Pumpkin juice

Medicine and the pharmaceutical industry annually delight us with new discoveries, treatments and drugs. But isn’t it better to learn how to make the most of the healing properties of the foods we are used to? It is not for nothing that Ayurvedic experts are so fond of the ancient Indian saying “If you eat right, you do not need medicines, and if you eat wrong, they will not help you.”

Pumpkin pies, smoothies, lasagna and stews are healthy and tasty. But during cooking, the vitamins that are contained in the composition of the vegetable are destroyed. Therefore, in order to preserve the usefulness of the product to the maximum, it is better to use pumpkin raw. You can add it to salads, make an appetizer in the form of pumpkin straws (goes well with sour cream or tomato sauce). And you can diversify your diet with homemade or purchased pumpkin juice, drinking it before, during or after meals.

What are the benefits of pumpkin juice

Apple and orange, carrot, cherry and grapefruit, grape and even pear, tangerine and banana – these juices will not surprise anyone. But juice from an ordinary pumpkin is not very popular. And it would be worth it, because it is fraught with a whole range of useful substances, improves health, has a positive effect on appearance and, in addition, has an incredible taste. Let’s talk about pumpkin juice in a little more detail.

Health benefits of pumpkin juice

Many vegetables, fruits and berries can not only be eaten, but also used as cosmetics or medicines for external use. Becoming more beautiful and healthier with the help of natural gifts is real. And pumpkin is a great helper in this, and the following facts are proof of this. ^{[1] [2]}:

1. The bright vegetable contains beta-carotene, as well as vitamins A, E and C, which directly affect the condition of the skin, eliminating wrinkles, making it smooth, fresh and radiant. Therefore, both juice and pulp can be added to face masks. Mixed with yogurt, honey, lemon juice or vegetable oils, pumpkin pulp will help in the care of different skin types.
2. Pumpkin is rich in zinc, which helps to relieve inflammation, heal wounds and bites. The juice from this vegetable has cooling properties, so pumpkin compresses will be very useful for burns.
3. In addition to vitamin A, pumpkin contains a high concentration of potassium, and this combination actively fights hair loss and stimulates the growth of new ones.

Drink one glass of fresh pumpkin juice in the morning every day for a month and you will see for yourself how good this product is for improving your well-being and appearance.

Treatment with pumpkin juice

1. Freshly squeezed pumpkin drink is useful for stagnation of bile caused by cholecystitis, as well as for pain in case of exacerbation of pyelonephritis or other kidney diseases. People with severe kidney disease are advised to consult their doctor before starting this therapy.
2. Heartburn, gastritis with high stomach acid, ulcers, type XNUMX diabetes mellitus, pancreatitis or other pancreatic diseases are also reasons to include pumpkin pulp or juice in your diet. ^{[3] [4]}. This product excellently reduces acidity and promotes healing of mucous membranes.
3. Regular consumption of pumpkin juice reduces the likelihood of a heart attack, the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease, normalizes blood pressure and maintains the elasticity of blood vessels. ^[5]. This is possible due to the high concentration of antioxidants in the drink.
4. Pumpkin has a laxative effect, which means it is able to eliminate constipation and “spur” the “lazy” intestines (with weak peristalsis) to work.
5. Pumpkin juice improves the functioning of the urinary system: reduces the concentration of uric acid and heals ulcers.
6. In some cases, pumpkin can replace sedative pills. Insomniacs should try drinking a glass of pumpkin juice with a little honey added at night before bed to calm their nerves. ^[6].
7. Pumpkin juice will help get rid of morning weakness. And during pregnancy, this is a real lifesaver for nausea in the morning.
8. Due to the presence of active cleansing components, pumpkin juice is useful for poisoning and swelling.
9. Pumpkin juice cleanses the liver. This is recognized even by official medicine: this vegetable is prescribed as a mandatory product in the diet of patients with hepatitis A, cirrhosis, gallstone disease and other diseases of the gallbladder, including after its removal (cholecystectomy) ^{[7] [8]}.
10. Pumpkin, like the juice from this vegetable, is useful during family planning: it increases the likelihood of conception (promotes the growth of the endometrium), strengthens potency in men, and improves sperm quality. Shown pumpkin juice and prostate diseases ^[6].
11. Traditional medicine claims that a drink made from this bright vegetable even treats cancer in the early stages of development, but official oncology has no evidence of this.

The chemical composition of pumpkin is very diverse, while the beneficial substances are perfectly balanced for maximum absorption by the human body.

The benefits of pumpkin juice for children

During the period of active growth, the child’s body especially needs a regular intake of vitamins and minerals. 1-3 glasses of juice a day are enough for the child to receive a certain amount of fiber and the lion’s dose of the daily norm of vitamins A, B, C, K. In addition, pumpkin contains a lot of pectin, which has a powerful cleansing property (it removes toxins, pesticides, radionuclides ). Pectin also normalizes intestinal peristalsis and improves blood clotting.

