Happy National Watermelon Day!
Watermelon is by far one of my favorite fruits ever. In the summers as a young child, I clearly remember eating a half of a decent sized watermelon all by myself (don’t judge!). Memories are very clear- the slurping that I would do when the juice runs down my chin, how I bit in a piece of watermelon and the juice squirt into my eye, to thinking if I swallowed a seed a watermelon would grow in my belly.
So how did I go from eating all this delicious watermelon to using it on my face as a teenager?
Between the ages of 12-17, I had the absolute worst acne that you can imagine. It completely covered my forehead and nose. Embarrassing was an understatement, especially when you are in middle school and high school. I spent my mornings caking my face with foundation in hopes that it would lessen the blow to my confidence when I headed to school. My acne was so bad during my teenage years that I went on Accutane. If you aren’t familiar with the once FDA-approved drug, it was often prescribed for severe acne. Accutane was originally marketed as a chemotherapy drug (Due to numerous reports of side effects causing severe bowel disease, production of Accutane was stopped in 2009).
When nothing seemed to help with the acne, my mom had me try more natural remedies passed down from my grandmother. As 15-year old at the time, I thought it was some old Chinese folk lore [insert eye roll here]. One of the things that I tried was topically applying watermelon rind to my face. This is the white part of the watermelon just before the skin. Watermelon has antibacterial properties and acts as a natural toner to balance the skin. Eating watermelon is also great for the skin because of its natural anti-inflammatory properties, vitamins and minerals. Watermelon literally hydrates the entire body and skin, to ‘balance’ it out.
So next time you eat that delicious watermelon, don’t get rid of the rind so fast. Even if you do not have acne, it is nature’s toner, and is still beneficial for the skin.
So eat up this summer!
“Watermelon — it’s a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face.”– Enrico Caruso, Opera Singer