Pumpkin Nutrition Facts and Tasty Recipes

Sure when you hear the word "pumpkin", you imagine the autumn holidays, as Halloween and Thanksgiving. But it is not only the fall fun, but also very useful vegetable (though botanists affirm that pumpkin is a fruit). Pumpkin consists of a shell, occupying 15-17% of the total weight, the flesh - 70-75%, and seeds - no more than 10-11% of the total weight.

Pumpkin flesh is gentle, of yellow color. It contains vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, E, niacin, such elements as magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, silicon and copper. The great number of pectins, contained in the pumpkin, helps to remove the excess of harmful cholesterol from the body. Pumpkin seeds are useful for male potency. Also they can be eaten on an empty stomach to expel helminths.

Pumpkin fiber is soft, so it is a valuable dietary product. Pumpkin has a positive effect on people suffering from gastroenteric diseases. Stewed, boiled pumpkin and pumpkin porridge are particularly useful for people with high acidity of gastric juice. Doctors and nutritionists include mashed pumpkin in nutrition of patients with gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. Pumpkin helps to form ulcers’ scars quicker.

Raw pumpkin promotes the separation of bile and helps to get rid of chronic constipations by stimulating peristalsis of intestine. For therapeutic purposes, it is recommended to eat 250-300 g grated pumpkins per a day before meal, dividing it into three parts. You can cook soups, porridges, salads, pancakes, pies, juice and so on. Here you can find some easy recipes.

Salad from pumpkin

You will need:
- 150 g of pumpkin;
- 4-6 apples;
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice;
- 1-2 teaspoons of honey;
- lemon peel;
- ¼ cup of chopped walnuts;
- bag of coconut shavings.

Preparation:
Grate pumpkin and apples and mix. Add lemon juice, lemon peel, honey, mix again and sprinkle with walnuts and coconut.

Milk soup with pumpkin

You will need:
- 1 liter of milk;
- 3 tablespoons of semolina;
- 250 g of pumpkin;
- salt, sugar, butter to your taste.

Preparation:
Cook a porridge from milk and semolina and boil for 10 minutes. Grate the pumpkin and add to the porridge, stir, add salt, sugar and butter. Boil again and take away. Serve up the soup both hot and cooled.

Porridge with pumpkin

You will need:
- 400 g of pumpkin;
- ½ cup of rice;
- ½ cup of millet;
- 2 cups of milk;
- sugar and salt to your taste.

Preparation:
Clean pumpkin and cut into small pieces, put in the pot, pour some water and parcook. Then add sugar, salt, washed rice and millet, pour milk and cook until done.

Unmask Nutrition Myths!

How often we prefer one food to another being blind and absolutely automatically? All the time, practically. Adults as usual lose the use of straining ears to their body. We prefer to choose food in accord with our gustatory preferences, eating habits, apprehensions about new food and, for sure nutrition myths. We succeed our parents' myths; willingly adopt our friends’ nutrition ideas. Most people suffer from different nutrition myths, those essentially are nonsense.

So, let’s look narrowly at the problem. Most common nutrition myths are:

All alcohol is bad for you. In fact it is… but if you have a look at it as at a common product, you’ll realize it is not more harmful than sweeties. The quantity alters cases. All alcohol is an anticoagulant and red wine also contains antioxidants, so drinking a small amount (about 12 ounces) daily can be innocent and even beneficial.

Vitamin supplements are necessary for everyone. If you eat a variety of fruits, ground-grown vegetables, and whole grains and the right quantity of calories, you don't need to supplement. Special vitamin supplements are usually recommended for pregnant women and sores or people with nutritional disorders.

Eating immediately after a workout or sport exercise will improve recovery. Endurance athletes really need to take it immediately after the sport exercise to compensate glycogen stores, and a small amount of protein with the drink intensifies the effect. Others do not need to eat immediately following their workout.

Diabetes can be prevented by eating foods of low glycemic index. This is a widely used nutrition myth. It is not truth; this disease is caused by the body's resistance to insulin. Foods high on the glycemic index can cause glucose levels to spike, but this is just a marker of diabetes existence, not the cause.

Eggs raise your cholesterol. The egg yolks really have the most concentrated amount of cholesterol of any food. But in fact, there's not enough cholesterol there to increase health risks, if eggs are eaten reasonably. Studies suggest that eating one egg per day don’t raise your cholesterol levels. Considering the fact that eggs are actually a great source of nutrients they can’t be excluded from your daily diet.

You need extra protein to build muscle mass. Not true, in fact. There won’t be any changes if you are not doing significant weight training at the same time and increasing your strain.

So the main aim of this article is to show you that there are nutritional myths and you’d better become referring to your food more critically and consciously.