Butternut Squash Nutrition Facts: Learn Why You Should Eat and Enjoy This Vegetable

An Introduction to the Butternut Squash

Before we examine Butternut squash nutrition, we must first learn a little about this versatile vegetable. It is a member of the cucurbit family, just like pumpkin, cucumber, melon, and zucchini. Butternut squash is a member of the winter squash family, just like pumpkin, or the acorn squash. However, thanks to its shape, it is a much easier vegetable to prepare than the popular pumpkin, as well as having superb nutritional credentials.

It has a sweet flavor and a fine texture, making it suitable for all kinds of dishes from soups to pasta dishes, or you can just roast it in its skin for optimal flavor and nutritional content.

Nutritional Values

Although it is a great source of many vitamins, Butternut squash nutrition isn’t just focused on vitamins and minerals. Butternut squash is an excellent source of:

• Vitamin C - essential for the growth and repair of tissues, such as bones, teeth, hair, and cartilage. It is essential for healing wounds as it helps to produce collagen, which is a protein used to make skin.
• <strong>Vitamin A</strong> - necessary for good vision. This vitamin also helps to keep skin healthy and helps protect against infection.
• Potassium - benefits heart function, aids bone health and digestive functions.
• Dietary fiber - as well as being proven to prevent and treat constipation, hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis, dietary fiber can also help to decrease blood cholesterol levels. Just one cup of cooked butternut squash provides a quarter of your daily dietary fiber needs.
• Manganese - assists wound healing, and bone development, as well as playing an important role in the metabolism of carbohydrates.

As well as being a good source of iron and folate (perfect for expectant mothers), butternut squash also provides good amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, copper, and tryptophan, as well as the B vitamins 1, 3, 5 & 6.

One cup of this particular winter squash when cooked provides only 80 calories, while still being a very filling food, especially during winter when the harvest of squash, such as the butternut variety, are more plentiful.

As the common cold is more prevalent in the winter months, eating butternut squash regularly could help reduce the chance of you getting a cold, or reduce the duration of a cold by about a day, as it is so high in vitamin C.

Choosing, Preparing & Cooking

Obviously, knowing how to choose the best squash on the shelf means you get the best specimen, rich in those lovely nutrients. You

should check that the squash is heavy for its size, with a firm, non-blemished skin. Check all around for any soft spots; this could be a sign of decay, or a high-water content (the higher the water content, the lower the nutrients). If you don’t want to leave quality control to the store or market, then try growing your own butternut squash.

Butternut squash nutrition also depends a great deal on how the vegetable is prepared and cooked. A popular way to use it is by cooking and pureeing it to make a perfect baby food or cooking with stock and herbs for an easy soup. Be careful not to use too much salt in your soup though, as this can reduce the effectiveness of some of the vitamins. The squash breaks down very easily when blended and adds a subtle sweet taste. You can also utilize this sweetness in making muffins and cakes.

Although you are likely to peel your squash before cooking, by cubing and roasting it with skin on, you can preserve more of the nutrients that can then be combined with pasta and roast garlic, or in making a hearty risotto.

Resources & Image Credits

https://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/ethnic_crops/vegetable_details.php?veggieid=67

https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/cgi-bin/list_nut_edit.pl

https://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=63

https://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/vitamin-c-000339.htm

https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09333.html

Butternut squash image - Julian Fong: https://flic.kr/p/6JBkqi

Roasted squash image - Corey Harmon: https://flic.kr/p/499j8U