HAPPY HYDRATION DAY!… During the current heatwave sweeping the nation we really should be wishing each other Happy Hydration EVERY Day all Summer long! …
Yes, good quality water is optimal for good health — but it’s not the only way to stay well hydrated. Consuming a good amount of high-water content veggies and fruits is a wonderful way to support your great hydration goals when the weather’s hot and humid …
Cucumbers and watermelons (and other types of melons) have the highest water content of all vegetables and fruits. They are genetically related to one another and each genus/species originates from the continent of Africa, from the very same regions where the majority of African-Americans and Black people throughout the Americas/New World also originated. These crops arrived here in conjunction with the trans Atlantic slave trade. Enslaved (and later Emancipated) Africans in the Americas cultivated watermelons when and wherever they were able to have subsistence gardens and consuming the fruit provided much needed hydration not only to simply survive but also to be able to work from sun up til beyond sundown in sweltering Summer heat throughout the south eastern US, oft times without consistent access to potable water. They were also the primary purveyors of watermelons in America until shortly after ‘Reconstruction’ which had not only helped popularize the fruit across racial, ethnic and cultural lines to become the quintessential Summer fruit it is today but also was one of the most viable source of income for Black growers / producers — until bigger picture forces and factors ended that almost entirely...
In addition to recognizing the unspeakable horrors and enduring injustices that resulted from that largest forced mass migration in human history (that spanned centuries), I say we all oughta give gratitude to the generations of these ancestors across millennia for having cultivated such life saving crops that are today enjoyed the world over, once revered — but frankly much more taken for granted in modern times….
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