30/07/2025
Watermelon for Summer Heat
With Summer heating up, the danger of heat related illness goes up too.
Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are very common especially for those who work and play outside.
Shade, proper hydration, electrolyte supplementation, and cooling when necessary are our first lines of defense, but what else can we use to help prevent and treat heat exhaustion?
In a word, “Watermelon”.
What is heat exhaustion and what causes it?
Dehydration and loss of electrolytes due to overexposure to sunlight and hot environments is the cause.
Heat injury is generally divided into “Heat Exhaustion” which has relatively mild symptoms and “Heat Stroke” or Hyperpyrexia which can be severe and even life threatening.
Symptoms and signs of Heat Exhaustion include: aversion to heat, feverish feelings, profuse sweating, headache, dizziness, thirst, scanty dark colored urine, dry lips/mouth/throat, muscle cramps, rapid pulse, and red tongue tip and sides. Heat Stroke adds more severe symptoms: sweating may stop due to dehydration, body temperature can rise to dangerous levels (>104F), thought processes become cloudy, there may be slurred speech, blurred vision, numbness, and other sensory problems, anxiety, irritability, seizures, or unconsciousness. Both presentations can include nausea and vomiting.
Heat Stroke is a medical emergency. Call an ambulance, get the person into the shade or a cool place and try to reduce their body temperature as quickly as possible. Soaking their clothes, hat, etc with water will increase evaporative cooling, and if ice is available packing it against the major arteries of the armpit, groin and neck can rapidly reduce core temperature.
Heat Exhaustion is treated with rest, shade, hydration, electrolytes, and cooling the body.
Where does watermelon fit in? It provides an easy natural source of hydration and electrolytes.
It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat injury due to Summer Heat. Sweet, moist and cold, it effects the Heart, Stomach, and Bladder. It clears heat from the body, generates fluids, and facilitates urination. Watermelon is particularly helpful for thirst, dark scanty urine, and dry heaves.
Traditional use is to eat a good portion of the flesh or drink 4-12oz of the juice. Southerners will tell you that sprinkling it with a little salt enhances both the flavor and the electrolyte content.
The white part of the watermelon rind is also used. Although it is not as cooling as the flesh it is more diuretic and is commonly used when there is a larger Damp component to the symptoms eg: edema, ascites, heavy feelings of the head and limbs, chest oppression and shortness of breath. The thin outer peel is also used as a tea or broth to treat Summer Heat.
Here are a couple of my favorite recipes to help give you more ideas:
Watermelon Salad:
Cubed Watermelon, sliced cucumber, crumbled feta cheese, thinly sliced fresh mint leaves,
salt, pepper and vinaigrette or citrus dressing
Pickled watermelon rind:
Peel and cube the white part of the watermelon rind. Blanch until just tender. Make a syrup of white vinegar and honey (6:1) and simmer with a couple strips of lemon peel until honey is dissolved. Pour the hot syrup over the rind and leave overnight, adding mint or other herbs and spices as desired. If you want to preserve some for later, remove the rind to hot scalded pint jars, fill with boiling syrup, leaving 1/2” headspace. Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. (adapted from Stocking Up, Carol Hupping et al, Rodale Press, 1986, p233)
Angus J. Towse MSOM - Green Man Natural Health
Photo Credits:
"Desert_of_tabuk" - DanyelODACI, CC BY-SA 4.0
"Watermeleon" - Ibo, CC BY-SA 4.0
, via Wikimedia Commons
