Honeydew Melons for Fighting Off the Winter Blues

Each year I suffer from winter depression. I am not sure if it is from lack of sunshine and warmth, or a diet consisting of a lot less fresher foods than I am use to nourishing my body with in the summertime. All I know is that when wintertime comes it is time to bring out the honeydew melons. Honeydew melons contain vitamin B6, which is an essential nutrient that is needed by not just my body, but also everyone’s body to help keep the brain functioning properly. B6 prevents moods from going up and down too much causing depression, anxiety, panic attacks and other mental illnesses. I find adding honeydew melons to my diet in the wintertime helps prevent some of the wintertime blues I get during this cold dreary season.

What exactly are honeydew melons?

My grandma use to call honeydew melons muskmelons. I think the name honeydew is a more appealing name for this light green melon with a sweet fleshy juicy inside and pale green skin colored rind. The tasty melon is about the same size as a cantaloupe and is filled with seeds in the center, which can be scooped out leaving you with the fleshy green melon inside. The melon can be chilled in the refrigerator and than sliced up into slices like watermelon for a healthy fruity snack. I however, prefer chunking the melon up into bite sized pieces and making melon fruit salad cups with it. Sometimes I even enjoy adding them to smoothies or juicing recipes to add sweetness and nutrients to help enhance my mood to a more upbeat one when I am feeling the winter blues come on.

The Nutrients in Honeydew Melons that Promote a Positive Mood

For at least five years now, I have been adding honeydew melons to my wintertime diet because they contain B complex vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B9. B complex vitamins in general and especially B6 help keep the brain functioning healthily so your moods do not become out of whack under stressful situations such as environmental change, being overly worked and physical and mental drained. When the body lacks B vitamins, the neurotransmitters within the body do not communicate with the nerves in the brain well at all creating all kinds of havoc on the body and not just rapid mood changes.

While B vitamins are essential for other all happiness within the mind and body, they are not the only vitamins needed to help keep you feeling upbeat. Other nutrients in honeydew melons that up keep you from having behavioral changes are vitamin C and zinc for a healthy immune system. When the immune system is poor, the body is physically and mentally stressing, causing illness. When you are ill, your mood tends to be down in the dumps. Once way to prevent illness is to keep a healthy dose of vitamin C and zinc in your daily diet too. I know for me eating honeydew melons in the winter time helps me get all the B vitamins, vitamin C and zinc my body needs to be healthy and strong so I can think clearly and be happy till the cold dreary season passes.

Other Reasons Why Honeydew Melons can Help Fight the Winter Blues

When I think of summertime, I think of honeydew melons. When I eat honeydew melons in the wintertime it reminds me of the happy warmth of the sun in the summertime, which helps improve my mood when I am feeling depressed in the cold dreary months. Even the appearance off the honeydew melon with its lovely light green color brings a feeling of life and happiness into the heart and mind I have noticed. After all, green is the color of life and energy, and life and energy is always needed in my life during the wintertime.

A Honeydew Melon Mood Boosting Recipe

On cloudy cold days of winter is when I get super depressed because it is too cold for me to go outside for fresh air. I have chronic asthma and an autoimmune disease that causes horrible aches and pains in chilly weather, which leaves me with the option of staying inside until it is warmer and safer for me to go out and enjoy some fresh air. Staying inside a lot can cause a lot of depression because I do not feel alive. Instead, I feel trapped. One of the ways I help boost my mood to a more positive one on days when I feel dead to the world is with a honeydew melon mood-boosting smoothie.

To make the smoothie you will need one cup of a vanilla frozen yogurt, two cups of chunked honeydew melon and a cup of your favorite-chunked melons, and a cup of melon juice. I personally like to use a mix of watermelon and cantaloupe because I feel these melons taste good with honeydew melon. If you cannot find melon juice, just make up some with a juicer if you have one. If you want to add more sweetness to your smoothie, add in some nectar or honey. Once you have all your ingredients, place them into a blender and puree away until you get a smooth creamy greenish melon smoothie. Although the color might look more brownish depending the other melons you use in the smoothie. Once the smoothie is made, sip it down and enjoy the happiness it can bring to you in the winter months.

Honeydew Melon Bath Soak

Another way I fight away the winter blues in the cold winter months is with a honeydew melon bath soak. To make a honeydew melon bath soak, simply juice a honeydew melon in a juicer, add a cup of liquid Castile oil soap and a half a cup of honey to the juice, and combined. After, pour the homemade honeydew melon bath soak into a hot bath, get into the bath, and soak for as long as you can. I find the longer I soak in the honeydew melon bath the more stress free I become. In addition, the vitamin C in the honeydew melon bath soak really helps give me glowing skin, which I absolutely love.

Bottom Line

There are endless ways a honeydew melon can rid you of the winter blues. I know this because I have used all these methods and they have works for me well. I hope those of you with the winter blues can rid them away too with some of this helpful information I have just shared.