It’s the perfect time of year for pumpkin soup.
It’s warm, delicious, creamy, and overflowing with pumpkin.
What’s more, it’s loaded with many health benefits and less than ten carbohydrates per serving.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Try our Delicious Creamy Keto Zone Pumpkin Soup today.
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition info (based on 1.5 cups of soup and 1 tablespoon olive oil): 343 calories, 32 grams fat, 8 grams net carbohydrates (10 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber), 4 grams protein (84% fat)
First, the star of the soup: Pumpkin.
While often used as an Autumn decoration, pumpkin is incredibly nutritious (1). In fact, it contains:
Pumpkin contains alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin. These are strong antioxidants, and they will work together to fight free radicals, reduce the risk of cancer, promote heart health, reduce cholesterol-plaque formations, and preserve eye health (2).
The cell walls of pumpkin contain a special fiber called pectin. Pectin it greatly anti-inflammatory, reducing symptoms and risk of heart disease, joint pain, arthritis, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, asthma, and more.
Along with the flesh and fiber of pumpkins, its seed oil is full of health benefitting nutrients. In fact, pumpkin seed oil has specifically been shown to reduce the risk of prostate, breast, colorectal, gastric, and lung cancer, arthritis, bladder, and urethral pressure, prostate disease, the progression of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes ( 3, 4, 5,).
Pumpkin seeds also contain phytosterols. Phytosterols are the components used in cholesterol-lowering supplements, functional foods, and more. The carotenoids in pumpkin flesh can protect the heart and other body organs and tissue from free radical damage, oxidative stress, and plaque formation (6).
Pumpkin is also a great source of fiber, monounsaturated fats, omega-3s, B-vitamins, and copper. B-Vitamins and Copper both play a part in energy production, and can make a difference in your get-up-and-go!
The health benefits of any recipe increase exponentially when you add spices. Here’s how:
Cinnamon is a powerful antioxidant food. It is also:
Read more about these amazing benefits here.
In addition to fighting joint pain, ginger is (see full details of 7 Reasons this Wonder Spice is Great for Your Whole Body):
Much like cloves and the other spices listed here, nutmeg has compounds that work at the cellular level to improve health. Nutmeg:
Beyond its great taste, it will support your body’s health from your heart to your toes. Here’s how.
Garlic can lower blood triglycerides and total cholesterol. What’s more, it’s highly anti-inflammatory and a strong antioxidant, which means less damage to blood vessel cells (where plaques get lodged and do damage), less oxidative stress, and more healing (18).
Garlic compounds are both antibacterial and antiviral in the body. They can reduce infections in our mouths, throats, stomachs, and GI tracts. In fact, garlic has been shown to reduce yeast overgrowth.
Garlic has a vast set of sulfur-containing compounds that reduce both oxidative stress and inflammation. Sulfur also promotes all stages of cellular detoxification. Together, these attributes work to protect our heart, our vessels, and our cells.
Study after study concludes that garlic is an effective immune booster. It’s known to kill mycobacterial strains. In fact, its active compound allicin kills various microorganisms.
New lab studies show that it is even effective to help treat antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis. That’s some strong food-as-medicine (19).
Like many other fruits and vegetables, allium vegetables like garlic have strong anti-cancer properties. In longitudinal studies, a high intake of garlic is associated with reduced amounts of almost all cancers, (except breast and prostate, interestingly).
Garlic’s sulfides (once again) likely play the largest role in cancer prevention. These compounds activate a molecule in cells that trigger many metabolic activities, including programmed cell death, in the cell nucleus when something’s gone array (such as overgrowth in the case of cancer and tumors) (20).
In addition, garlic supports gut health, reducing the incidence of H. Pylori and subsequence ulcers promotes healthy blood sugars, and may even enhance the nutrient absorption of other foods.
Sometimes you get lucky, and the most delicious foods have all the health benefits! Our Delicious Cream Keto Zone Pumpkin Soup in no exception. With health benefits from pumpkin, spices, garlic, and more, it’s a surefire way to satisfy your taste buds and whole-body health!