Diet on pumpkin: useful recipes

The banal pumpkin, which was used to feed cattle and cook pumpkin porridge in season in our country just a few decades ago, suddenly began to occupy leading positions on the tables of haute cuisine, as a healthy dietary product. Probably, this fruit received its recognition for a reason, and its well-deserved popularity came to it thanks to the opening of geographical and culinary borders. At the moment, the pumpkin diet is very popular, and also delicious.

Indications

Pumpkin is recommended to everyone and always because of its beneficial properties, but in this case we will talk about the pumpkin diet for weight loss. Indications for the appointment are large excess weight or the desire to lose just a few kilograms and feel slimmer and fitter. In addition, it will improve digestion, hair and skin condition. The diet is successfully used to prevent constipation, cardiovascular diseases, inflammation of the genitourinary system.

General information pumpkin diet

The essence of the pumpkin diet is that the fruit is low-calorie (23 kcal per 100 g), sweet, tasty, fills the stomach for a long time without causing a feeling of hunger, and therefore is easily tolerated, replenishes the reserves of vitamins, micro- and macroelements necessary for life. It normalizes the digestive tract, slows down the absorption of fats and carbohydrates. The amount of pumpkin is not limited, because in fact 90% of the fruit is water with minerals and vitamins, it is the main ingredient in all dishes. Salt is minimized, sugar, alcohol, sweets are excluded, after 18:00food is prohibited.

Pumpkin Diet for Weight Loss of 5 kg

The authors of the 5kg weight loss diet promise such a result in just 4 days. During these days, eat only three times a day, drink a lot of water and exercise. The pumpkin diet menu looks like this:

• Day 1 - pumpkin is present in all dishes: rice porridge with pumpkin is needed for breakfast. To do this, boil the pumpkin, add 3 spoons of brown rice, milk diluted with water and cook on the stove or in the oven until done. For lunch, cream soup, dinner - baked pumpkin with cinnamon;
• second: in the morning, pumpkin salad with almonds and pear, lunch with vegetarian soup and pumpkin cutlets, in the evening, baked apples, a glass of kefir;
• third: porridge with the addition of any cereal except semolina in the morning, then soup with meatballs made from dietary meat, dinner of a salad with ingredients such as pumpkin, pineapple, apple;
• fourth: vegetable and pumpkin stew in the morning, borscht with meat in a non-rich broth during the day, pumpkin pancakes, chopped eggplants, bell peppers, tomatoes, prunes, and onions baked in half a pumpkin in the evening. Sprinkle with grated cheese 5 minutes before it's ready.

You can drink water, pumpkin juice, green tea.

Pumpkin diet for 10 days

If you have not managed to achieve the desired results in such a short period of time and if you are not tired of this useful but specific product, you can use the pumpkin diet for 10 days. It consists of two four-day blocks described above and two days for a gradual exit from it. The maximum period of staying on it is 2 weeks or 3 blocks. Each new block begins on the first day of the diet. What can you eat? Its diet includes vegetarian soups or soups with weak meat broth, porridge, casseroles, salads, baked vegetables, and fresh juices and fruits as desserts. The main role in all these dishes is given to pumpkin. A small amount of meat is allowed, but with a pumpkin side dish. What can't you eat? Do not eat potatoes, carbonated drinks, fried, fatty, high-calorie, spicy foods are taboo. After the end of the diet, you also do not need to pounce on these products, and completely remove pumpkin from the menu. You can leave juice in the diet, a dessert that combines different fruits.

