UFC 100% Watermelon Juice 1000ml

UFC 100% Watermelon Juice is the gold-standard watermelon juice on the market. Known for its refreshing taste and no added nonsense.

This is pure 100% watermelon juice, no added sugar or sweeteners and never from concentrate. 

Made from fresh Thai watermelons for the perfect flavour - it makes the most awesome watermelon mojito (for the more adventurous), or is just as delicious straight out of the fridge with no mixers (for the purists).

And awesome taste aside, watermelon juice contains a number of amino acids including L-Citrulline and L-Arginine which help improve blood circulation. Plus, it contains a powerful antioxidant called Lycopene (commonly found in tomatoes) which can help lower the risk of heart disease.

Its health credentials are as tantalising as the taste.

For those that don't know, UFC stands for Universal Food Company (yep, it was a surprise to us too - we also thought it was Ultimate Fighting Championship at first) and they are one of Thailand's leading manufacturers and processors of fresh fruits, operating since 1969. So you know you're getting expertly-crafted watermelon juice, sourced from local rural farms to help support the Thai farming industry.

We've been working with UFC for over 10 years now, and their products are a firm favourite with our customers.

So, what is L-Citrulline and why does this drink contain a lot of it?

We see an L in front of all the amino acids in proteins - L-Glutamine, L-Lysine, L-Valine, and so on.

We won’t go too deep into science here, because we're not scientists. But put simply, the L refers to the configuration of the amino acid - meaning the configuration of its components are all on the left. The opposite to this would be a D-amino acid, where the configuration of its components all occurs on the right.

D-amino acids are primarily used by bacteria - they aren’t digested well by the human body and have little nutritional value.

L-amino acids are the ones present in protein, and this type of amino acid is of most nutritional importance.

So, with the L out of the way, let’s delve into citrulline itself.

Citrulline is considered a non-essential amino acid.

What does this mean?

It means the body can produce its own citrulline - it doesn’t necessarily NEED it from external sources.

It has been found to have a similar effect to L-Arginine (and it actually is a precursor to this other amino acid, with the body converting citrulline into arginine) - and the effect is that of a vasodilator.

It effectively widens and relaxes blood vessels to allow better blood flow throughout the body.

This may be the reason why citrulline supplementation has been shown to reduce blood pressure, aid with erectile dysfunction, and enhance athletic performance.

Blood pressure, because the wider and more relaxed the arteries, the less resistance ie pressure, in the whole cardiovascular system.

Erectile dysfunction, because the relaxation of blood vessels enhances blood flow to ALL areas, including downstairs.

And athletic performance, because it improves blood flow equally, to muscles - supplying them with more oxygen to cope better with high training intensity and endurance.

Onto the sources of citrulline.

You can obviously supplement with citrulline - provided you choose a reputable brand that follows GMP and can prove the provenance of the raw ingredient. 

But whenever you can source something in reasonable quantity from natural food sources, rather than supplementing, it’s usually the most preferable route. Not least because you probably aren’t just getting a boost of that specific ingredient, but there’ll be other beneficial vitamins, minerals and macronutrients when you consume foods rather than their supplement equivalent, which will usually just give you the core ingredient being advertised on the pack.

Watermelon is known to be the single best natural food source of citrulline.

In fact, citrulline is short for citrullus vulgaris which is latin for watermelon - that’s how closely linked the two are.

Obviously, carving and eating chunks of watermelon every single day can be a bit cumbersome and labour-intensive, so UFC Watermelon Juice is a really convenient way of getting your food-source citrulline levels up. Plus, the bonus is that it tastes amazing, and is super refreshing.