5 Incredible Health Benefits to Pumpkin Seeds
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated June 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Pumpkins are a large squash that can grow to exceptional size, used the world over for Fall decorations and made into pumpkin-flavored treats like pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice lattes. The real treasure of the pumpkin is their seeds. Pumpkin seeds have many notable health benefits, from their excellent micronutrient and macronutrient profiles to their anti-microbial and anti-parasitic effects. Learn the top five reasons why you should regularly include pumpkin seeds into your diet.
In a world that’s go go go and fixated on supplements for correcting nutrient deficiencies, pumpkin seeds are the ultimate snack. Pumpkin seeds are very high in zinc, magnesium, manganese, iron, and phosphorus, while also having appreciable amounts of vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin E, and choline. If you are taking a supplement for one of the minerals listed above, you can replace it by adding pumpkin seeds to you diet!
Pumpkin Seeds Micronutrients
Pumpkin seeds are packed full of vitamins and minerals and are especially notable as a rich source of magnesium and zinc, minerals deficient in most of the modern population. A ¼ cup of dried and shelled pumpkin seeds contains 64% DV manganese, 57% DV phosphorus, 48% DV copper, 45% DV magnesium, and 23% DV zinc. Pumpkin seeds also contain appreciable amounts of B vitamins 1, 3, 5, and 9 as well as choline and vitamin E. The recommended daily value for magnesium is 400 mg, and ¼ cup of pumpkin seeds contains half that amount.
Pumpkin Seeds are High in Minerals
Pumpkin Seeds Notable Vitamins
Magnesium deficiency can cause high blood pressure, reduce vitamin D synthesis, worsen asthma, lead to sleep disorders like insomnia, cause mental illness, and increase bone fragility. Pumpkin seeds because of their high magnesium content can be incorporated into the diet to help improve sleep quality and reduce mental illness. Low levels of zinc can weaken the immune system, delay growth, lower testosterone levels, can cause psychological disorders, and reduce the ability to heal from wounds. Solely for the magnesium and zinc eating pumpkin seeds is highly beneficial, and eating pumpkin seeds has other major health benefits in addition to those two minerals.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant best known for its ability to minimize damage from free radicals. The recommended daily intake of vitamin E is 15 mg/day, and only 21% of the global population reaches this threshold daily (1). What’s unique about the vitamin E found in pumpkin seeds is that it comes in a wide variety of forms, with alpha-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, alpha-tocomonoenol, and gamma-tocomonoenol all being versions of vitamin E found in pumpkin seeds. Alpha-tocopherol is the most biologically active form of vitamin E, yet gamma-tocopherol is the most common form found in the North American diet, and pumpkin seeds contain both.
The vitamin E content of pumpkin seeds is a good illustration of the concept of vitamin and mineral complexes. Micronutrients found in whole foods come in complexes containing other micronutrients, phytonutrients, macronutrients, and much more. The structure of food also has an effect on it’s digestibility and the bioavailability of the micronutrients it contains (2). An isolated vitamin or mineral supplement, often synthetically derived and taken without food, will not be as bioavailable or holistic in its effects as micronutrients derived from whole foods.
Including a 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds into your diet everyday has the potential to eliminate many of the daily micronutrient supplements or multi-vitamins you may take, and the vitamins and minerals from pumpkin seeds will be much more bioavailable than those from pills.
Pumpkin Seeds Macronutrients
Pumpkin seeds have a very favorable macronutrient profile. The same ¼ cup of shelled pumpkin seeds has 10 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber (mostly insoluble), and 16 grams of fat split into a balanced mix of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fats. The three most satiating macronutrients are fiber, protein, and fat (with refined sugar being the worst), and pumpkin seeds contain predominately all three!
Pumpkin Seed Micronutrients
Pumpkin seeds are truly the ultimate grab-n-go snack because a few handfuls will keep energy levels high by increasing fat metabolism, satiate the microbiome with fiber, and provide a sizable amount of protein for use as amino acids. For these reasons, if you suffer from junk food cravings, pumpkin seeds would be the ideal snack to eat to reduce or eliminate the cravings. Fasting also can be used to reduce food cravings, and to learn to identify them in the first place.
