Superfood potential Pumpkin - hardly any calories, but lots of minerals and vitamins
There's no getting around the pumpkin right now. Just in time for the start of the season, the colorful autumn vegetables are piling up in the supermarkets and adorning the market stalls. But it wasn't always like this.
The hype surrounding these autumnal vegetables is no longer entirely new: for some years now, pumpkins, along with chestnuts and game creations, have been one of the clearest harbingers of culinary winter.
For a long time, it was considered a poor man's food, cooked to death in stews or even fed to the cattle in the barn. To whom or what does the super vegetable now owe its steep rise?
Gigantic berry with superfood potential
Gently prepared, the pumpkin reveals its full flavor and scores points - along with its equally tasty seeds - in the kitchens of haute cuisine as well as in the cosmetics industry.
The gigantic berry - in fact, botanically speaking, the giant vegetable belongs to the berry family - is very healthy, with only 25 calories per 100 grams.
The pumpkin and its seeds have a diuretic, anti-inflammatory and dehydrating effect. They are therefore used effectively as a medicine to treat bladder weakness, heart and kidney problems and prostate complaints.
Pumpkin seeds have more than ten times as many calories, 500 per 100 grams and around 50 grams of fat, a balance that encourages more sparing consumption.
Nevertheless, pumpkin seeds are extremely healthy, containing vitamins A, B, C and E, important amino acids and the vital trace elements iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc.
Pumpkin for firm connective tissue
The cosmetics industry has also discovered the qualities of pumpkin for itself. Carotenoids, vitamins A and E ensure beautiful, fresh skin. The silicic acid contained in the flesh tightens the connective tissue and strengthens hair and nails.
An insider tip for external use is: pumpkin seed oil nourishes dry hands and feet and helps to get rid of unwanted cellulite dimples.
Sweet or savory, the pumpkin is an all-rounder
If you want to take advantage of the health-promoting properties of pumpkin, incorporate this all-rounder into your diet as often as possible.
Boring? Not at all - pumpkin can be combined in every conceivable way, sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, sometimes as a main course or sometimes as a side dish. Braise, roast, stew, bake, grill or preserve - pumpkin always tastes delicious.
