Saturday, October 27, 2012

Halloween Themed Health


Howdy! And Happy upcoming Halloween to you all!

Since it is Halloween time, basically everything is pumpkin themed all around the globe, and because I came across some really cool information and ideas, I decided to share them here with you.

We all like to carve pumpkins and some of us use the inside for baking different pies and roasting the seeds. But do you actually know the benefits of pumpkins? It is pretty amazing, how healthy they are.

Pumpkins, and especially their seeds are rich in antioxidants and other vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C and A, potassium, magnesium and zinc.

They also contain high quality dietary fiber and are rich in easily digestable proteins.

Their magnesium content is great for the heart.

Generally, pumpkins help heal the heart, are a blood builder and sleep aid. Their seeds are the only seeds that are alkaline-forming, which is a very good thing as majority of today´s nutrition is highly acidic.

A few tips for people:
  • Add pumpkin seeds into your morning muesli, oatmeal (or other type of porridge), or other cereal breakfast.
  • Pumpkin seeds are also a great snack - take a ziplock bag with these tasty seeds to work or school, or along for your hiking trip. They are a light, yet nutritious snack
  • I love adding all sorts of seeds into the soups I cook, so why not making a nice pot of soup with pumpkin seeds and taking a bowl for dinner. It will help you relax and fight insomnia at bed time.
Here are some delicious recipes from pumpkins. Get inspired at http://smittenkitchen.com/pumpkin-winter-squash-recipes/

A few tips for your dogs:
  • If you feed twice a day, add a tea spoon of crushed pumpkin seeds to a cup of yogurt as a morning meal for your dog
  • Chop or crush a table spoon of pumpkin seeds and mix with other seeds and herbs as your dog´s weekly detoxication/herbal cure and add to the food.
  • Cook a healthy soup with pumpkin seeds for your dog, that you can use to pour over his food portion. You can add root vegetables (except for onions), flex seed and other greens into it.
  • Use pumpkin as part of healthy dog treat dough for making pumpkin cookies that help curing sick stomach.
Photo courtesy of www.simmertilldone.com
Recipe for these wonderful Pumpkin Dog Treats is at www.simmertilldone.com.

And while the following has nothing to do with healthy diet, I am adding it anyway. It´s Heloween time and we sure want to have a beautiful and festive table for Thanksgiving and Heloween, and simply autumn themed dinner! :)


You can find this original, very natural and rugged looking decoration at http://ciaonewportbeach.blogspot.se/2011/11/thanksgiving-tables.html, where you can check many other great Thanksgiving table ideas.

And something for animal lovers: 



Ok, that´s it. No more pumpkin mania. Next time, let´s get crazy with Xmas cookies and other related stuff for the four legged ones :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and got inspired. Please share it on Facebook or anywhere with your friends, if you like it.

Have a great day, stay safe and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That a beautiful centerpiece! Have a happy Halloween!