21. Boosts Immune System
Boil a couple of leaves of bitter gourd in water and drink the treated liquid every day. This will prep your body to fight infections.
22. Constipation
Since karela juice has fibre, it helps in easy digestion of food. And so, goodbye constipation!
23. Maintaining Blood Sugar Levels:
Bitter melon helps in preventing diabetes mellitus. And how? Well, it has a hypoglycemic compound (meaning plant insulin) which lowers down the blood sugar level.
24. Lowers Bad Cholesterol Levels
Bitter-gourd juice is heart-friendly. It cuts out on the bad cholesterol levels which clog the blood arteries, hence reducing the chances of a heart attack.
25. Cures Hangovers
How to get rid of hangovers after a late night at a pub? Drink bitter gourd juice! It removes alcoholic intoxication from the liver, cleanses your bowel and cures many problems of the liver.
26. Liver Tonic
One glass of bitter gourd juice, when taken daily helps in healing liver problems. Continue drinking it for a week to get best results.
27. Great For Your Eyes
Due to its beta-carotene content (which is on the higher side), bitter gourd juice is extremely helpful in treating and preventing eye complications and improving eyesight.
28. Blood Disorders
Problems like blood boil, itching etc. happen due to toxemia. Take the combo of bitter gourd juice and lime juice on an empty stomach regularly. It would help you in overcoming the blood disorder problem.
29. Cholera
Take bitter gourd juice along with the juice of white onion and lime, and see how you get relief from cholera.
30. Stops Gout
Studies have shown that bitter gourd (and its juice) is of great use when it comes to preventing gout. It has a cleansing effect on the liver and toxic blood and improves the circulation of “oxygenated” blood all over the body.
31. Boosts Energy
At the end of the day (or perhaps in the start or the middle), we are tired! Go the nature’s way by taking bitter gourd juice. It will help improve on the stamina and energy, you need most.
32. Remedy For Piles
You see bitter gourd has a lot of fiber. This makes your stool softer. Thereby, curing the problem of chronic constipation and piles.
33. Treating Psoriasis
Blood impurities along with emotional reasons can lead to psoriasis. Any escape from this? Drink Karela juice which helps in purifying the blood tissues.
34. Respiratory Disorders:
Bitter Gourd is capable of tackling common illnesses such as cold, cough, even flu by increasing detoxification, decreasing free radical damage and improving blood flow.
35. Relief From Toxemia
Well, the juice of bitter gourd is highly beneficial for treating the ill effects of toxemia such as blood disorders and blood boils etc. Just sip 2 tsp of bitter gourd juice daily in the morning to clean your liver.
36. Infections
Urinary tract infections can be very troublesome…regular intake of bitter gourd juice helps cure them effectively.
37. Healing Qualities
It’s nice to know and surprising too – how bitter gourd juice carries out the healing qualities by putting a check on the blood flow and blood clotting, healing wounds faster and preventing further infections.
38. Treats Malaria
And you thought mosquito nets and Good Knight was enough? Go the natural way – through Bitter Gourd juice which cures the frightening malaria.
Let us take a look at the nutrition aspect of bitter gourd juice.
Nutrition Value Of Karela Juice
Listed below are the nutritional benefits of bitter gourd per 100 g
Nutrition Value Of Karela Juice |
|
|---|---|
| Energy | 17 Kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 3.70 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Total Fat | 0.17 g |
| Dietary Fibers | 2.80 g |
| Vitamins | |
| Thiamin | 0.040 mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.040 mg |
| Niacin | 0.400 mg |
| Pantothenic acid | 0.212 mg |
| Pyridoxine | 0.043 mg |
| Folates | 72 µg |
| Vitamin A | 471 IU |
| Vitamin E | 0.14 mg |
| Vitamin K | 4.8 μg |
| Vitamin C | 84 mg |
| Electrolytes | |
| Sodium | 5 mg |
| Potassium | 296 mg |
| Minerals | |
| Calcium | 19 mg |
| Copper | 0.034 mg |
| Iron | 0.43 mg |
| Magnesium | 17 mg |
| Phosphorus | 31 mg |
| Selenium | 0.2 mcg |
| Manganese | 0.089 mg |
| Zinc | 0.80 mg |
| Phyto-nutrients | |
| Beta-Carotene | 190 µg |
| Alpha-Carotene | 185 µg |
| Lutein-zeaxanthin | 170 µg |
Ever thought karela juice will be packed with so much nutritional value?
How To Prepare Bitter Gourd Juice
Look past the ‘bitter’ taste of bitter gourd juice, as this delivers promising health. Chill! Here is how to go making it.
Ingredients:
- Few Karelas
- Few Lemons
Method Of Preparation:
- Start by washing off the bitter gourd
- Then peel off the top skin of the bitter fruit (depending on your taste and preference)
- Chop the karelas into fine pieces
- Then apply salt and turmeric to them
- After some time, extract the juice
- Once the water has strained out of the bitter gourd, then crush the pieces in the mixer.
- Sieve it. Or drink up the full juice of the fiber after adding fresh lemon juice so that you get the tangy flavor.
How did you find it? Try it or share it with your friends.
Consumption Tips
Whenever you have made up your mind to include karela for lunch or dinner, here is what you should bear in mind:
- Soak karela in a bowl containing salt water for minimum half an hour. This will reduce the bitterness of this fruit.
- Before extracting the juice of bitter gourd, do remove the pith and seeds.
Caution
It’s caution and precaution time – when it comes to taking bitter gourd or its juice.
- Do not indulge in excessive consumption of Bitter Gourd (cooked form or juice). It can lead to headache, nausea, vomiting, pain in abdomen, even diarrhea.
- Karela juice should be avoided during pregnancy and breast-feeding.
- Those of you, even your near and dear friends and relatives, whose hepatic functioning is not at its all-time best should either reduce intake of bitter gourd or avoid it.
- Bitter gourd juice is a strict NO-NO for small kids.
So these were the benefits of karela juice. Not tried it yet? Try now, and let us know soon how it helped you immensely!
Source: Victoria’s Glamour