Pumpkins, those ubiquitous orange orbs left over from Halloween celebrations, are everywhere right now. Luckily, they are great additions to healthy eating plans, serving as a fiber-full way to enhance anything from pasta dishes to dessert recipes.
On this momentous Election Day, what better way to celebrate than with a member of the Cucurbitaceae family? After all, they are native to the Americas and include pumpkins and gourds, although I wouldn't suggest eating those. Gourds are better off used as our Native American precursors used them, as natural water canteens and purses for carrying tools and seeds.
The first pumpkins showed up around 7000 to 5000 B.C. in Mexico, according to Wikipedia. Peoples in those areas relied heavily on a diet of squash, beans and corn to supply them with staple nutritional needs. They play a starring role in our annual Thanksgiving dinner menu as a dessert these days, but it may surprise you to learn that in the original Thanksgiving dinner in 1621, they were used not as a sweet, but as a vegetable side dish.
Pumpkin pie, although delicious, is not always the healthiest way to eat pumpkin. I find substituting egg whites for the eggs, using nonfat evaporated milk and cutting a little sugar out of the recipe will make a darn good pie, and no one at the Thanksgiving dinner table need be any wiser about the lower calorie counts. Just be sure top your slice with a little fat-free whipped cream and enjoy.
Pie is good, no doubt, but pumpkin can be enjoyed in other dessert recipes. In fact, canned pure pumpkin makes a great substitute for oil in many recipes, cutting down on fat and pumping up the fiber content in any boxed brownie or cake mix you may wish to prepare.
But the pumpkin shouldn't be limited to the dessert table, as I have enjoyed delicious low-calorie, high fiber and, most importantly, flavorful pumpkin soup, using a can of pure pumpkin, a few cups of vegetable or chicken broth and some spices such as curry powder or cinnamon.
I vote we move pumpkin from the last course to the first! And you can even include roasted pumpkin seeds, or pepitas, in salads, topping soups or adding crunch to vegetable side dishes.
Preliminary research on lab rats has shown some evidence that phytochemicals in pumpkin may lower insulin and glucose levels, and two compounds taken out of pumpkin paste and fed to diabetic rats caused lower blood glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol, good news for furry mammals and, perhaps in the near future, humans.
Why wait for Turkey Day to enjoy the possible health benefits of pumpkins? Grab a can of pure pumpkin, or if you're more industrious, a pie pumpkin from the produce section, and give thanks for an orange orb or two in advance.
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