Is it possible to drink pumpkin juice while breastfeeding

Breastfeeding (HB) is a period that makes significant adjustments to a woman’s diet. Many favorite foods have to be abandoned due to the risk of developing allergies or flatulence in a newborn. After all, all the food that mothers consume during lactation is transmitted with milk and babies. However, pumpkin is not a prohibited food during breastfeeding. ^[9]. Quite the opposite: it does not cause allergies, it helps to cope with constipation and colic, and even strengthens the immune system – a real benefit. But in any case, it is important to know the measure so as not to harm the health of the baby.

How to make pumpkin juice

Confidence in the freshness and quality of the product and all its components is only possible if you are making juice yourself. Luckily, making it at home is pretty easy. It is only important to make sure that the pumpkin is fully ripe, without traces of rot, mold, diaper rash or disease.

Homemade pumpkin drink through a juicer

The easiest way to prepare pumpkin juice is as follows: wash the vegetable thoroughly, peel the fruit from seeds and peel, and pass the chopped pulp through a juicer. But be careful: make sure that your household appliance model is able to handle hard vegetables (you can find out about this in the instructions for the device).

Juice without juicer

If you don’t have a home juicer, this is no reason to deny yourself the opportunity to feast on the health benefits. Let’s take the second method.

Three prepared pumpkin (washed and peeled of seeds and skin) on the smallest grater you have. The resulting mass is squeezed through gauze. The cake remaining after cooking can be used for food (as a component for baking, for making jelly, soups, stews, vegetable cutlets and even wine) or as a cosmetic ingredient for a mask or body wrap.

If this method seems too laborious for you, try making juice puree from boiled pumpkin pulp. To do this, you will need to prepare the pumpkin as described above, grate it (may be coarse) and boil it with water. Liquids are recommended to be taken at the rate of 1 liter for every pound of pumpkin pulp. When the fruit becomes soft, beat the mass until smooth with a blender or wipe through a sieve. This drink contains fewer vitamins, but much more fiber and pectin, so it is also very healthy.

Boiled pumpkin juice with pulp is made even easier: you just need to stew the prepared pieces of pumpkin with a little water (100-200 ml per 1 kg of vegetable), beat the softened mass with a blender or rub it through a sieve.

That’s all the features of home-made pumpkin nectar. A drink made from this vegetable will be a healthy snack that you can easily take with you anywhere.

How to improve the taste of pumpkin juice

If the taste of a pure pumpkin drink seems too austere to you, use additives to bring new flavors and aromas to it.

Here are some delicious combinations with pumpkin:

• pumpkin and lemon;
• pumpkin, apple, carrot;
• pumpkin, coconut milk, vanilla;
• pumpkin, raspberries, milk;
• pumpkin, banana, strawberry;
• pumpkin and pear;
• pumpkin and orange;
• pumpkin, milk, honey, nutmeg;
• pumpkin and pineapple;
• pumpkin, black tea, ginger.

Pumpkin juice with spices

By itself, pumpkin nectar may not be very tasty, and not everyone likes its specific smell. But the advantage of fresh pumpkin is that it can be drunk both with sweet additives and in combination with vegetable juices, salt and spices. Milk and yoghurt shakes with pumpkin are delicious.

Which spices to use, decide for yourself based on personal experience and preferences, but most often cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, and vanilla are added to pumpkin cocktails.

The easiest pumpkin cocktail recipe is yogurt. To prepare it, you will need 100 ml of pumpkin juice, 100 ml of carrot juice, 200 ml of yogurt without additives, 3 tbsp. l. sugar, cream. Mix all the ingredients and beat in a blender for 3-4 minutes. The drink is served by sprinkling it with dried and crushed pumpkin seeds or nuts.

Carrot pumpkin drink

Pumpkin goes very well with carrots, so be sure to try the following recipe: mix 150 ml of pumpkin fresh with 100 ml of carrot juice, add a tablespoon of cream (for a lean version, use vegetable oil).

Pumpkin Latte

For lovers of original drinks with coffee, the following recipe is suitable:

1. Boil 50 g of pumpkin and 100 ml of cream, beat with a blender or strain through a sieve.
2. Make a dark caramel with 50 g of sugar and boil it together with pumpkin-cream mixture.
3. Brew a cup of coffee. Pour pumpkin sauce (50 g per cup) into the cup first, and on top of it – 200 ml of warmed milk (optional) and coffee.

How to store pumpkin juice

Freshly squeezed juices have a very limited shelf life – it is better to use them in the first 2-3 hours after preparation. But if it becomes necessary to keep the drink longer than this period, care should be taken to preserve its benefits as much as possible.

