What are the health benefits of bottle gourd?

Most of the people do not like this guard for some reasons. But basically it is water contained vegetable. It is good for heart related, urinary problems. It controls blood pressure.
It can be eaten by preparing palya (kootu in Tamil) by adding some moongdal.

Bottle gourds have innumerable health benifits since this is a versatile vegetables having myriad benifits be it diabetes, weight loss, kidney disease, heart issues, liver disease etc. It is devoid of fat, mostly being 90 percent of water content but at the same time, it contains high fibre.
The following are the benifits of regular consumption of this vegetables in the form of raw juice-
1) A glass bottle gourd juice would contain around 25 calories and 0.2 GM of fat apart from 3. 5 GM of fibre giving you a feeling of stomach full. This goes into the blood stream slowly due its slow digestion due to fibre and as a result, regular use of bottle gourd juice would reduce your fat.
2) It can reduce your body heat - It reduces your body heat and quenches your thirst due to supplementation of much needed water in your body. It will reenergise the body systems preventing from fatigue.
3) Presence of low glycemic index - Since it contains low glycemic index, it would arrest the spike of sugar level giving the scope of diabetics with less fluctuations of their sugar level.
4) Takes care of Hypertension- Hypertension can be controlled because of low presence of sodium in the bottle gourd juice. It can even reduce your cholesterol level and this will ultimately improve your heart health.
5) Presence of high Alkalinity- Due to same being alkaline in nature, it would be benificial for the gut providing relief from acidity symptoms.
6) Enhances skin glow - Presence of high antioxidants such as Vitamin C would take care of wrinkles and can provide your skin a natural glow.
7) It can arrest diarrhoea- The gourd juice can be consumed by mixing a pinch of salt and can help in arresting the diarrhoea with its soothing effect on the gut.
8) Controls Urine Infection- This is a perfect recipe containing alkalinity capable of flushing the toxins from the urine if the juice is combined with some lemon juice.

We all know that eating vegetables is very good for good health. Bottle gourd is one such vegetable that gives us many health benefits. Taking Juice of this vegetable proved to be very good. The following are some such benefits.
1. Eating bottle gourds will help in reducing stress. This vegetable will have a lot of water content and will give a cooling impact on the body. It will help in getting relaxed/
2, It is good for the heart. Drinking the juice of this vegetable regularly will give you a healthy heart. The blood pressure will be always under control.
3. The bottle gourd juice contains iron, vitamins and potassium. They will help you in reducing your weight.
4. Bottle guard juice mixed with a little sesame oil will give you a good sleep. People who are having sleeping problems can take this regularly for some time and the problem will get solved.
5. These days we see the hair becoming grey even in young persons. This is mainly attributed to air and water pollution, If we take a glass of bottle gourd juice daily the hair will retain its black colour and the texture of the hair will also be maintained.
6. The bottle guard helps in improving digestion. This vegetable is rich in fibre and also have alkali content. It will help in reducing the acidity problem.
7. This juice is a natural cleanser. It will help in removing toxicity from the body. It keeps your skin glowing.

Bottle gourd (Lauki) is full of water (about 92%), it also contains essential vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C Vitamin B, Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Iron, Folate, Potassium, Manganese and calcium.  It helps in maintaining a healthy heart  and brings down bad cholesterol levels. The juice is also beneficial for diabetic patients as it stabilizes the blood sugar level and maintains blood pressure. The best time to have it is in morning. A small glass would just be perfect. Also, one needs to consume the juice immediately as it oxidizes quite fast.Bottle gourd juice has a cooling effect on your body and keeps your body hydrated especially during summers. It keeps your stomach cool and reduces body heat. It helps in weight loss also.

