Fall Favorites: Everything You Didn’t Know About Pumpkins

Pumpkin is so much a part of the traditions, aesthetic, and culture of fall that as soon as the leaves start to change, this many-sized celebrity of squashes starts to dominate our news feeds, grocery store displays, and lattes before we even have time to break out our costumes.

Americans love pumpkins, with over 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkin produced in the U.S. each year, 800 million of which make their debut in the single month of October. A winter squash belonging to the Cucurbitacae family, which includes cucumbers and melons, pumpkins are technically classified as a fruit, but it’s a fruit that wears many hats.

Not only is pumpkin a favorite fall decoration, day-activity attraction (cue the family pumpkin-patch photo shoot), Halloween prop, Thanksgiving Day staple, and preferred replacement noggin of the Headless Horseman, but as a naturally low-calorie, nutrient-rich food, it has untapped potential for your health as well.

9 Natural Immune Boosters

4 TIPS TO KEEP IMMUNE SYSTEM STRONG:

1. Minimize stress.
2. Stay active.
3. Eat a healthful diet. Steer clear of sugary and high-fat foods, which can slow and/or weaken immune response.
4. Socialize. People with friends have stronger immune systems than those who feel alone. Of course, try not to socialize with people who are sick 

Immune system supplements also help support the body in fine tuning its natural defense mechanisms and maintaining an environment favorable to good health.

A vital immune system can mean the difference between a pleasant winter and a miserable one. Do your part to help your body stay strong with help from these 9 gifts from Mother Nature:

Healthy Meal Replacement Smoothies

Smoothie recipes that are just as healthy as they are easy to make? 

These smoothies are packed with everything you need to get you to your next meal.

Heard of meal replacement smoothies? Smoothie meals offer a fast and tasty way to get nutrition into your body. They’re convenient and go anywhere you go—in the car, to the office, to the beach—and the right recipes can serve as breakfast, lunch, dinner or a healthful between-meal snack.

The green smoothie craze that swept the country a few years ago unleashed the power of green nutrition. People everywhere found they could lose weight, lower their blood pressure and discover other health benefits of the verdant, spinach-or kale-based drinks.

Today the smoothie meal bandwagon includes many more options. In fact you’re only limited by your imagination and your taste buds.

How the Nervous System Works and Affects Everything in the Body

The human nervous system is an amazing network of organs, nerve cells (neurons) and neurotransmitters, connecting the brain and spinal cord to the entire body.

The nervous truly helps regulate everything happening in your body, whether it’s occurring consciously or unconsciously.

• Conscious/voluntary — controls perception, analysis, memory, movement
• Unconscious/involuntary (also called Autonomic) — takes care of all of the things you don’t think about, such as your heartbeat, digestion, regulating body temperature, breathing, etc.

Your Autonomic branch is further divided into two smaller branches:

•  Sympathetic
• Parasympathetic

Why You Should Worry about Your Gut Health

As more and more research results come to light, one thing is becoming clear: your gut has far more to do with your overall physical and emotional health than any of us previously realized. When your gut is not healthy, you can experience all kinds of problems.

A Quick Overview of Your Digestive System

In order to understand the importance of the gut, you need to know how the digestive system works in general.