Cucumbers are one of the food products with the lowest amount of calories; they contain only 15 kcal in 100 g. They are consumed fresh, usually during the summer or canned throughout the whole year.
They supposedly originate from North Asia where they have been grown for over 10 000 years and from where they ended up in India and other parts of Asia. Cucumbers were a popular food product among the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome whose inhabitants used it as food but as a product with a beneficial effect on the skin as well.
The “cradle” of pickles is Spain, which was the first country, back in the ancient times, that started the process of preserving cucumbers and that was all because the Roman Emperors wanted cucumbers only from the Mediterranean countries.
Cucumbers mostly consist of water. They also contain significant amounts of dietary fibers; minerals such as silica, potassium, magnesium and vitamin K and caffeine acid.
A significant content of potassium, as well as magnesium and dietary fibers, make the cucumber an extremely valuable food product on the menu of persons with increased blood pressure.
