Are you willing to stand in long queues in doctor’s clinic, and consume lot of harmful allopathic medicines? Why not spare a little time to prepare yourself these nutrient-rich super foods for your optimum health while strengthening your immune system?
Please find the first part of this article here.
Pumpkin is a good source of fiber, vitamin C and E, copper, potassium, magnesium, manganese and phosphorous, iron, protein and zinc. A cup of cooked pumpkin provides you about 3g fiber and 50 calories, five times the USRDA for vitamin A, 10% of the minimum requirement for potassium, making it the perfect healthy addition to your daily diet. Besides, pumpkin is chock full of beta carotene, lutein and caratenoid pigments like alpha-carotene. Apart from that, its pulp is rich in pro-vitamin A, vitamin E and C, carbon hydrates, salt and minerals. Its seeds contain resines and enzymes with antihelmintic properties, while its core contains lecithin, peporesine, tyrosine, phosphorus, vitamins B and A which help the body in regeneration process and delaying the aging process. According to USDA nutrient database, 100 g (about 3.5 oz) of raw pumpkin contains the nutrient as follow:
6.5g carbohydrate, 12mg magnesium, 16 μg folate (vit. B9), 0.1g total fat, 0.05g saturated fat, 0.8mg iron, 0.32g zinc, 0.5g dietary fiber, 21mg calcium, 3100 μg β-carotene, 340mg potassium and 1mg sodium.
Winter crookneck squash, field pumpkin, butternut squash, cushaw squash, cucumber, gourds, zucchini, scallop summer squash, giant pumpkins, and etc.
Take one serving for every 2-3 days. ½ cup of cooked winter squash or pumpkin is considered one serving. As pumpkin juice is high in acidity which might have indulged ulcer, you are recommended to drink it three times a day. It should be taken half an hour before each meal. The pumpkin seeds should be eaten raw instead of being roasted as the roasting may have weakened lots of its nutrients. Alternatively, the whole seeds can be added to salads, cereals, cookies, and steamed vegetables, while its ground seeds can be added to burgers.
Lowering the risk of getting variety types of cancers, including lung, colon, bladder, cervical, and breast cancer; protecting against heart disease; being useful in cases of dyspepsia, menopause disorder, hormonal disorder, intestinal parasites or sexual hyper-excitability and constipation; soften the skin, diminishing the inflammatory processes of mucous
Reasons and evidence
A research suggests that pumpkin can inhibit benign prostate growth. It was reported that pumpkin has the healing properties with regards to arthritis. Unlike the drug, pumpkin does not increase the level of damaged fats (lipid peroxides) in the linings of the joints, a side effect that leads to the progression of arthritis. Phytonutrients in the pumpkin helps to keep the skin looking younger while protecting it from the sun damage. The pumpkin juice is also useful in cases of insomnia or other sedative conditions.