Reasons You Should Embrace Butternut Squash

Okay, I LOVE butternut squash - and not because it’s good for us - which it turns out, it totally is! I love butternut squash because it’s incredibly delicious and can be served in all sorts of ways - baked, roasted, pureed, cubed, sautéed, on a salad, etc. And nine times out of ten, meals made with butternut squash don’t cause my blood sugars to head towards the roof.

Butternut squash and type 2 diabetes management

Look, I always knew it was a healthy veggie, but I didn’t realize just how healthy and good for us butternut squash really was until recently - when a friend on WeightWatchers (WW) informed me that not only was butternut squash chock full of vitamins, it had ZERO WW points because of the high water and fiber counts. You could have knocked me over with a feather because in my head I was thinking it was more of a starch!

So, of course, I started researching all things butternut squash related and discovered why butternut squash is indeed the gift that keeps on giving.

1. It's loaded with beta-carotene (great for our immune systems, skin, and eyes, and is thought to reduce inflammation and helps to keep our memory sharp). Plus it has vitamin A (which is known to fight infections), C, E, and a multitude of B complex vitamins including; foliates, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), pantothenic acid and thiamin.¹

2. It has large amounts of calcium, magnesium, and zinc.¹

3. One cup of butternut squash contains 82 grams of calories, 7 grams of fiber (when baked, the seeds are also a great source of fiber), 0 grams of fat, and contains 582 milligrams of potassium.¹

Is there a downside to butternut squash?

The only drawback of that I can find when it comes to butternut squash, at least in my eyes? The difficulty when it comes to slicing cutting, and or dicing the raw squash - it can be downright dangerous. So unless you’re going to bake an entire butternut squash, it’s worth the extra money to have your grocer slice, dice, and or cube the squash for you.