Pumpkin Nutrition: A Detailed Look at Health Benefits & Calories

Though it's often seen as a dessert ingredient rather than a vegetable on its own, pumpkin is packed with nutrition--especially when you eat it in its natural state rather than loaded with sugar and poured into a pie crust.

Calories

• A 1-cup serving of freshly cooked, pureed pumpkin contains 49 calories.

Fat

• When no butter or milk is added to it, pumpkin is virtually a fat-free food, with only 0.2 grams of fat per 1-cup serving.

Carbohydrates

• A single 1-cup serving of pumpkin contains 12 grams of carbohydrates, or 4 percent of the recommended daily allowance. Of those, nearly 3 grams are fiber and 2.5 grams are sugars.

Protein

• Though not high in protein, a 1-cup serving contains about 3 percent of the recommended daily allowance, or a little under 2 grams.

Vitamins and Minerals

• Pumpkin is one of the best sources of Vitamin A you can find, with 245 percent of the recommended daily allowance in 1 cup. It also provides 19 percent of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C and 16 percent of the recommended daily allowance of potassium. It's also a source of calcium and iron.