If you’re carving up a pumpkin for Halloween today don’t throw away the contents, pumpkin is a highly nutritious vegetable, compared to it’s fellow squash family members; sweet potato and butternut squash it contains less carbohydrates and calories but still very nutrient dense(Aziz et al., 2023).
Research has shown many health benefits of pumpkin, it is very rich in vitamins particularly vitamin A which is known to support vision, immunity and maintain skin health. It is high in antioxidants such as beta-carotene and lutein, these help protect cells from getting damaged by oxidative stress. It helps maintain heart health by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol this is thought to be due to it’s high fibre content and essential minerals such as potassium and iron(Batool et al., 2022).
One portion (~250g) of pumpkin provides more than 100% of the UK recommended nutrient intake (RNI) of vitamin A, 28.8% of vitamin C and 16% of potassium and iron as well as being a rich source of fibre. Most of these nutrients are consumed in low amounts across the UK population so including pumpkin into your diet is a great way of fulfilling many nutrient quotas (PHE, 2021).
Don’t discard the pumpkin seeds, give them a rinse under the tap then dry out on kitchen roll and bake in the oven on a low heat (~150oC) for 35-45 minutes. As well as being a rich source of many micronutrients particularly a variety of minerals, they are a fantastic source of essential amino acids, particularly beneficial for those following a vegetarian/vegan diet (Aziz et al., 2023).
There are plenty of ways to cook with pumpkin, soup, muffins, pasta sauce, curry and the classic sweet pie. I’ve shared a recipe from the fantastic cookbook ‘The Green Roasting Tin’ by Rukmini Iyer, it’s a delicious pumpkin recipe for a hearty vegetarian main meal.
References
Aziz, A., Noreen, S., Khalid, W., Ejaz, A., Faiz Ul Rasool, I., Maham,…Uddin, J. (2023). Pumpkin and Pumpkin Byproducts: Phytochemical Constitutes, Food Application and Health Benefits. ACS Omega, 8(26), 23346-23357. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c02176
Batool, M., Ranjha, M., Roobab, U., Manzoor, M. F., Farooq, U., Nadeem, H. R.,…Ibrahim, S. A. (2022). Nutritional Value, Phytochemical Potential, and Therapeutic Benefits of Pumpkin (Cucurbita sp.). Plants (Basel), 11(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11111394
Public Health England. (2021). McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset 2021
MLT Nutrition 