When the leaves start to change colors and the temperature drops at night, everyone starts to thing about the fall and winter season and holidays coming up.
As Halloween is the first holiday to approach, of course, everyone starts thinking about pumpkins; scooping out the fleshy insides along with the seeds and carving scary or silly faces into the front, sticking a candle in the bottom to create flickering faces at night.
By the way, let's go ahead and settle this debate once and for all; pumpkin pie is NOT better than sweet potato pie!
Contrary to popular belief though, pumpkins are not vegetables, but considered fruit since they have actual seeds in them. However, in terms of nutritional value, they are more aligned with vegetables.
Now, most people are familiar with the large orange plant in the form of a pie slice topped with whipped cream at Thanksgiving. With all the added sugar (that doesn't help add flavor) in the usual pumpkin pie, of course people may not consider it to be the healthiest of foods. But there are some health benefits to eating pumpkin, especially as it is in season during the cooler months of the year.
A low-calorie option that offers only 12 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein and 0.2 grams of fat, this is a rich and fulfilling food to add to your plate this Thanksgiving. It also offers a myriad of essential vitamins for the human body. And because it is such a filling food with a low calorie count, it's a great weight loss food.
But how is it a weight loss food when you've only had it for dessert? Well, first of all, you can drop the pie and cookies and think how you would incorporate any other vegetable (remember, nutritionally, it's more aligned with veggies than fruit, even though it's biologically a fruit). You can cook it on its own or serve it with root vegetables like potatoes, onions and mushrooms. You can add it to soup or stews. You can bake it in a casserole too. There are more options available, but you just might need to get a little more creative.
We about the love of pumpkins, so put away the pumpkin spice and try the real thing.
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