Bottle Gourd is also known as lauki. It is one of the healthy vegetable. It is used in preparing many healthy dishes. There are a lot of benefit from having bottle gourd are as follows:-
1. This vegetable having sedative property which
helps in reducing our stress.
2. It helps in treating sleeping disorder.
3. It is helpful in preventing premature greying hair.
Drink one glass of lauki juice may help in retaining colour and texture of hair
4. lauki juice acts as a natural cleanser and removes toxicity from the body.
5. It controls blood sugar level as well as blood pressure.
6. This vegetable is rich in fibre so It helps in reducing acidity problem.
7. It contains 90% water so It keeps body cool and hydrated in summer season.
8. It contains different mineral and vitamin like potassium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitaminE, Vitamin k. So, It reduce our body weight.

I start this by giving a caution not to resort to self medication just by reading information from general source in internet or otherwise. It is better to consult a doctor for any specific medicinal use.
However one can have some general information to be kept in the background of the mind just for enhancing knowledge.
As the Sanskrit verse says "..... naasti moolamaushadham..."( there is no root/herb that is not medicinal), bottle gourd also has medicinal values.

Ayurveda attributes the following characteristics to bottle gourd: Taste_ tikta (bitter); Veerya-Shheetala -cold; Vishagnja- reducing toxins; etc. In Ph value it is alkaline.

Due to these and many other properties and characteristics, it is used as a vegetable in our daily cooking. That way consumption is more safe and beneficial. It is a good food item for those who are suffering from or prone to acidity. It helps as a diuretic and also as weight managing food because of its negligible calorific values. As it has more solid fibrous content and liquid content, it helps to avoid or ease constipation.
Bottle gourd has many uses as medicine in various indications. But these have to be taken only as per advice of an experienced and qualified Ayurvedic doctor.

Though we see many 'tips' in WhatsApp posts or blogs about curative properties and usage of bottle gourd either as juice or raw vegetable, it is to be done only after consulting a good doctor because even 'Amrit' can become poison if consumed in excess or not in a proper way and dose.

The bottle gourd (lauki or calabash) is a very common vegetable grown mostly in the humid weather of tropical regions of South East Asia and South America. Historically, in addition to eating, it was also dried and used as a hanging bottle jug for keeping some items in the villages. It was known by our ancestors that bottle guard was a soothing food for the stomach and hence was consumed in many stomach ailments. Due to a large amount (about 90-95%) of water in it, the calorie value is too less and is hardly 150 calorie for 1 Kg of it. Further, in the same weight the fat content is very low and to the tune of 10 grams only. At the same time it has good amount of fibre and many minerals and vitamins like Vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, thiamine, iron, magnesium and manganese. Some benefits of the bottle guard are as follows -
1. Due to its rich dietary fibre, it is good in the constipation condition.
2. Having so low a calorie, it is ideal for weight loss programme.
3. The minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins keep the body immune system intact if we take it regularly in our diet.
4. People having diabetic conditions or fat and cholesterol problems can have it without any worry.
5. Its high water content helps in keeping the body hydrated.
6. Due to presence of essential minerals as well as the trace elements it is good for the people having hypertension.
7. It is good for all the people but is especially recommended for the children and elders.
8. In Ayurveda, the bottle gourd juice is recommended for a better health. It is claimed to be useful in the conditions like stomach acidity, indigestion, ulcers, nervous diseases, insomnia, insanity, bronchitis, cough, asthma etc.

This is one of the high water content vegetable so it is good for kidney by eliminating the toxins and by sweating. It has diuretic property so it detoxifies the toxins from our body or in other words it purifies the blood. Most of the skin diseases are caused by impure blood but this bottle guard is good in purifying the blood so it is good for clear healthy glowing skin.

This is Rich in all vitamins like A, B, C, E and K. Good for healthy eyesight. This is rich in potassium and magnesium so this is acts a soldier in protecting your heart. Being a high fibre vegetable is definitely used in treating constipation. This vegetable has quality to protect the body from heat by act as a cooling agent. You can prepare variety of dishes using this vegetable and which is so delicious. This is one of the best remedy for insomnia. This is good for your healthy black long hair.

Since Bottle gourd contents more water it should not be used by the patients of bronchitis, cough, asthma and somany diseses due to coolness. The pregnant ladies can use this to treat edima in legs due to sugar complaint at the stage of pregnancy. In most of the villages the ladies use this for free urination and to less fat in the body.