It has a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit. Unlike the cucumber it is usually served cooked, often steamed or grilled. Its flower can be eaten fried or stuffed. Culinarily, zucchini is considered to be a vegetable. However, biologically, the zucchini is a fruit, being the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower. Zucchini are traditionally picked when very immature, seldom over 8in/20cm in length. Mature zucchini can be as much as three feet long, but are often fibrous and not appetizing to eat.
Zucchini Nutrition Facts: Calories, Carbs, and Health Benefits
Zucchini is 94.79% water, 3.11% carbohydrates, 1.21% protein, 1% dietary fiber, 0.58% ash and 0.32% fat. One medium zucchini supplies you with 6.096 grams of carbohydrates, which is 4.69 percent of the minimum of 130 grams of carbohydrates you should have daily, according to the Institute of Medicine (US). That same it has an energy value of 70 kJ (17 Calories) in a 100 g (3.5 Oz) amount and is an important source of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) (23.87% of the Daily Value). So if your diet contains zucchini, it helps your body to absorb iron from food and defend itself more naturally since vitamin C is an antioxidant, reduce probability of heart disease by fighting cholesterol, improve the efficiency of lymphocytes (or white blood cells) to heal wounds and it is effective against gout (a type of arthritis) attacks by reducing blood uric acid levels, dementia since vitamin C impacts memory positively and the occurrence of cancer. It contains low amount of minerals.
There is evidence of squash cultivation going back to at least 8,000 B.C. in Central Mexico, Peru, and the Eastern United States.
Squash, along with corn and beans, formed the staple diet of Mesoamerican Native Americans and made the creation of these empires possible.
Many squashes were grown to be used as containers when they dried up.
Squash comes from the Narragansett Native American word “askutasquash”, which roughly translates to “eaten raw or uncooked.”
The entire squash plant, such as the leaves, tendrils, shoots, stems, flowers, seeds, and fruit, can be eaten.
Squashes are commonly made into candies in Latin America.
Summer squashes are fast maturing, have thin rinds that can be eaten, can’t be stored for long periods of time and are generally picked when immature.
Winter squashes take longer to mature, have thick rinds that generally need to be peeled, are picked when completely mature and can be stored for several months.
Florida is the biggest squash producing state, followed by New York, California and North Carolina.
The United States is the world’s biggest importer of squash.
Squash is primarily used for the fresh market and is very rarely processed.
Squash is high in fiber. It can help give people the sensation of feeling fill, without having consumed a lot of calories.
The pigments that give squashes and pumpkins their deep yellow and orange colors may help protect people against some forms of cancer.
