Health Benefits Of Pumpkins And Method Of Storing Pumpkins

The word ‘Pumpkin’ reminds us of Halloween. The decorated pumpkins in the streets and pumpkin lanterns definitely make us delighted and does brighten up our spirits. This yellow orange vegetable is an an all time favorite of people living all round the world. When I was a child, I was told that pumpkins are good for health. A healthy pumpkin soup or a curry is a must in every kitchen. The season of pumpkins is the month of October, and the yummy pumpkin pies always remind us of Thanksgiving.

Apart from being a specialty of Thanksgiving, Pumpkins are loved by all due to its never ending list of nutritional benefits that it offers. Make it one among the many things that are included in your healthy diet for each day, and make yourself healthy and strong. Yes, Pumpkins are loaded with hundreds of nutrients, antioxidants that fight against diseases, beta-carotene that protects your skin from damage. When you are consuming pumpkins on a regular basis, you are sure to get a beautiful skin and a healthy body.

Health Benefits of Pumpkins

1.    Pumpkin fights against diseases- Pumpkin is filled with nutrients. It has a full load of carotenoids that help to fight against diseases. It is also a known fact that cancer can be prevented by taking in foods that contain a whole lot of carotenes, and Pumpkin is the fruit that has loads of carotenes that help you to fight against diseases.

2.    Pumpkin gives you younger looking skin-  Pumpkin is loaded with Vitamin C  and fatty acids that helps to decrease wrinkles and fine lines on the skin. It gives a younger looking softer skin, and gives you a radiant complexion, as it has alpha hydroxyl acids and vitamin A.

3.    Increases the UV protection- The color of pumpkin, deep orange shows that it has beta carotene in it. Beta carotenes actually help to protect against the damage of the skin cased by the ultra violet rays of the sun. When pumpkin extract is applied on your face, you can get the right kind of sunscreen effect, as it protects against sun’s rays, smoke and air pollution.

4.    Sharpens your brain- Do you throw off the seeds of pumpkin after taking the flesh alone? If yes, then that would be a great loss from your part. You are losing a lot of goodness by discarding the seeds. With Zinc and Omega 3 fatty acids, Pumpkin seeds can provide you the right bone density and also helps you to sharpen your brain. So next time when you are about to throw the seeds to the waste bin, remember that you are discarding something really precious. There are a lot of pumpkin seed recipes to include the seeds in your daily diet.

5.    Get healthy teeth- To get rid of tooth decay and cavities, it is better to try out pumpkin seed oil while cooking.

As for me, I like pumpkins in my soups or would prefer them in my sambaars. Yes and they do taste yummy.

How to store pumpkins for a week or two

Keeping pumpkin in the vegetable rack will not keep it fresh and fine for more than one week. So let us check out the method of preserving pumpkin the right way. Storing pumpkins is easy. Peel its skin off, deseed it, cut it into cubes, close it in a zip-lock pouch and freeze. You can store it for 2 weeks. Take the desired amount of pumpkin cubes for any of your healthy pumpkin recipe and keep the rest to the freezer.