Pumped About Pumpkin

Ah yes, the pumpkin – a vegetable as synonymous to the fall season as fresh corn on the cob is to the summer. But as a staple in the Thanksgiving feast, most people associate pumpkin with the not-so-healthy of food fare, namely, pumpkin pie.

Now I’m not about to say that pumpkin pie is a great way to rev your heart up or to jumpstart your nutrition goals (though a slice of pumpkin pie one day a year isn’t going to hurt you). But believe it or not, many people use pumpkin in their Thanksgiving meal for things other than     dessert, like as toppings for salads (pumpkin seeds), in soups, or in whole wheat breads and pastas.

The reason I’m always pumped about using pumpkin in recipes is due, of course, to the natural health promoting properties in what Native Americans used to refer to it as isqoutm squash.

For one thing, pumpkins are packed with vitamin A and potassium. Its richness in potassium, a nutrient essential for the brain and muscle cell contraction, combines nicely with potatoes – another vegetable rich in potassium that tends to occupy the majority of Thanksgiving table settings. Pumpkins are also rich sources of beta carotene, vitamin C, and carotenoids – an antioxidant found predominantly in orange-colored vegetables that help boost the immune system.

When most people make use of raw pumpkin, they harvest out all its gooey innards but give short shrift to its seeds. That would be OK if it weren’t for the fact that its seeds are probably the most nutritionally potent part of the pumpkin.

Pumpkin seeds have long been known to carry health promoting properties, as Native Americans harvested them not only for their nutritional bona fides, but for their medicinal muster as well (used as a balm for the digestive tract, such as for laxative purposes or as a means to rid the tract of parasites).

One often sees baseball players chomping on pumpkin seeds in the dug out, on the mound or in left field. And the boys of summer couldn’t be chewing on a more healthful food source, as pumpkin seeds are the perfect play for protein, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and a certain amino acid that tends to be in abundant supply on Thanksgiving day – tryptophan.

While the health benefits of pumpkin and pumpkin seeds are great for both men and women, they’re particularly good for men, promoting prostate health, preventing deterioration of bone density and alleviating arthritis symptoms. In animal studies on the effects of pumpkin seeds in the treatment of arthritic conditions, pumpkin seeds were shown to have similar positive benefits as commonly prescribed arthritis medications. The difference, though, was that unlike indomethacin, a commonly prescribed arthritis drug that’s been shown to exacerbate damaged lining in the joints through lipid peroxidation, there were no side effects observed with pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin doesn’t have to be associated with soggy pies or sugary sweets. One can spice up a Thanksgiving meal with pumpkin seeds by adding oven roasted seeds to green salads, or crushing them up in a bowl and making them available to guests for some other favorite side dishes. Pumpkin and pumpkin seeds are a great way to keep the Thanksgiving holiday one that’s not all about eating as much as possible, but about eating as healthfully as possible. Including pumpkin, especially pumpkin seeds, is just one way of keeping healthy eating relevant to Thanksgiving – a day where we express gratitude for the health we have.