Pumpkin Seeds are Anti-Parasitic
Raw dried pumpkin seeds have been used the world over for their anti-helminthic effects, and an amount like the ¼ cup of seeds used earlier is enough to disable, stun, or kill parasites in the body without causing harm to the host (3). Parasitic infections are common in immune compromised people in which a low diversity pathogenic microbiome is often a common association. Autoimmune diseases are increasingly rapidly the world over caused by a myriad of issues such as increasing pesticide use (4) and declining immune system health, and parasite infections are silently becoming more and more common. Industrial feed lot operations for beef, pork, chicken, and fish are highly contaminated in blood, pus, and feces, and it is in these conditions that parasites thrive and enter into the food supply.
Regularly incorporating pumpkin seeds into the diet can help cleanse your body of parasites, pathogenic microbes, and fungal infections, while also keeping you protected from future exposure. Raw pumpkin seeds, being unpasteurized, also can help repopulate and diversify the gut microbiome with symbiotic microorganisms that will work with the host instead of against it (as is the case with pathogenic microorganisms).
Pumpkin Seeds are Anti-Inflammatory
Pumpkin seeds contain beta-carotene, a type of carotenoid which has anti-inflammatory properties, and when pumpkin seeds are added to diet, they show an efficacy on par with anti-inflammatory drugs in reducing anti-inflammatory symptoms of arthritis (5). The anti-inflammatory effects of pumpkin seeds are from a combination of its healing anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, and-microbial effects on the gut, in addition to the useful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients like beta-carotene.
With most people in western society suffering from chronic inflammation, any addition to the diet which is anti-inflammatory is a huge plus and will help return the body to a state of balance. Resetting the digestive system with fasting can greatly help with lowering systemic inflammation throughout the body, and pumpkin seeds are a great food to break a fast with.
Pumpkin Seeds are Good for the Heart
Pumpkin seed oil has been shown to reduce LDL “bad” cholesterol and raise HDL “good” cholesterol significantly (6). Pumpkin seeds contain oleic acid, linoleic acid, pectin, and phytosterols, with these compounds highly responsible for the total blood cholesterol reduction. Blood pressure is also reduced notably by pumpkin seed oil, and as pumpkin seed oil is derived from pumpkin seeds, eating the seeds would have the same effects.
Pumpkin seeds through their beneficial healing effects on the gut reduce systemic inflammation which is a leading factor in causing heart disease, and their fiber, fat, and protein content stabilizes blood sugar levels. Heart disease has many complicating factors such as stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, but much of this boils down to the systemic chronic inflammation caused by poor gut health, an unbalanced pathogenic microbiome, and a highly stress immune system. Because of these mechanisms, and through its constituent elements, that pumpkin seeds ultimately are a very heart healthy food.
In addition to pumpkin seeds, pushups improve heart health drastically if done regularly. An action plan for someone suffering from heart disease, or someone more predisposed to heart disease, would be to do 50 pushups and eat a 1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds everyday.
The many Health Opportunities of Pumpkin Seeds
It is amazing how pumpkin seeds so perfectly address many of the common health issues that plague western society. With topsoil increasingly being depleted, and fruit and vegetable nutrient content decreasing as a result, pumpkins are still able to extract from the soil significant levels of vitamins and minerals which many people are dietarily deficient in while being able to grow to incredible size. The unique macronutrient profile of pumpkin seeds is satiating while simultaneously shifting the microbiome to a healthier state and healing the gut.
Through its positive interactions with the digestive system and because of its abundant phytonutrients, pumpkin seeds have a noticeable impact in reducing inflammation, with inflammation being a large driver for hundreds of health issues and diseases. As a result, the simple addition of ¼ cup of raw shelled pumpkin seeds to the diet regularly can reduce risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, sleep issues, mental illness, arthritis, and more.
References:
Péter S, Friedel A, Roos FF, et al. A systematic review of global alpha-tocopherol status as assessed by nutritional intake levels and blood serum concentrations. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2015;85(5-6):261-281.
Hiolle M, Lechevalier V, Floury J, et al. In vitro digestion of complex foods: How microstructure influences food disintegration and micronutrient bioaccessibility. Food Research International. 2020;128:108817.
EI-Aziz A. Antimicrobial proteins and oil seeds from pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata).
Herbicides. Wild Free Organic.
Yadav M, Jain S, Tomar R, Prasad GBKS, Yadav H. Medicinal and biological potential of pumpkin: an updated review. Nutr Res Rev. 2010;23(2):184-190.
Majid AK, Ahmed Z, Khan R. Effect of pumpkin seed oil on cholesterol fractions and systolic/diastolic blood pressure. Food Sci Technol. 2020;40(3):769-777.
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