The rainy season has gone and summer season has just started here in Okinawa. We realize summer approach by the new lineup of the seasonal vegetables in grocery stores. A typical summer vegetable of Okinawa is go-ya, bitter melon. But now go-ya has become so well-known throughout Japan and we can buy almost anywhere other than Okinawa. I sometimes feel that go-ya is not peculiar to Okinawa anymore.

Therefore, I would like to introduce another typical summer vegetable of Okinawa called “Na-be-ra.” It is a sponge cucumber.

What will you imagine when hearing a sponge cucumber? A scrubbing brush? Or a skin lotion? Well, a sponge cucumber is clearly a vegetable plenty of nutrition. When a sponge cucumber comes to fully ripen, its fibrous body becomes so hard that they are generally made into natural scrubbing brushes. In Okinawa, we take young sponge cucumbers, approximately 2 weeks old since flowers in bloom, for eating.

As it is usually common in summer vegetables, 95% of a sponge cucumber constitutes from water. It may be hard for those who have seen sponge cucumber as scrubbing brush only, but a sponge cucumber changes its texture amazingly soft when heated.

Sponge cucumber contains beta-carotene, vitamin C, and potassium, significant nutrition for summer. It also contains “sponge cucumber saponin” which activates cell metabolism and keeps one’s skin healthy and clean. Saponin is also useful to prevent extra calories from transforming into body fat. Above all, sponge cucumber is a low calorie food and preferable food for diet. In addition, sponge cucumbers have been recognized as a medical food for its juice has great effects as cough and expectorant medicine, detoxication, and blood circulation stimulation.

Sponge cucumber is also full of fiber which works well to regulate functions of one’s intestine. Good bacteria in intestine will increase in number, which It’s expected to regulate one’s intestine by activating and multiplying good bacteria in intestine. It stimulates body wastes and cholesterol out of body. It restrains blood pressure from rising up. Prevention of arteriosclerosis, lifestyle disease like diabetes, cancer are expected.