Cucumber vs Lychee – Which is Healthier?

Our Verdict

When comparing cucumber to lychees,we picked the lychees.

Why?

Both seem like foods that are mostly water, and they are, but that doesn’t mean their nutritional qualities should be underestimated:

In terms of macros, the lychee has more carbs and more fiber, but both are low glycemic index foods. Functionally a tie, though we could consider it a nominal win for cucumber.

In the category of vitamins, cucumber has more of vitamins A, B1, B5, and K, while lychees have more of vitamins B2, B3, B6, B9, C, and E. In particular, cucumber has a lot more vitamin K and lychees have a lot more vitamin C. Nevertheless, in terms of overall vitamin coverage, lychees are the clear winner here.

Looking at minerals, cucumber has more calcium, magnesium, manganese, and zinc, while lychees have more copper (especially rich in this), iron, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium. Another convincing win for lychees.

In other considerations, both have an abundance of anti-inflammatory polyphenols, but we could find no strong argument for one being better than the other in this category, just different. Cucumber extract is particularly potent (see the link in the “learn more” section below), but that’s as an extract—you’d have to eat a remarkable number of cucumbers to get that benefit from the food alone. So, we call this round a tie functionally, or else the slenderest of wins for cucumber.

Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for lychees, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!

Want to learn more?

You might like to read:

Cucumber Extract Beats Glucosamine & Chondroitin… At 1/135th Of The Dose?!

Take care!