Thursday, April 9, 2015

Health Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds

The pumpkin seed are known as pepita in Spanish. They are edible and are known from ages due to its nutritive property. The prime months of the pumpkin in the United States are October, November and December. The same fruit is popular in winter during Halloween as they are easily available for carving into monsters. There are two types of pumpkin  seed usually either encased in a yellow white husk  or without shells. These are known from old times to be rich in nutrients such as manganese, tryptophan, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, protein, zinc and iron.


Don’t throw the seeds away, utilize it as they are beneficial and can help you body in many ways. Some of the benefits that the pumpkin seed may provide are:
Rich in minerals
Pumpkin seed are amazing source of mineral. Minerals are important for health. Plants have direct link with soil minerals so they produce best source of it. Pumpkin seeds are known to provide with the entire major minerals especially zinc. Zinc is found in these seed per are known to present in much more quantity in the endosperm envelope so it is advised to take it with the shells as separating shell from the inner part without wasting the endosperm is tough. Therefore try taking pumpkin seed with the shell.
Antioxidant benefits
Only few fruits are rich in antioxidants. These seeds have unique antioxidant properties as it consists of variety of antioxidants such as:
  1. Vitamin E
    These seed are rich in vitamin E. It do not only contain vitamin E, contains variety of it in different forms such as gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, alpha-tocomonoenol, alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocomonoenol. Alpha-tocomonoenol and gamma- tocomonoenol have been found recently and are a hot topic in scientific research as some scientist believe they are unique in benefits from other forms.
  2. Phenolic Antioxidants
    Along with vitamin E it also contains variety of phenolic oxidants. Phenols are one of the very important nutrients and lie in the list of beneficial elements. The antioxidants that are phenolic in nature and are found to be in pumpkin seeds include hydroxybenzoic, ferulic, sinapic, protocatechuic, vanillic, caffeic, coumaric and syringic acid. Lignans are also found to be present in these seeds in variety which are of biological importance. Pinoresinol, lariciresinol and medioresinol is found to be present in pumpkin seeds.
Inhibits Cancer
Cancer is a disease whose causative reasons are unknown in a sense that there can be hundreds of reasons that can add to it. One of them is known to be oxidative stress. A huge role in the development of few cancers can be of oxidative stress. Due to some of the antioxidant properties present in the pumpkin it can help in lowering the risk of this deadly disease. Researchers have shown that lignan which are present in the seeds do play some part in the inhibition of breast and prostate cancer.  Not much work have been done yet but scientist believe that it do have anti-cancer properties. They are working on it to provide with research evidence.
Diabetes
Some research work on laboratory animals have shown that pumpkins seed extracts can improve the regulation of the insulin.  We all know that it is rich in anti-oxidants that can help control oxidative stress.  This will eventually lead to better metabolism saving kidney from damage due to the diabetes. The high level of digestible proteins are present that controls the blood sugar.
Antimicrobial Property
The phytonutrients present in the seed makes the body strong as it helps to fight against bacteria and virus more strongly. The lignans are known to be associated with this property. They are known to play a role in the activity of messaging molecule that is said to be interferon Gamma. These are associated with the antimicrobial function.
Treatment of Benign Prostatic hyperplasia
It is the enlargement of the prostate gland of people of the age 50 or above usually. The pumpkin seeds extract are known to treat Benign prostatic Hyperplasia from ancient time. Research says that phytosterol such as beta-sitosterol, sitostanol, and avenasterol play a vital role to treat this disease. Omega three is present in these seeds which is of huge importance.
Heart Healing Properties
They are rich in the mineral magnesium which is very important for heart and is known as heart healing mineral or natural relaxant.
Loses weight
Good amount of soluble proteins present will help control blood sugar which then will help in controlled weight.
Good Sleep
They are rich in sleep-enhancing amino acid tryptophan which converts to serotonin in the body and helping in peaceful sleep. Good sleep will eventually lead better health.
Pumpkin seeds can be taken by drying them or making extracts. Extracting oil is good as it is easy to store.  Try taking it with shell as it provide better and more nutrients.

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