Can I still eat bitter melon if its heart turns red?

I believe that many people often eat vegetable foods in their daily diet. Bitter melon is a vegetable that people often eat in their daily diet. However, there are many precautions when eating bitter melon. Many people are confused about whether the bitter melon can still be eaten after the heart of the bitter melon turns red. So, can we still eat bitter melon if its heart turns red?

First, can you still eat bitter melon if its core turns red? When it is fully ripe, it will turn yellow and crack. The flesh inside will turn red and be a little sweet. It can be eaten, but it will not taste good. Supplement: Bitter melon, also known as cool melon, is a plant of the Cucurbitaceae family and is an annual climbing herb. The stems, branches, petioles and pedicels are covered with soft hairs, with tendrils in the axils. The leaves are 3 to 12 cm in diameter, with 5 to 7 deep palmate lobes, the lobes are oval and serrated on the outer edges. It blooms at the turn of spring and summer, and is monoecious and yellow in color. The fruit is oblong, with numerous irregular tubercle-like protrusions on the surface. The seeds are hidden in the fleshy fruit and are covered with a red capsule when ripe. Bitter melon is a favorite vegetable. Its origin is unclear, but it is generally believed to be native to tropical regions. It is widely grown in South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and the Caribbean Islands.

Second, in folk legends, bitter melon has a quality of “not passing on its bitterness to others”. That is, no matter if bitter melon is fried or cooked with any other dish such as fish or meat, it will never pass on the bitterness to the other party. Therefore, some people say that bitter melon “has the virtue and merit of a gentleman” and praise it as “gentleman’s dish”. [8] Bitter melon has a long history of cultivation in India, Japan, and Southeast Asia. It was introduced to Europe in the 17th century and is mostly used for ornamental purposes. Bitter melon was already recorded in China in the Ming Dynasty's "Compendium of Materia Medica" (1406). In the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi wrote the Complete Book of Agricultural Policy (1639), which mentioned that people in the south loved to eat bitter melon. This shows that bitter melon was widely cultivated in southern China at that time and is now distributed throughout China. [4] Bitter melon is named after its taste. Since the word bitter does not sound nice, Cantonese people also call it “liang melon” (Cantonese people do not call it “liang melon” but “ku gua”. It was only after people from other places or other provinces came to Guangdong that they called it “liang melon”). Bitter melon is shaped like a tumor, so it is also called warty melon; the surface of the melon is wrinkled, similar to lychee, so it is also called brocade lychee.

Can you still eat bitter melon if the core turns red? As long as the flesh is not spoiled, it can be eaten. Generally, the seeds turn red because the bitter melon is overripe. Lycopene is a natural pigment with a bright red color. It has a very narrow distribution in nature and is mainly found in foods such as tomatoes, watermelons, red grapefruits, papayas, bitter melon seeds, and guavas. Bitter melon has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying. Generally, bitter melon seeds are soft when they are fresh and tender, just like the seeds in zucchini. They are edible as long as they do not hurt your teeth. But when they feel a little hard when pinched by hand, they are not suitable for eating. As for when the membrane on the surface of the seeds turns red or light red, it means that the bitter melon is mature and a little old.