Are you wondering how much lysine is in cucumber? Here’s your answer!
1/2 cup of sliced cucumber (52g) has 15mg of lysine. However, if you’re trying to prevent a herpes virus-related outbreak through your diet (e.g. herpes, shingles, Epstein Barr/EBV, and other viruses in the herpes family) then that’s not all you need to be looking for. You also need to know two other very important things; the amount of arginine the food contains AND the ratio of lysine to arginine.
Here’s your quick answer for cucumber:
1/2 cup of sliced cucumber (52g) has 23mg of arginine
Total lysine to arginine ratio = 0.7 to 1
Here’s WHY you need to know that:
If you have a herpes-related virus like the ones mentioned above (and like me!), and you’re trying to prevent yourself from having an outbreak, then it doesn’t matter if a food has a high amount of lysine; if it has MORE arginine, then it can cause an outbreak.
Why? Because lysine and arginine have an antagonistic relationship and compete for absorption in your body. More lysine? No outbreak! More arginine? Outbreak city!
If the food/your meal has a little more arginine than lysine, you might be okay, but if it has a lot more arginine than lysine, it can definitely cause an outbreak. Why? Because arginine feeds the herpes virus and causes it to multiply rapidly.
I learned this the hard way through multiple, ongoing, super painful, aggravating, frustrating, confusing, exhausting, emotional roller coaster rides in the herpes amusement park! Ok ok, it was NOT amusing lol. But I like to make light of it. A smile and a little humor goes a long way with healing imho. : )
If you want scientific data on the relationship between lysine and arginine, here is an article on PubMed you can check out with more info: Relation of arginine-lysine antagonism to herpes simplex growth in tissue culture.
I hope this info has been helpful for you! If you want to learn more about lysine and arginine, but want a simple, easy-to-understand explanation, check out my other post: Which foods cause herpes outbreaks? (It’s relevant for any herpes-related virus like the ones I previously mentioned!)
Want to look up the lysine and arginine ratio of other foods?
Here are two options!
- You can search individually for them on the USDA FoodData Central website for FREE. Yay free!!
or - You can save yourself tons of time and grab a copy of my Lysine vs Arginine Food Ratio Charts below. Check them out! : )
The Lysine vs Arginine Food Ratio Charts
This is a 60+ page quick reference guide I put together to help people just like you and I who are focusing on preventing herpes virus-related outbreaks through our diets.
The data is formatted in a way that makes it easy for you to see not only the lysine and arginine content of each food, but more importantly, its ratio of lysine to arginine.
Save yourself hours of time. I did the hard work so you don’t have to! This clear, concise quick reference guide contains all the info you need and nothing you don’t.
Keep your life simple with this go-to reference guide and never again worry about doing multiple searches over and over, then sorting through unnecessary info to find out what you really want to know…
HOW MUCH LYSINE VS ARGININE DOES THIS FOOD HAVE? All of that info is now condensed and right at your fingertips at a moment’s access.
The foods in each chart have been sorted with the highest (best) lysine to arginine ratio at the top, and the lowest at the bottom. This way, it’s easy for you to know which foods are safe and which to be careful with.
Here’s a sample image of one of the pages inside to give you an idea of what you’ll be getting. (There are 11 pages for veggies alone!)
Sample Page: Lysine to Arginine Ratio of Vegetables
To be clear, the Lysine to Arginine Quick Reference Guide contains specially designed Lysine to Arginine Food Ratio Charts. The charts don’t contain any of the other nutritional data such as protein, carbohydrates, etc.
It only contains the vital info you need to decide the following:
- Whether you can consume a certain food by itself (for the foods with more lysine than arginine)
- Whether you need to combine that food with a high lysine food to balance it out (for those that have slightly more arginine than lysine)
- Whether you might be better off avoiding that food entirely (for the foods that are super high in arginine compared to lysine. I call these the outbreak party starters lol.)
It was specially designed for people like you and me who are trying to consume high lysine, low arginine foods in order to prevent herpes virus-related outbreaks.
Get your copy today and use it for the rest of your life! Easy peasy! 🙂