Pumpkin Diet Recipes

There are many pumpkin diet recipes and they often do not require much skill in preparation. Here are some of them:

• pumpkin juice - freshly squeezed is the healthiest. To prepare it, the fruit is peeled and either grated or sent to a juicer, then filtered. Juice can be obtained in another way. Grated pumpkin is dropped into boiling water, boiled for a few minutes and cooled, and then everything is turned into a homogeneous mass using a blender or mixer. Before drinking, you can squeeze a little lemon juice to avoid cloying. It is best to drink the juice in the morning on an empty stomach, half an hour before breakfast;
• pumpkin soup - it tastes best with weak chicken broth. Pumpkin pieces, carrots, onions are boiled until done and whipped with a blender. Before serving, low-fat cream, chopped dill, parsley, and a little bit of croutons, dried by hand, are added to the plate;
• Pumpkin pie - there are many recipes for this pie, for Americans it is an invariable attribute of the festive table after turkey, but in this case you need to use a dietary one. The ingredients are 200g of pumpkin, an egg, a glass of kefir, 80g of oatmeal, vegetable oil (20g), nuts, vanillin, a little honey. At the preparatory stage, the pumpkin is chopped in a food processor, the flakes are turned into flour in a coffee grinder and added to the pumpkin, as well as the remaining ingredients. Everything is thoroughly mixed until the consistency of sour cream. The oven is heated to 180 °, the form is greased with oil and filled with the prepared dough. In half an hour the pie is ready;
• Pumpkin jam is a delicious dessert treat that can be eaten separately or put on diet bread or pie. To make it, you will need 0.5 kg of pumpkin, a tablespoon of lemon juice, sugar substitute, cinnamon to taste, a teaspoon of grated ginger, a third of a spoon of nutmeg. You can add any ingredients you like to taste. Peeled pumpkin is chopped and stewed over low heat with the addition of a small amount of water so that it does not burn. After it is ready, puree it, add everything else and boil it down until thick, then put it into glass jars, cool it, and put it in the refrigerator;
• pumpkin pancakes - pumpkin (300g) and apples (2 medium) are grated, 100g of low-fat cottage cheese, an egg, a pinch of salt, a third of a teaspoon of soda, quenched with lemon juice are added to them. Stevia is used instead of sugar to taste. The thickness is adjusted with crushed oatmeal (instead of flour), raisins can be added. Cutlets should be formed from the prepared mass without spreading, which are laid out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and baked in the oven until done. Such pancakes are very good with aromatic herbal tea, rosehip broth or unsweetened low-fat yogurt;
• pumpkin baked with apples - grease a low form or baking sheet with vegetable oil, cut pumpkin and apples into thin slices. First, distribute the pumpkin over the entire surface of the container, put apple slices on it in the same way and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 180° for 30-40 minutes;
• pumpkin porridge - the fruit is boiled in water, which is then drained, lightly cooked brown rice is added. Everything is poured with low-fat milk so that the contents of the saucepan are covered, brought to a boil over the fire and placed in the oven for half an hour.

Benefits

The benefit of the pumpkin diet is that its fruits contain a large amount of fiber (in 100 g of pumpkin 7 g of plant fiber) with a daily requirement of 20-35 g. The orange color indicates the presence of beta-carotene in it - a natural antioxidant and immunostimulant and its content is 5 times higher than that of carrots. Pumpkin is also rich in B vitamins, iron, potassium, copper, protein. Pectins in its composition stimulate metabolism, reduce low-density cholesterol, stimulate peripheral circulation, remove toxins and other harmful elements from the body.

Contraindications

The pumpkin diet is contraindicated in case of exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, after an infectious disease, in old age. Possible risks and complications are associated with exacerbation of chronic diseases of the stomach, intestines, pancreas, because it contains a lot of plant fibers. Like any mono-diet, it limits the intake of nutrients from other products, so a short period of its use is best.

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Reviews and results

Reviews and results are quite predictable, because the entire human community is divided into pumpkin lovers and those who categorically do not perceive this product. It is from the latter that the diet is criticized. Well, there are many other options, although there is no diet without restrictions. Positive reviews emphasize the satiety of pumpkin, which means good tolerance, its deliciousness, and the absence of a depressive state. There are also results, but in most reviews they are not so impressive.