Pumpkin in pregnancy

When choosing a pumpkin during pregnancy, pay attention to the color and condition of the peel. An intense yellow or orange hue indicates a large amount of carotene, a thick and hard peel indicates healthy pulp. It is interesting that, in addition to the traditional color, pumpkins can be white, green, even blue.

Can you eat pumpkin during pregnancy?

Beautiful vegetables, garden decoration, many use not in the diet, but for decoration. Of course, pumpkin deserves better use. The question "Can you eat pumpkin during pregnancy?" sounds almost rhetorical, if you know about its usefulness in general and during pregnancy in particular.

Pumpkin should take pride of place in a pregnant woman’s menu from the first weeks, diversifying her diet, especially since there are plenty of pumpkin recipes.

• Pies, soups, porridges, pancakes, side dishes, salads with the addition of cereals and other ingredients are available and easy to prepare.
• The pulp can be fried, baked, frozen, and marinated.
• Raw mashed pulp is a dietary component for stomach and duodenal ulcers, and is useful for burns, eczema, and dermatitis.
• Pumpkin can be stuffed with meat.
• Desserts are made from it – jams, jellies, with fruits, for example, oranges.
• Fresh and canned juices are healthy and tasty both separately and mixed with fresh fruit juices.

Pumpkin juice is useful for exacerbation of hemorrhoids, acts as a natural sleeping pill, and activates peristalsis.

Pumpkin seeds are used during pregnancy as a harmless preventative against helminths.

Leaves and stems are also used during pregnancy - a decoction of stems is taken as a diuretic in the last months. Even flowers are considered edible.

Pumpkin porridge during pregnancy

Nutritionists advise using small fruits whole, because useful substances from cut pumpkins are quickly destroyed during storage. Pumpkin pulp is useful for the whole family, including children, as a dietary food. The most useful properties are preserved in fresh pulp, juice and seeds, as well as in boiled and baked puree.

Pumpkin porridge during pregnancy is one of the simplest and healthiest dishes. It is prepared in much the same way as mashed potatoes, only from grated pulp. The mass is stewed until soft, pounded, sugar, milk or olive oil are added to taste. Any type of pumpkin is suitable for this dish.

To improve the taste and nutritional qualities, cereals (millet, rice, semolina, oatmeal, pearl barley), dried fruits, milk, honey or sugar are added to pumpkin puree. Chefs also combine pumpkin with other ingredients.

Boiled, baked pumpkin, as well as with porridge, can be given to a nursing mother, but very carefully, so as not to provoke an allergy, and not earlier than ten days after birth. You should also be sure that the vegetable was grown organically.

Pumpkin juice during pregnancy

Fresh pumpkin juice is a natural concentrate of all the useful things that the garden fruit is rich in. The juice contains minerals, vitamins PP, C, D, E, B, K, beta-carotene, a complex of microelements, pectins. Water, which makes up 90% of the juice, is also a very useful ingredient.

Pumpkin juice during pregnancy:

• calms the nerves;
• improves sleep;
• makes stool easier;
• acts as a diuretic, helps cleanse the kidneys of sand;
• increases immunity;
• relieves sore throat;
• strengthens tooth enamel.

Fresh juice has a beneficial effect on the intestines. In case of inflammation of the colon, pumpkin juice is taken for several months, two or three glasses a day.

To make juice, peel and seed the pumpkin and cut it into pieces. The easiest way to get juice is to use a juicer or grate the pulp and squeeze it on gauze. The resulting fresh juice can be sweetened with honey, cooled with ice cubes, and lemon juice can be added to it. Small fruits of a bright color are more useful for juice: they contain especially a lot of fructose and carotene.

A glass of pumpkin juice during pregnancy is the maximum daily dose. And the first portions can be given to a newborn child in the seventh month of life.

Boiled pumpkin during pregnancy

Boiled pumpkin is consumed during pregnancy due to its medicinal properties. It contains all the same substances as raw pulp, but they act more gently. And in terms of the amount of vitamin K and iron, this dish has no equal. Therefore, boiled pumpkin is very desirable in the diet for anemia, problems with blood clotting.

Boiled or stewed pulp:

• normalizes increased stomach acidity;
• improves digestion;
• helps treat inflammation in the colon;
• reduces elevated temperature, in particular, in cases of bronchial inflammation (acute and chronic bronchitis);
• acts as a sleeping pill (with the addition of honey).

A rather rare vitamin-like substance called vitamin T is also found in pumpkin. It enhances the action of enzymes, removes cholesterol and harmful fats, and accelerates the absorption of heavy foods. In this way, the substance helps to get rid of excess weight and stop the progression of atherosclerosis.

When treating the digestive organs, boiled and baked pulp is taken for three to four months, 1.5 to 2 kg per day.

Raw pumpkin is also useful - to stimulate peristalsis, urine excretion, and cleanse the body of toxins. But the daily portion of raw pumpkin during pregnancy should not exceed half a kilogram.

Millet porridge with pumpkin during pregnancy

The nutritional value of this popular vegetable has been known since the time when pumpkin decorated every garden, and dishes from it - every table. Over time, the benefits were reduced only to the seeds, and the taste of pumpkin pulp was undeservedly forgotten. To restore its former popularity, it is worth recalling the tasty, healthy, dietary properties of garden pumpkin and its need in the diet of every person, including expectant mothers.

Pumpkin is rich in vitamins, microelements, fiber, pectin. Millet adds nutrition and taste to the porridge. Millet porridge with pumpkin during pregnancy is one of the most popular and quick-to-cook dishes.

