When you search for anti-inflammatory foods, most results suggest adding tomatoes, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, whole grains, and fatty fish like salmon to your diet. While these are fantastic recommendations, they’re a bit uninspiring. When I learned that pumpkin has anti-inflammatory properties, I was pleasantly surprised and grateful that I already had the plump gourd in my cupboard.
I buy canned pumpkin every week to prepare frozen treats for my pup, Ollie, because research shows that the fiber content in pumpkin (about three grams per cup) can promote better digestion and combat diarrhea in dogs.
After speaking with two sports dietitians, I learned that pumpkin is also great for humans. Here’s how adding more pumpkin to your diet can aid your overall health and performance.
How Inflammation Affects the Body
Inflammation is the body’s immune response to an illness or injury. It can occur outside the body—like if you scrape a knee and get a scab—or inside the body due to a variety of health or lifestyle reasons, such as having an underlying disease like obesity, sleeping poorly, eating a diet high in processed foods, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or over-exercising and straining your muscles.
To heal, the body releases a range of substances (mainly hormones and inflammatory molecules) that dilate blood vessels to help blood and immune cells reach the injured tissue. This process facilitates healing, but it can also irritate nerves along the way, causing pain, swelling, and redness near the affected tissue.
Short-term inflammation, which is sudden and temporary, is typically no big deal, but long-term chronic inflammation (which can persist for months, even years) can be a huge problem. If left untreated, the body can’t heal. The inflammation will compound, which can lead to serious health issues (such as stroke and cancer), an impaired immune system, and, in the case of overtraining, muscle fatigue, impaired performance, and a higher risk of injuries, says Allison Childress, a sports dietitian and associate professor in the department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University.
Why Is Pumpkin Such a Potent Anti-Inflammatory Food?
To recover quickly and lower your risk for certain diseases, you want to eat foods that can naturally reduce inflammation, says Natalie Allen, a dietitian and clinical associate professor of nutrition and dietetics in the School of Health Sciences at Missouri State University.
Pumpkin Has a High Antioxidant Profile
Pumpkin is loaded with antioxidants like beta-carotene, substances that prevent or delay cell damage, says Allen. They do this by reducing oxidative stress, a condition where molecules called free radicals grow out of control and damage your organs and tissue, says Childress. This, in turn, lowers levels of inflammation in your body, which is crucial not only for your overall health but for muscle recovery as well.
After a strenuous workout, your muscles experience mild inflammation, and eating foods with antioxidants can reduce it, Allen explains. The result? Faster recovery and fewer injuries.
Pumpkin Is Nutrient-Dense
The next perk: pumpkin is full of fiber. Research shows that fiber enhances the diversity of your gut microbiome, the community of microbes that live in your digestive tract, helping decrease inflammation in your body, says Childress.
Pumpkin is a great source of potassium (one cup of canned pumpkin contains 505 mg of potassium, 15 and 20 percent of the recommended daily value for men and women, respectively), which is an important electrolyte your body expels through your sweat, says Childress. Replenishing electrolytes after an intense workout can “reduce exercise-related inflammation and muscle soreness,” she says. It can also prevent muscle cramps, adds Allen.
Additionally, one cup of pumpkin contains about 11 mg of vitamin C; that’s roughly 13 percent and 15 percent of the daily recommended value for men and wommen, respectively. “When we think about soft tissue repair, like ligaments and tendons and muscles, vitamin C is a key nutrient,” says Childress. As long as you’re also eating enough protein, she adds, consuming vitamin C can help your muscles, bones, and cartilage recover and grow.
How Much Pumpkin Do You Need to Reap Its Anti-Inflammatory Benefits?
Roughly half to one cup per day. However, for many, this much pumpkin isn’t realistic, Allen says. So you can aim to hit these daily recommended values by consuming a mix of vitamin A sources, including sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and peppers. The goal is to eat about 5.5 cups of orange vegetables each week.
The Best Ways to Add Pumpkin to Your Diet
Pumpkin isn’t just for pies—it can be added to so many snacks and meals.“Pumpkin purée, in my professional opinion, is as good as if you got a pumpkin, roasted it, and puréed it yourself,” says Childress.
So, add a cup of pumpkin purée to a smoothie, make protein bites or balls using a mix of rolled oats, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, flour, and chocolate chips or nuts. You can spread pumpkin purée over a piece of toast and drizzle it with honey, peanut butter, almond butter, or Greek yogurt.
Add a half cup to your morning oatmeal, add it into your pancake mix, or whip up a pumpkin hummus for an afternoon snack. Or, hey, do what I do for my dog and freeze a dollop of pumpkin alongside Greek yogurt and peanut butter (it’s actually extremely tasty).
You can also cook real pumpkin as you would spaghetti squash—carve out the seeds and strings, pour some olive oil on it, and roast it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350℉. As for pumpkin seeds, you can toss them in salads, parfaits, or trail mix, Allen recommends. Just make sure to chew them thoroughly; otherwise, they’ll pass right through you, and you’ll lose out on the benefits, says Childress.
When Is the Best Time to Eat Pumpkin?
Allen says the best time to eat pumpkin is within an hour after working out, especially when paired with a protein or carbohydrate, because your body is primed to absorb nutrients more effectively, says Allen.
But if you miss that window, don’t worry. Pumpkin is just as nutritious any time of day, says Allen. “It’s a very nutrient-rich food and you don’t need very much of it to get a lot of bang for your buck,” she says.
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