5 reasons to love pumpkin

I love the autumn – the crisp mornings, trees turning beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow and there’s also some of my favourite produce in season, including the pumpkin.   Pumpkin is highly nutritious and can be used in many ways, for both savoury and sweet dishes.  Because they’re in season now, you can grab a big pumpkin now for under $4 in many shops.

It seems that NZ is one of the few countries that is passionate about pumpkin! In other countries they are often used for stock food! In the US only 1% of the pumpkins grown are used as food,  often they’re bought for Halloween decorations.

Here’s 5 reasons to include pumpkin in your diet:

1. Pumpkin is an excellent source of carotenoids – these give orange vegetables their colour. But they’re not just for show. Carotenoids act as antioxidants within the body, helping to protect the body from free radicals which can cause damage within the body.
2. As mentioned above, pumpkin contains carotenoids. Pumpkin is a good source of the pro-vitamin A carotenes  which our bodies convert to Vitamin A.
3. A ½ cup serve of baked pumpkin contains just over half your daily intake of vitamin C.  It’s also a source of potassium, fibre and vitamin E.
4. Pumpkin also contains the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. These are thought to be of importance for eye health and play a role in maintaining healthy vision and protecting against eye problems, including macular degeneration and cataracts.
5. Believe it or not, pumpkin is much lower in carbohydrate than other vegetables of similar texture such as potato or kumara. Not that there is anything wrong with carbohydrate. It just means pumpkin goes towards your non starchy vegetables with your 5 plus a day, rather than your carbohydrate serve. 100g of pumpkin contains 9.1g of carbohydrate per 100g, compared to 18-19g per 100g in potato and kumara.

Ps if you hate pumpkin, don’t force it down – other orange vegetables are also beneficial for your health!

My favourite way to eat pumpkin is roasted and in a pumpkin soup. These are a couple of my favourite recipes.  And I’m going to share my new favourite pumpkin soup recipe with you all soon!

Roast pumpkin and feta dip

Roast pumpkin, carrot and sunflower seed quinoa salad

References:

vegetables.co.nz

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