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Use Your Melon for a Tasty Snack

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You might turn to a sugary popsicle or creamy, fattening ice cream to cool you down when it's sweltering outside, but if you're still interested in looking great in that bikini for the last remaining weeks of summer, then you might want to consider another snack.

Watermelon and its sweet cousins, honeydew and cantaloupe, can provide you with that sugar fix while providing a bounty of health benefits. Watermelon itself is fat-free and contains, as you might guess, a lot of water. In fact, natives in Africa would carry them as a means of hydration. Picking a perfectly sweet and juicy melon isn't difficult.

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Give the fruit a thump - if it sounds hollow, then it's ripe. Look at the spot where it lay on the ground. If it's yellow, then it's ready for picnicking. It should be heavy when you pick it up as well. Watermelon, like tomatoes, another late-summer favorite, is rich in lycopene, a cancer-fighting antioxidant. It's a great source of vitamin C and fiber as well. Enjoy watermelon with protein-rich foods like burgers. The only down side of eating watermelon is its high glycemic index, which means it might initially give you energy and lead to a crash later.