BAD, GOOD, BEST

How to get the most out of your food choices. This week: Pumpkin

BAD: Pie. WHILE a dessert made with a vegetable might seem virtuous, it’s definitely not. Most recipes for pumpkin pie call for lots of sugar and double cream, which, along with the pastry, means a typical portion supplies around 350 calories, nearly 7tsp of sugar (90 per cent of the daily recommended limit) and around a third of the daily limit of saturated fat.

GOOD: Soup. PUMPKIN soup counts as at least one of your five-a-day and is a good lunch if you want to feel full for longer (liquid meals stretch the stomach and slow stomach emptying, which can delay hunger). But pumpkins lend themselves to creamier recipes, so watch for that. Just 1tbsp of double cream will add 66 calories and 4.4g saturated fat (a fifth of the daily limit).

BEST: Roasted. ROASTING with a little olive oil helps make the orange carotenoids (antioxidants) in pumpkin more easily absorbed as they’re fat soluble. Carotenoids help mop up damaging free radicals and a high carotenoid intake has been linked with lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The body converts carotenoids into vitamin A, with 100g pumpkin supplying more than half your daily needs.