When did Chinese people start eating melon seeds? Emperors of the Ming Dynasty loved them...

If you can't go out to play, you can spend the holiday happily and safely at home. Melon seeds are an indispensable snack for staying at home. How many melon seeds have you eaten during this Spring Festival? Let's talk about melon seeds!

Why can’t I stop cracking melon seeds?

Although melon seeds are not particularly delicious, eating melon seeds seems to have a kind of magic that makes people unable to stop. Even if their mouths are dry, their lips are parched, and their tongues are blistered, they still can't help but eat handfuls after handfuls. Why is this?

The activity of cracking melon seeds can actually be broken down into several small activities of cracking a melon seed. Small activities are easier to implement than large activities, and small goals are easier to achieve than large goals. The melon seed shell creates a small obstacle for people to enjoy the delicious food, but it is easy to overcome and it is easy to master the skills. In the single, small activity of cracking a melon seed, the time span between the participant's behavior (cracking melon seeds) and the result (eating the melon seeds) is short, which means that the feedback from the effort is timely, making it easier for the participant to establish a causal relationship between behavior-effort-feedback, and it is easy to be satisfied psychologically, which motivates you to repeat the process continuously.

When did Chinese people start eating melon seeds?

Melon seeds are nothing more than sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds. The seeds of other melons either cannot be mass-produced or cannot be eaten as snacks.

The custom of eating melon seeds has been popular in my country since the Ming Dynasty. From a historical perspective, watermelon seeds are truly "old". The earliest record of edible watermelon seeds was in the Yuan Dynasty's "Wang Zhen's Agricultural Book": "(Watermelon) seeds are dried and the kernels are taken out, which is easy to use for tea." In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, no other melon seeds could shake the status of watermelon seeds. Moreover, the custom of eating melon seeds was introduced into the palace. The Ming Dynasty's "Zhuo Zhong Zhi" recorded that Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun "liked to use fresh watermelon seeds and roast them with a little salt."

Although sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are also members of melon seeds, they are only popular in modern times. Sunflowers and pumpkins are both American crops, and were introduced to China in the first half of the 16th century, that is, during the Jiajing period of the late Ming Dynasty. Pumpkin seeds became popular in the late Qing Dynasty, and sunflower seeds became popular in the Republic of China. In other words, watermelon seeds alone have supported the long-standing folk custom of eating melon seeds, and their status has not changed even after sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds became common snacks.

Do foreigners eat melon seeds?

So, are Chinese people the only ones who eat melon seeds? It seems that it is rare to see people eating melon seeds in foreign movies or TV series. Do foreigners not eat melon seeds?

Americans don't like to eat hard-shelled foods such as melon seeds, which may be related to their fast-paced lifestyle. But they will also eat shelled melon seeds, just as a decoration when baking bread and cookies. In Germany and France, people think that melon seeds are eaten by birds and hamsters, not human food.

But the Spanish, like us, are particularly fond of melon seeds. Especially for fans watching the game, melon seeds are their "best companion". The Spanish eat melon seeds faster than the Chinese. However, Spanish melon seeds are basically original, without so many spices, and even less salt.

In addition, people in most Asian countries also eat melon seeds, especially in Southeast Asia. In countries across Asia and Europe, such as Russia and Turkey, people also like to eat melon seeds. But Japan is an exception. In Japan, almost no one eats melon seeds. Because Japan is a country that attaches great importance to etiquette, they believe that putting food in the mouth and then taking it out is very impolite.

Is eating melon seeds the same as drinking oil?

During the Chinese New Year, the whole family sits together, chatting and eating melon seeds. However, there is a scary saying circulating on the Internet that melon seeds contain a lot of oil, and eating melon seeds is like drinking oil. Is this true?

Take fried melon seeds as an example. For every 100 grams of sunflower seeds, the edible part after peeling is 50 grams, and the fat content is about 25 grams. The Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that the daily intake of edible oil per person should not exceed 25 grams to 30 grams. Although there is no essential difference between the fat we consume from melon seeds and the fat we consume from sunflower oil, it is a bit exaggerated to say that eating melon seeds is equivalent to drinking oil.

Because, although the fat content in melon seeds accounts for about half, the fat in melon seeds is mainly oleic acid and linoleic acid, saturated fat accounts for only 14%, and there is no cholesterol. The right amount of oleic acid and linoleic acid can reduce total cholesterol and "bad cholesterol", which is good for the body. In addition, melon seeds also contain 20%-30% protein, as well as a large amount of important nutrients such as vitamin E, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, calcium, selenium and dietary fiber. But you can't eat too many melon seeds, otherwise you may cause high blood lipids and obesity risks due to excessive intake of calories and fat.