Pumpkin – Power Food for Dieters

Pumpkins are sweet, creamy and delicious. But pumpkins are more than just a Thanksgiving treat, they are power food for dieters. This great tasting food is not only low-fat and low-calorie – it provides a powerful punch of nutrition to keep diseases away, and can even help you with your diet. Read on to find out why.

Pumpkins are packed with fiber that are great for elimination of body wastes. Eat pumpkins to fight bloating and keep a regular toilet schedule. Aside from this, you will get a unique combination of phytonutrients that combat cancer.

You might be interested to know that the squash or pumpkin is not really a vegetable. This nutritional superstar is actually a fruit. It’s a gourd like melons that is cheap and available all year round. Canned pumpkin is actually a very good substitute when it’s not available fresh. Just make sure it’s not pumpkin pie filling okay?

So why exactly is pumpkin a nutritional power food? It is jampacked with fiber, pantothenic acid, magnesium, vitamins C and E. What is especially good unique about pumpkin is what nutrition experts call a “synergistic combination or carotenoids”. That just means pumpkin contains a good combination carotenoids – beta-carotene and alpha carotene. Just a half cup serving of pumpkin gives us two-times the daily recommended dietary intake of disease fighting alpha and beta carotenes!

Eating pumpkins – the power food for dieters can help you fight cancer – particularly lung, colon, bladder, cervix and skin cancers. The UK’s landmark Nurses’ Health Study shows that women who included enough carotenes in their diets had the lowest incidence of breast cancer.

Carotenoids also combat heart disease. In a long term study spanning more than 10 years, researchers saw a link between low carotenoid levels in the blood and higher incidence of heart disease. Those with less risk for heart disease showed higher concentrations of carotenoids. However, both beta and alpha carotenes had to be combined. The exact combination you will get from eating pumpkins.

If you are trying to keep trim and look young, pumpkins also have benefits you will be interested in. The fiber will not only help prevent colon cancer, it will keep your bowel movements regular. Bonus: less bloating! Just a cup of creamy good pumpkin will give you a whopping 5 grams of fiber. Much better than your typical breakfast cereal. The unique concentration of alpha and beta carotenes have significant anti-aging properties. Taking beta carotene alone is not enough to help fight wrinkles. You need to have the alpha and beta combination.

Pumpkin is best served baked – no need to add sugar or other diet-busting additives. Pumpkin is so sweet and good enough on it’s own you can eat it straight from the hull after baking or mash it up with a little low fat milk and a tad salt and pepper for a great side dish. Who wouldn’t want some sweet pumpkin pudding?

So eat your serving of pumpkin everyday to stay young, fight cancer – and help you keep slim. It’s a yummy way to get some much needed fiber into your diet!