Pumpkin Oatmeal - Seasonal food for weight loss

 Seasonal foods for weight loss  - Pumpkin 

The best weight loss programs educate you about various factor that affect what you see on the scale. Seasonal foods should be one of them.

That’s why you will receive from time to time ideas about what you can do with seasonal foods to keep your diet interesting. But the emphasis here is on “what is in season.” Fall is here and the hard-shell squash season has just  begun.


PUMPKIN HEALTH BENEFITS:
Mostly known for being a part of Halloween decorations or a pie filling, pumpkins are also packed with nutrition and offer a wide range of health benefits. Pumpkins are a storehouse of vitamins, mineral and other healthy nutrients. Whether it is the pulp or the seeds, pumpkins are great for your health and can offer some incredible benefits. The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotene converted to vitamin A in the body. In the conversion to vitamin A, beta carotene performs many important functions in overall health.

Current research indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protect against heart disease. Beta-carotene offers protection against other diseases as well as some degenerative aspects of aging.

Pumpkin Nutrition Facts:
(1 cup cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)

• Calories 49
• Protein 2 grams
• Carbohydrate 12 grams
• Dietary Fiber 3 grams
• Calcium 37 mg
• Iron 1.4 mg
• Magnesium 22 mg
• Potassium 564 mg Zinc 1 mg
• Selenium .50 mg
• Vitamin C 12 mg
• Niacin 1 mg
• Folate 21 mcg
• Vitamin A 2650 IU
• Vitamin E 3 mg

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Pumpkin oatmeal recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 to 4 cups of cooked plain oatmeal
• 2 cups of fresh mashed pumpkin (or 1 can)
• 1 egg
• can of fat free evaporated milk
• nutmeg, cinnamon, splenda
• handful of raisins
• handful of walnuts

Method:
Cut The pumpkin into chunks, boil it until it is soft, take the skin off and mash it in a bowl:

To this pretty orange mash, mix in your egg, the milk, the spices and the splenda. You are just making pumpkin pie filling, but instead of pouring it into a pie crust, you will pour it into oatmeal.

Once you have your pie filling made, add it to the cooked oatmeal, stirring well to combine. Throw in your raisins and walnuts and voila:

Make a big batch and just heat up a little every morning for breakfast! Oatmeal is a great choice for anyone with blood sugar issues as it is fairly low on the Glycemic Index.