Every summer, the same ritual repeats: someone advises not to eat more than two slices of watermelon a day, while others call for "cleansing" with almost liters of watermelon. Oleg Shvets, President of the Association of Nutritionists of Ukraine and Head of the Department of Public Health and Nutrition at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, decided to settle this question once and for all — and his answer turned out to be simpler than advocates of strict diets expected.
The Main Number — the One That Doesn't Exist
According to the doctor, there is simply no universal norm for watermelon consumption for a healthy person. It is not a product where exceeding the dose has noticeable consequences — unlike, say, salt or alcohol.
Watermelon is a very useful, healthy food product. Unlike other fruits and berries, it has significantly lower calories and sugar content. All other people can calmly eat as much watermelon as they find comfortable. There is no limit to the quantity.
— Oleg Shvets
That is, the guideline is not a calorie table or internet advice, but your own body: if you feel comfortable after eating watermelon, there are no restrictions.
Who Really Should Be Careful
The exception applies only to three groups of people, and none of them is related to "excess weight" or sugar, as is often mistakenly believed.
- People with watermelon allergies — a rare category, but it exists.
- People with irritable bowel syndrome and other functional gastrointestinal disorders — large portions can cause bloating or diarrhea.
- Patients with severe kidney failure — the large amount of fluid and potassium requires monitoring.
Restrictions apply to three categories of people. These are allergies, which are quite rare, the presence of functional bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, and serious kidney diseases accompanied by kidney failure.
— Oleg Shvets
The Myth About "Cleansing the Body"
The doctor separately debunked the popular belief that watermelon somehow removes toxins. Science does not support this — and the mechanism by which this "cleansing" supposedly works is not described anywhere, because it does not exist.
The idea that watermelon cleanses the body of toxins has no basis in reality. Because it contains over 90 percent water, physiological cleansing processes through the kidneys occur as they should. But there cannot be anything specific where a person ate watermelon and it cleansed them.
— Oleg Shvets
However, the high water content still has real benefits — it supports those cleansing processes that naturally occur in the body through the kidneys.
What Is Actually Beneficial in Watermelon
Besides water, watermelon contains lycopene and other antioxidants that, according to the doctor, are associated with the formation of nitric oxide — a substance that positively affects blood vessel health and may help reduce blood pressure.
Besides water, there are antioxidants such as lycopene. Some of these antioxidants cause the formation of nitric oxide, which has a positive effect on blood vessel health and helps reduce blood pressure. So watermelon is a very useful plant-based product.
— Oleg Shvets
A paradox emerges: a product around which strict warnings multiply every year is actually one of the safest for unlimited consumption. The only question is whether people are ready to trust their own bodies more than the next piece of advice from social media.