Freezing

This method allows you to save both the taste and the vitamins of the product. It is recommended to freeze pumpkin puree in ice cube trays or ice cream trays. By the way, sweetened pumpkin nectar popsicles make a great summer treat for kids. In the freezer, popsicles can be safely stored for several months, but they cannot be re-frozen. This method of preparation is the easiest, so we recommend stocking up not only frozen pumpkin slices for stews or casseroles, but also pumpkin juice.

Preservation

If you decide to preserve pumpkin juice in jars for the winter, sterilization will be required, that is, the juice will need to be boiled. Several options are also available here.

The first way is to boil the juice in a juicer

If your kitchen has such an assistant as a juicer, you only need to prepare and cut the pumpkin, put it in the upper container of the juicer, and fill the lower part of the device with water to the mark. Then the tank is closed and put on fire. On the side of the juicer there is a tube through which the finished product will flow out – place a saucepan or a jar under it to collect the juice.

After about half an hour, you will notice the appearance of the first juice. If you want to get fresh juice without pulp, wait until it stops pouring out of the tube and remove the pan from the heat.

If you need a drink with pulp, open the lid of the juicer and stir the boiled pumpkin well (it will be completely soft by then). The crushed pulp will pour out through the tube in the same way as before the juice.

The second way is pumpkin nectar with pulp without a juicer

To prepare pumpkin juice without using a juicer or juicer, take a saucepan or a deep metal bowl, put the prepared and chopped pumpkin into it and add water at the rate of 200 ml per kilogram of raw materials. Then cover the pot with a lid and cook over medium heat until the pumpkin pieces are completely soft. Beat the softened mass with a blender (mixer) or wipe through a sieve. If desired, the resulting puree can be mixed with sugar. You can also boil a vegetable in a slow cooker – it’s even more convenient: you can put it on the “Extinguishing” mode for 2-3 hours in the evening and calmly go to sleep, and rub the already chilled mashed potatoes through a sieve in the morning.

After that, the finished juice is poured into clean prepared jars, sterilized for 30 minutes, rolled up with lids and wrapped for 12 hours (until the jars are completely cool). Pumpkin in glass containers is recommended to be stored in a cool and dry place without direct sunlight. As you can see, there is nothing complicated in home preservation.

Norms of use

For medicinal purposes, pumpkin drink is drunk on an empty stomach (on an empty stomach). The dosage for an adult can range from 1 to 3 glasses per day. ^[10]. It is worth starting with a lower dose to give the body the opportunity to get used to the intake of increased amounts of fiber and pectin.

But do not forget that juices, especially canned with sugar or in combination with fruit and berry nectars, are quite high in calories. So be sure to count your daily calorie intake so as not to gain excess weight in the process of juice therapy.

Freshly squeezed natural pumpkin juice without additives does not harm the figure at all, because 100 g of the drink contains an average of 38 kcal ^[11]. But the calorie content can vary depending on the type of vegetable: fodder varieties contain less sugars and their calorie content is lower, while table varieties (especially sweet nutmeg) are more nutritious.

Drinking pumpkin juice is allowed from the age of six months (in the absence of medical contraindications) ^[10]. So, such a drink should be introduced into the children’s diet from the lowest dose – 10 ml, gradually increasing it to 60 ml per day, diluting the fresh with water in a 1: 1 ratio. A child aged 3 to 7 years old can drink 100 ml of pumpkin juice per day, and the daily norm of this drink for children over 14 years old is 300 ml ^[12].

Can pumpkin juice be harmful?

In stores, it is easy to find industrial canned juice in cans. Of course, buying one is easier than making a drink at home. But think about this: buying a store-bought product, you will not be able to check the quality of raw materials, compliance with production technology and composition. And the manufacturer thinks first of all about his own benefit, and not about your health. For example, preservatives, acidity regulators, flavors, or even colorants can be added to finished juices to make the drink look brighter and more appetizing. But the word “homogenized” on the package should not scare you: it means that the juice has been brought to homogeneity. Reconstituted nectars can hardly be called useful at all. And do not forget about the high sugar content in such drinks. So if possible, it is better to refuse purchased juice.

Do-it-yourself fresh is much better, but it is worth remembering that it is not a panacea, and if used improperly, it can even be harmful.

Pumpkin juice is contraindicated in people with diseases accompanied by low acidity of the stomach, or inflammation of the intestines. In addition, it should not be taken with diarrhea, because a drink from this vegetable weakens, which means it will only worsen the condition. ^[12]). If this delicate problem is caused by poisoning, pumpkin juice can be used to cleanse the body by mixing it with a product that strengthens: blueberries, bananas, pears, chokeberries.

With increased intestinal sensitivity, it is better to dilute pumpkin juice with water or whey in a 1: 1 ratio.

Pumpkin is known to be safe even for allergy sufferers, but if you are prone to allergic reactions, go for lightly colored varieties.

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