Fall Smoothie with Butternut Squash and Plums

I used Damson plums, which are the common cultivar in Romania. And we do plums a lot. You may have heard of our famous plum brandy, țuica. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2010, Romania was the second largest producer of plums and sloes (don't know why they were grouped together) in the world, after China. There was a great gap between these first two spots, however, as expected. Then, going down to the next countries, the gap narrowed considerably.

Everyone who suffers from constipation or has someone close who does is probably familiar with the fact that plums are a good remedy. They contain not only fiber, but also two compounds, sorbitol and isatin, that are natural laxatives.

A cup of plums also contains 26% DV vitamin C, 13 % vitamin K, 11% DV vitamin A, and lower amounts of B-complex vitamins. I wrote about the health benefits of vitamin C and vitamin A here.

Plums also contain potassium (7%), copper (5%), manganese (4%), phosphorus (3%), magnesium (3%), iron (2%), and calcium (1%).

My source at nutritiondata.self.com doesn’t specify the cultivar; numbers will be different from cultivar to cultivar and region to region.

Butternut squash is rich in beta-carotene (the most important provitamin A carotenoid), and also contains lutein, B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, and several minerals: manganese, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium.

What does that mean? It means that by eating squash you get a load of antioxidants which protect you against the harmful effects of free radicals. Vitamin A also protects your vision, as do the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, present in leafy green vegetables and also, to a much lesser extent, in other green, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables . . . and the retina of the eye (in the macular area).

Lutein and zeaxanthin are not synthesized by our bodies, which is why we have to make sure we get them through our diet. These two antioxidant carotenoids protect not only against cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, but also against heart disease, strokes, and breast and lung cancer. See here on PubMed.gov the abstract of an article published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2004, titled “Lutein and zeaxanthin and their potential roles in disease prevention.”

The foods richest in lutein and zeaxanthin are cooked spinach, cooked kale, cooked turnip greens and cooked collards (cooking releases lutein). Then, with amounts several times smaller than the afore-mentioned leafy greens, come other vegetables and fruits, such as broccoli, corn, lettuce, peas, Brussel sprouts, beans, tangerines, oranges, papayas, melons, and carrots.