It’s Fall, people! 😃🍁 I think it’s my favorite season of the year. I love the fall colors, the pumpkin decor everywhere and mostly - pumpkin spice everything! Yum! 😋
Though October is the launch of the season of gluttony (I always say that once October hits, we will hit the new year in a blink of an eye), there are plenty of healthful foods that are part of the tradition.
The food I want to highlight here is pumpkin. Do you love pumpkin? I certainly do! Not only is pumpkin versatile, delicious in sweet AND savory dishes, it’s also nutritious.
Without getting too “sciency” on you, here are 5 reasons to eat pumpkin:
1 It only has 50 calories per cup. A cup of pumpkin is filling, most people won’t be able to eat more than that (and if you can, so what, you STILL won’t get calorie overload!). If you are craving something sweet, you could just sprinkle your pumpkin (roasted, fresh pureed or canned) with some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (get my homemade pumpkin pie spice recipe here - it’s so much better than store-bought!) and a little stevia or monk fruit sweetener and voila, you have a very low-calorie, low-sugar craving buster!
2 It’s chock full of vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A and C, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and even small amounts of iron and zinc. Plus it has a good supply of antioxidants like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin, purported to help neutralize free radicals.
3 It has low sugar content and is a good source of fiber. This means that it won’t cause a blood sugar spike that can set off another slew of unwanted reactions, like energy crashing, sugar cravings and other undesirables that sugar spikes cause for your health.
4 It’s easy to prepare and versatile, so you can throw it in just about any recipe, from chili, and salads to pancakes, cookies and even in your latte (add ½ a teaspoon into your coffee, mix very well and then top with your milk of choice and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice)! When my kids were small and they wanted mac and cheese, I would make it homemade and add a couple of tablespoons of pumpkin to it. It made me feel good to give this not-the-healthiest dish a boost of nutrients and the kiddos were none the wiser since the orange color just blended right in!
5 Don’t forget about the seeds! Pumpkin seeds are full of fiber (when the hulls are not removed), plus a good source of protein and healthy fats. It also has minerals similar to those you find in the pumpkin itself. However, since the seeds have fat, where pumpkin flesh does not, the seeds are not as low calorie as the pumpkin flesh, providing around 125 calories per ounce, so it’s not a free for all. Keep your portion to around a handful.
Besides the fiber and other nutrients, another perk of eating pumpkin seeds is that they are full of tryptophan and, along with its magnesium content, can help you get a good night's sleep. The tryptophan can also help boost your mood by boosting serotonin production, so an ounce for an evening snack or really any time of the day when you need a lift can be beneficial.
Of course you can just buy pumpkin seeds, but if you have a fresh pumpkin, you can roast those seeds and add some flavorings to them too!
For savory seeds, try adding garlic powder, paprika (I love smoked!), a little salt and a drizzle of olive oil.
For sweet seeds, try cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (my favorite), a sprinkle of sucanat (or the most unprocessed sugar you can find) and a drizzle of coconut oil.
If you like sweet/spicy, sprinkle some cayenne powder on this!
Bake at 400 degrees F for around 7 minutes, but keep an eye on them because they will burn quickly!
By the way, Jack O’Lantern pumpkins aren’t really very delicious. You could eat them, of course, but they aren’t going to be as sweet and are more fibrous than the pumpkins you buy in the produce section of the supermarket or at your farmer’s market.
I also wanted to share a little experiment I tried just the other day. I roasted some pumpkin along with some garlic cloves to use in a recipe, and I had some left over. I decided to make pumpkin soup out of it by just adding some homemade chicken bone broth and a sprinkle of salt and then pureeing it all with an inversion blender. I tossed in some fresh thyme and voila, pumpkin soup in less than 5 minutes! I actually added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to it and it was surprisingly good! You could also add a swirl of plain yogurt.
I hope this information was helpful and that you decide to incorporate more pumpkin and pumpkin seeds into your diet. By the way, pumpkin is not just for the fall, it’s available, delicious and nutritious all year ‘round! 😊
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