• Recipe 1

Cereals for millet porridge with pumpkin during pregnancy are soaked overnight. The grated pulp is mixed with millet, raisins, olive oil, salted, sugar is added and cooked in the oven for 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream.

• Recipe 2

For 0.5 kg of grated or finely chopped pulp - three glasses of milk, a glass of millet, salt and sugar to taste. Boil the pumpkin for 10 minutes, add the millet washed several times and cook until done for the same amount of time. To improve the taste, leave it under the lid.

Baked pumpkin during pregnancy

Pinkish varieties of candied, honey, and melon pumpkins are more suitable for baking. Baked pumpkin is rich in calcium, magnesium, and potassium, antioxidant vitamin E, and vitamin D. These substances contained in pumpkin are necessary during pregnancy for the proper functioning of the heart and blood vessels, the formation and growth of healthy teeth, and the preservation of youthful skin.

Baked pumpkin during pregnancy increases immunity, improves digestion, prevents swelling, removes toxins and sodium salts, has choleretic, laxative, diuretic effects. It can be consumed in fairly large quantities without fear of gaining extra pounds.

Baked pumpkin is prepared in different ways:

• Place 50-gram pieces in a pot and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
• Pieces of pulp without skin and seeds are baked on a baking sheet at medium temperature.
• A more modern method is in a multicooker at the appropriate setting.

Baked pumpkin pieces are served with sour cream, mashed with a fork and mixed with porridge to taste.

Pumpkin for swelling during pregnancy

One of the important properties of pumpkin is diuretic; it is connected with the fact that 90% of the large vegetable is water. Pumpkin is very helpful against edema during pregnancy, because it:

• reduces signs of toxicosis;
• relieves nausea;
• removes fluid;
• quenches thirst;
• reduces fever.

Boiled, baked, and pumpkin juice have these qualities. The diuretic effect of pumpkin during pregnancy helps reduce the load on the heart, get rid of excess weight, and improve cardiac activity.

A porridge made from baked or boiled pumpkin during pregnancy helps relieve fatigue and pain in the feet.

Benefits of pumpkin during pregnancy

Pumpkin is one of the healthiest products for expectant mothers. It saturates the body with useful liquid, has a diuretic and anti-inflammatory effect. In normal pregnancy, pumpkin enriches the body of the mother and the future child with useful substances, has a beneficial effect on individual organs and processes.

At different stages of pregnancy, raw or cooked pumpkin, juice or seeds play a different, but always important and useful role.

• The laxative effect helps relieve constipation.
• Pumpkin improves kidney function and removes excess fluid, which is especially important in the third trimester.
• The pulp cleanses the skin and relieves leg pain caused by physical exertion.
• Toxicosis and nausea disappear from pulp, juice or seeds.
• The orange vegetable improves sleep, lifts mood, and relieves depression.
• Pumpkin dishes ensure healthy hair, good skin and nails during pregnancy.

Pumpkin is useful for women suffering from chronic liver diseases and cardiovascular problems.

To ensure that pumpkin dishes do not seem tasteless, they need to be prepared correctly, combining them with other healthy ingredients.

Pumpkin during pregnancy is an excellent cosmetic product. It is used to make masks for facial skin care.

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Contraindications to eating pumpkin during pregnancy

If the benefits of pumpkin during pregnancy are obvious and have been known for a long time, then the disadvantages still need to be looked for. In any case, with moderate consumption, the largest garden fruit does not cause side effects or undesirable reactions.

Contraindications to the use of pumpkin during pregnancy are associated with certain diseases (peptic ulcer, acute manifestations of gastritis, chronic diarrhea, genitourinary problems) or a tendency to allergies. This concerns rather the juice, since it contains the most components. Pumpkin should not be consumed by patients with severe diabetes.

Pregnant women should not abuse pumpkin, as well as other products, in order not to provoke an allergic reaction. It should also be taken into account that canned juices contain preservatives, a lot of sugar, and sometimes dyes.

Pumpkin during pregnancy is included in the list of the most useful products. Apart from the tendency to allergies, there are practically no contraindications. In order not to "get tired" of this healthy vegetable, you need to use its pulp, as well as juice and seeds, in combination with other food ingredients.

Pumpkin when planning pregnancy

Pumpkin is very useful when planning a pregnancy, and this benefit has been known for a long time. The active substances of the garden vegetable have a beneficial effect on conception, in particular, the juice promotes the growth of the endometrium and the strong attachment of the embryo to the uterine wall. And there is much more carotene in pumpkin than in carrots and sea buckthorn, which is important for the eyes and vision - both the woman and the fetus.

Pumpkin also contains other valuable substances:

• vitamins

Vitamin A is good for vision; D is especially needed in winter when there is not enough sun for its synthesis in the body. Vitamin B promotes the absorption of folic acid.

• microelements

Zinc, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium – all of them are needed by the mother’s body in preparation for pregnancy, and pumpkin pulp is rich in all of them. Potassium reserves will protect against possible cramps, iron – from lack of oxygen, calcium and phosphorus will ensure the formation of a healthy skeleton.

• pectin

Reduces the level of bad cholesterol in the blood, normalizes blood pressure, keeps tooth enamel healthy.

• fiber

It has a positive effect on the intestines and stimulates peristalsis.

• Carbohydrates

Nourishes brain cells.

Pumpkin is considered a dietary product. Pumpkin pulp during pregnancy is a well-digestible but low-calorie product, which is very important when preparing for pregnancy. Pumpkin is used in folk medicine, cooking, dietetics, and cosmetology.