Carving a pumpkin this weekend? Don’t throw away those amazing seeds! Instead, roast them for a delicious, healthy treat and enjoy these top 8 health benefits of pumpkin seeds.

Delicious Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups raw pumpkin seeds (best out of a small-medium pumpkin)*
• 2+ teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2-1 teaspoon cumin (optional)
• salt, to taste

Instructions:

1. After scraping seeds out of the pumpkin, discard strings and transfer to a colander.
2. Rinse the seeds with cool water. Continue to sort through seeds and discard strings.
3. Place rinsed seeds on some newspaper or paper towels on the counter to dry.
4. Leave the baking sheet on your kitchen counter overnight so the seeds can dry. They will roast much better if dried. After drying, you can pick out any remaining strings easily.
5. Preheat oven to 325 F degrees.
6. Brush about 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil on 1-2 clean baking sheets, depending on the amount of seeds.
7. In a medium bowl, toss seeds with olive oil, garlic powder, and salt. Add cumin if desired.
8. Spread the seeds on the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring about halfway through. Taste and season with additional garlic, cumin, and salt. Enjoy!

Nutrition info per 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds: 128 calories, 12 grams fat, 3 grams carbs (0 grams net carbs) 2 grams protein

Top 8 Health Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds

While the pumpkin seeds you buy in the store are slightly different than those you pluck out of a carving pumpkin, the nutrition is much the same. Small, greenish, store-bought pumpkin seeds, called pepitas, are smaller and have a softer shell.

Carving-pumpkin seeds have a harder shell, but are still great to eat after roasting. And, they boast a lot of nutrition! Here are the top 8 health benefits of pumpkin seeds:

1. Antioxidant Support

one of the greatest health benefits of pumpkin seeds is the antioxidants. And, there’s a lot. Pumpkin seeds contain a huge amount and diversity of antioxidants (1). They are unique in this way.

Just take Vitamin E. Pumpkins seeds contain many forms of Vitamin E including alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, alpha-tocomonoenol, and gamma-tocomonoenol.

In addition, pumpkin seeds contain many mineral antioxidants like zinc, manganese, phenolic antioxidants such as hydroxybenzoic, caffeic, coumaric, ferulic, sinapic, protocatechuic, vanillic, and syringic acid.

Moreover, pumpkin seeds contain phytonutrient antioxidants like lignans.

What does this mean to you? When you eat pumpkin seeds, you get a lot of diversified antioxidants fighting free radicals and preventing cholesterol oxidation.

2. A Plethora of Minerals for Great Energy

Pumpkin seeds are a great source of phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, and copper; and a good source of the minerals zinc and iron.

And luckily, roasted unshelled seeds contain more minerals than those that are shelled. For example, you’ll get more zinc in the shell itself and shell lining than in the “meat” of the seed.  Whole roasted, unshelled pumpkin seeds contain about 10 milligrams of zinc per 3.5 ounces.

Zinc is an important mineral for hormone balance, energy, and overall health.

3. Reduced Risk of Diabetes

Pumpkins contain chemicals, fibers, proteins and fats that are known to lower blood sugars. Studies have shown that they can be helpful in controlling high blood sugars (2).

What’s more, animal studies have shown that pumpkin seeds have the ability to improve insulin regulation in diabetic animals and improve or prevent kidney function deterioration. Since they also decrease oxidative stress, pumpkin seeds can also indirectly reduce the risk of diabetes.

4. Antimicrobial Benefits

Pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed extracts, and pumpkin seed oil have long been valued for their anti-microbial benefits, including their anti-fungal and anti-viral properties.

In fact, research has found that pumpkin proteins are the source of many antimicrobial benefits. The lignans in pumpkin seeds are also anti-microbial and anti-viral.

5. Cancer-Fighting Benefits

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).

This is a great reason to also buy whole pumpkins, roast, and eat the seeds.

6. Possible Benefits for Enlarged Prostate Glands

Pumpkin seed extracts and oils have long been used in the treatment of benign enlarged prostate glands.

Studies have linked different nutrients in pumpkin seeds to this benefit. Researchers believe it comes from pumpkins’ phytosterols, lignans, and zinc. These nutrients are especially concentrated in pumpkin seed oil.

Eating pumpkin seeds can support prostate health, while pumpkin seed oil has therapeutic properties.

7. Heart Health

Pumpkin seeds also contain phytosterols. Phytosterols are the components used in cholesterol-lowering supplements, functional foods, and more. They are often termed plant sterols.

What’s 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).

8. Reduced Risk of Metabolic Disease

Metabolic disease includes dysfunctions of overall metabolism, glucose metabolism, and protein metabolism. Animal studies have shown that pumpkin seeds, and their nutrients, can alleviate the dysfunctions.

More studies need to be conducted to find the full benefit of pumpkin seed oil on metabolic disease and dysfunctions (7).

Bottom Line

There are many health benefits of pumpkin seeds. Luckily, they are readily available as you carve pumpkins, and easy to make. Don’t throw them away this year. Instead, dry them, roast them, and eat them. Your body will reap the benefits.

If you and your family are carving pumpkins this year, think about saving the seeds!

These often discarded byproducts of jack-o-lantern production are actually incredibly delicious and nutrient dense.

The pumpkin seed is also referred to by the Mexican Spanish term pepita which comes from the phrase pepita de calabaza, meaning “little seed of squash.”

Pepitas are incredibly nutrient dense. They are storehouses of minerals including manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, and zinc.

Pumpkin Seeds are also rich in antioxidant phytonutrients which, when consumed, help combat free-radicals in the body. Additionally, a number of phytosterols can also be found in pumpkin seeds. This includes beta-sitosterol, which is used to promote healthy prostate aging.

Roast your pumpkin seeds to turn all of this nutrition into a tasty portable snack that you won’t feel guilty for eating!