Ajit Karn
Health Benefits of Pumpkin: Fall is in the air, which means comfortable sweaters, colorful foliage, and — you guessed it! — everything pumpkin spice flavored! Who doesn’t enjoy the flavors of autumn and savoring a steaming pumpkin-flavored beverage or snack? I simply adore pumpkin!
Did you know that there are many health benefits of pumpkin, despite it being a tasty autumn treat? It is so! Pumpkin is one of the fruits with the highest nutrient density. It is loaded with fiber, vitamin C, vitamin E, iron, folate, potassium, and beta carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A! Pumpkin is an exceptional nutrient that is also very tasty.
I am so thrilled to share with you a major surprise! However, before I reveal the secret, let’s delve deeper into the health benefits of pumpkin that you may not be aware of.
Health Benefits of Pumpkin
1. Pumpkin is High in Fiber
We have all desired weight loss at some point. The good news is that pumpkin is a nutritionally dense food. This indicates that it is low in calories and rich in essential vitamins and minerals.
Actually, one cup of stewed pumpkin contains only 49 calories. In addition, pumpkin is a high-fiber diet, containing 2.7 grams per cup. Fiber is advantageous for eradicating “bad” cholesterol, modulating blood glucose levels, and maintaining satiety.
In addition, over sixty percent of the fiber in pumpkin is soluble fiber, which absorbs water in the intestine to delay the rate at which your body absorbs glucose into your bloodstream. Additionally, soluble fiber adheres to low-density lipoproteins, or LDL cholesterol, and excretes it from the body.
Consuming more soluble fiber can also aid in fat loss. In one study, a daily increase of 10 grams of soluble fiber decreased abdominal obesity by 3.7%.
The remaining 40% of pumpkin fiber consists of insoluble fiber. It exists in the flesh’s fibrous strands. Insoluble fiber is crucial for digestive health. It controls gastrointestinal movements and promotes a healthy bacterial balance.
2. Pumpkin Facilitates Eye Health
Pumpkin also promotes optimal eye health, which is an additional health benefit. Pumpkins are an excellent source of beta carotene. As stated previously, your body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, which is essential for eye health.
Vitamin A reduces the risk of macular degeneration, a common eye disorder in people over the age of 50, which is one of the most significant advantages of vitamin A for eyesight. The most typical symptom of macular degeneration is impaired vision. The macula is the component of the retina responsible for sharp vision.
The good news is that a one-cup serving of pumpkin contains 9,875 IUs of vitamin A, which falls within the optimal daily range. I recommend consuming between 2,000 and 10,000 IU of vitamin A daily. Therefore, one cup of pumpkin provides the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for eye health.
Additionally, pumpkin contains lutein and zeaxanthin, two carotenoids that shield the epidermis and eyes from UV radiation. These two carotenoids, found in the macula lutea, are produced naturally by your body and act as a natural sunscreen. Age-related eye disease is also associated with adequate levels of lutein and zeaxanthin.
3. Pumpkin Supports Your Skin
The same pumpkin benefits that support ocular health due to its high Vitamin A content also apply to your epidermis. Vitamin A is converted by the liver into retinol, a natural form of vitamin A derived from plant and animal sources. Numerous skin-care products contain retinol, but the majority of retinol in these products is synthesized and chemically modified. Natural retinol promotes the growth of new skin cells and collagen synthesis.
As previously stated, pumpkin is rich in the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which shield the epidermis from UV radiation. UV rays are invisible, but they penetrate the epidermis and cause injury.
These harmful UV rays can penetrate your skin’s interior layers if you are exposed to the sun for too long. Probably, you recognize this as a sunburn. In addition to being exceedingly excruciating, sunburns damage and kill skin cells.
In addition to causing sunburn, excessive solar exposure can cause premature aging, freckles and skin tags, skin cancer, a weakened immune system, and harm to the eyes.
4. Pumpkin Supports Your Immune System
Your immune system is an intricate network of cells and proteins that protects your body from infection. Our immune systems consist of two components: innate and adaptive. Our genetic makeup encodes for innate immunity. This component of your immune system activates your white blood cells to travel to the site of an injury, for instance. Your adaptive immune system, in contrast, actually learns! It maintains a record of every pathogen it has ever eliminated, allowing it to recognize and eliminate it if you encounter it again.
Because it supports the body’s inherent defenses, vitamin A is essential for a robust immune system response. This includes the mucous barriers in your eyes and digestive tract that capture pathogens. Vitamin A also promotes the production of white blood cells, which protect the bloodstream from pathogens.
In addition, pumpkin is rich in vitamin C, which is essential for optimal health and the immune system. Vitamin C promotes a healthful inflammatory response and defends against free radicals.
5. Pumpkin is an Antioxidant
As a result of its high carotenoids content, one of the health benefits of pumpkin is that it is an antioxidant.
Carotenoids are antioxidant compounds that combat the free radicals that cause oxidative injury. Unstable molecules with a disproportionate number of electrons are free radicals. They scour your body for electrons to capture, causing damage to healthy tissue.
Cancer cells generate free radicals, which aids in their rapid multiplication. Antioxidant molecules reduce the reactivity of free radicals by donating an electron to them.
Nevertheless, if there is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants, free radicals will begin to damage your cells, proteins, and DNA. This process is known as oxidative stress, and it can increase your risk of developing heart disease, autoimmunity, and cancer.
You can reduce free radical damage and lower your cancer risk by limiting your exposure to pollutants, managing your stress, and consuming an abundance of antioxidant-rich foods, such as pumpkin.
6. Pumpkin Supports Heart Health
Researchers have discovered a link between oxidative stress and an increased risk of heart disease. As previously stated, foods abundant in antioxidants, such as pumpkin, are free radical scavengers that can reduce the risk of heart disease.
I previously stated that pumpkin is a nutrient-rich substance. Potassium, along with vitamin C, folate, and fiber, is one of these nutrients that promotes cardiac health.
Potassium is one of the body’s most essential minerals. It is also an electrolyte that regulates blood pressure, water balance, muscle contractions, digestion, heart rate, and nerve impulses and conducts electrical impulses throughout the body. Pumpkin contains 564 milligrams of potassium per cup!
Pumpkin is an excellent source of vitamin C, with 11.5 milligrams per cup. Vitamin C has been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, two cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Also read: Are Pumpkin Spice Lattes Bad for You?
One Pumpkin Treat to Avoid
I thoroughly enjoy consuming pumpkin. Nonetheless, I’m not a fan of the inflammatory and hazardous ingredients in a popular autumn pumpkin treat: pumpkin spice lattes sold in most coffee shops.
These do not contain any actual pumpkin, to begin with. In addition, they contain a great deal of sugar, dairy, caffeine, artificial flavors, carrageenan, and preservatives. Not to fear! There is a way to enjoy pumpkin spice lattes without the inflammatory and hazardous ingredients. I will now describe my preferred alternative, which is also rich in protein.
