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What are the effects and benefits of pumpkin?

Sep 18, 2025 Source: Cainiu Health
Dr. Yu Yongchao
Introduction
Generally speaking, pumpkin, as a common nutritious food, has various benefits including supplying essential nutrients, promoting gastrointestinal digestion, protecting eyesight, helping control blood sugar levels, and enhancing immune function. When consuming pumpkin, it is important to maintain a balanced diet, avoid long-term excessive intake of pumpkin alone, and ensure a diverse and well-balanced consumption of different foods.

Generally speaking, pumpkin is a common nutritious food, and its benefits mainly include supplementing body nutrition, promoting gastrointestinal digestion, protecting eye health, assisting in blood sugar control, and enhancing immune function. The specific analysis is as follows:

1. Supplementing body nutrition: Pumpkin is rich in various nutrients such as β-carotene, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, and dietary fiber. β-carotene can be converted into vitamin A in the body, vitamin C participates in metabolic processes, while potassium and magnesium help maintain electrolyte balance.

2. Promoting gastrointestinal digestion: Pumpkin contains abundant dietary fiber and has a soft, glutinous texture that is easy to digest. Dietary fiber helps promote intestinal motility, accelerates the elimination of food residue, and relieves constipation.

3. Protecting eye health: β-carotene in pumpkin is an essential component of light-sensitive substances in the retina. It helps relieve eye fatigue and reduce dryness. Long-term moderate consumption provides nutritional support for eye health.

4. Assisting in blood sugar control: Pumpkin contains pectin, which can slow down the absorption rate of sugar from food, preventing rapid post-meal spikes in blood glucose levels. In addition, pumpkin itself has a relatively low glycemic index. Replacing part of staple foods with moderate amounts of pumpkin can help maintain stable blood sugar levels.

5. Enhancing immune function: Nutrients in pumpkin such as vitamin C and β-carotene participate in immune regulation, helping to enhance the activity of immune cells and improve the body's resistance to pathogens, thereby reducing the likelihood of illnesses like colds and infections.

When consuming pumpkin, it is important to maintain a balanced diet, avoid long-term excessive or monotonous intake, and ensure diverse and well-rounded nutrition to fully realize its health benefits and support overall well-being.

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