Watermelon Most Healthful at Room Temp

Sure. Watermelon tastes better cold, but everyone knows that there’s no accounting for taste. There is however, accounting for nutrition, and scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have just accounted for varying levels of lycopene, associated with beneficial health effects, in watermelon served at different temperatures. The New York Times reports that researchers used three different types, or cultivars, of watermelon,
storing them separately at 41 degrees (refrigerator temperature), 55
degrees and 70 degrees for 14 days. At 41 and 55 degrees, the paper reports, the lycopene content changed little compared with
fruit fresh off the vine. But the content when stored at room
temperature increased as much as 40 percent in some types. The Times quotes a food technologist from the USDA advising readers that the lycopene boost will only work with whole watermelons. Cut watermelons must be kept cold to avoid turning to mush.
Read the whole complicated research paper here.