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I regularly add a heaping tablespoon of canned pumpkin (the plain pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix) to my dog’s food each meal. Her vet suggested it when she was having issues with her anal gland. Ever since I started, she’s been more regular than rain, and she snarfs up food lickitty split!

But I just learned that in addition to providing fiber and making her regular, the pumpkin may be providing her with other benefits. Apparently, pumpkin is good for when your pet has a tummy ache and can ease the transition to a new type of food. So, if you don’t have white rice and boiled chicken the next time your pet get sick after going through the garbage in the summer, try giving him or her a bit o’ pumpkin.

For more everyday food tips for your pets, check out the article at www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-lspets5322037aug06,0,7557446.column

Alan Hirsch , the neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, noticed that people who lost their sense of smell also had a diminished sexual appetite, so he tested men and women to see what scents might increase blood flow to the genitals.

Although men responded sexually to all of the aromas, the greatest response came from a blend of pumpkin pie and lavender, which increased blood flow to the penis 40% of the time. The scent of pumpkin pie with doughnuts increased blood flow 20%.

Russia Looks at Pumpkin Pectin
According to Stephen Daniells of Nutraingredients-USA.com, Russian research indicates that “pectin extracted from pumpkin and then modified using an enzyme could offer an interesting alternative for jams and confectionery.” More

First Pumpkin Seed Oil Created in US
“Pumpkin seed oil is big in Austria and France, where it is used in salads and drizzled over cooked foods, especially roasted meats,” Ken Seguine told Darlene Ramos of The Dunn County News. He’s created the US’ first pumpkin seed oil, a high-end product that imparts the taste of roasted pumpkin seeds to many foods. More

Pumpkin Crop Depends, In Part, On Honey Bees
The news has reported a mysterious malady called “colony collapse disorder” has seriously affected honey bee colonies throughout the U.S. This not only impacts the future of honey production, but crops that depend on honey bees for pollination. According to Terry Bibo of the PJ Journal Star, “Some crops are more vulnerable than others. Corn, for example, does not need bees.” However, honey bees are the main pollinator of pumpkins. Bibo’s story discusses how the decreased honey bee population may not adversely affect the pumpkin crop in Illinois. More

Have you noticed that a lot of companies came out with pumpkin or pumpkin spice flavored products this year? Or have they always been here and I just didn’t notice?

Of course, there are the usuall seasonal restaurant offerings of pumpking pancakes, pumpkin milkshakes, even pumpkin beer. But I also noticed that Alta Dena came out with Pumpkin Spice Eggnog, Jell-o came out with Pumpkin Spice Pudding and Stash came out with Pumpkin Spice Tea.

Are pumpkins the Fruit of Fall or what?

Although the first fresh pumpkin I used in a recipe had once been my jack-o-lantern, I’ve since learned that there are different pumpkins for these uses.

Thayer Wine of the Gannett News Service wrote a wonderful little article — with recipes for pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, orange-walnut pumpkin bars and easy pumpkin cake — that explains a bit about the difference in pumpkins and their purposes. He also mentions the difference between canned and fresh pumpkin.

For example, did you know the Long Island Cheese pumpkin is sometimes called a “hog pumpkin”? Had you even heard of a Long Island Cheese pumpkin? Did you know that four cups grated pumpkin equals 1 cup of pumpkin puree?

Check out his article here: www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061010/OSH05/610100304/1168.

You probably know that pumpkins are good for you because they are a good source of vitamin A and fiber. But did you know that they can be good for the environment, too?

New research, to be published later this year in Environmental Science and Technology, shows that pumpkins can clean up soil contamination with DDT and other pollutants.

Pollutants that don’t dissolve in water, such as DDT, PCBs and dioxins, are difficult to remove and the difficulty increases with time. Usually, to clean up contaminated areas, the soil is removed and either dumped in a landfill or incinerated.

Pumpkins offer an alternative through phyto-remediation – the use of plants to clean up contaminated soil. Basically, pumpkins could be planted in contaminated soil and destroyed after they’ve been harvested.

“Our research has shown that members of the Curcubita pepo species, including pumpkins, are particularly effective in this regard,” says Ken Reimer, PhD, a chemist at the Royal Military College of Canada and corresponding author of the paper.

The research compared rye grass, tall fescue, alfalfa, zucchini and pumpkin. Pumpkins took up the most DDET with zucchini, another C. pepo species, following at second. The researchers believe this to be the case because of the large mass and volume found in the species.

If you love pumpkins, you might want to visit New Hampshire. On April 20, 2006, the state’s Senate approved HB 1111, which designated the pumpkin as the official New Hampshire state fruit. Governor John Lynch signed the bill into law during a ceremony held the first weekend of May.

Apparently, third and fourth graders at the Wells Memorial Elementary School in Harrisville created the bill, learning about civics in the process. The “class took on a bill head on and pushed it the entire way through,” said . Sen. Bob Flanders (R-Antrim), whose district includes Harrisville. “They ran into staunch opposition, those [who] favored the apple and blueberry, and they pressed on nevertheless.”

Now, just in case you are wondering, pumpkins are, biologically speaking, fruits. However, due to legal mumbo jumbo, they are classified as vegetables, just like tomatoes.

Did you know that men find the aroma of pumpkin pie arousing? At least that’s was Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, neurologic director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, says in his book What’s Your Food Sign? How to Use Food Clues to Find Lasting Love.

The book’s thesis is that our food preferences can show others what we’re really like. According to Dr. Hirsch, people choose foods that reflect who they are and “couples and not-quite-yet couples can learn about their future compatibility by observing what the other person eats.”

“We tested 18,631 married people over 20 years,” Dr. Hirsch told The New York Post. Using established personality tests, he and his team determined specific character traits of his subjects. Then they looked at the study participants’ food preferences using a “forced-choice” methodology, in other words, test subjects had to choose from among five or six options to answer questions.

This research, originally created to help psychiatrists diagnose conditions in their patients, led Dr. Hirsch to believe that “food preferences can help you gain insight into who [a person you are dating] really is.” He also claims that his findings, reported in the book, are “statistically significant – that is to say, they are the case 95 percent of the time.”

Of course, “There are certain limitations to the study,” Dr. Hirsch acknowledged. “We didn’t ask people what they ate; we asked them what they would like to eat. We don’t know the strength of preferences. And we did these tests in the Midwest - so, in the United States, the Alaskans and the Amish might have food preferences we didn’t examine at all.”

Dr. Hirsch covers several different areas in his book, one of which is our sense of smell. In his research, Dr. Hirsch found the most stimulating scent for men “is a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie; number two is a combination of doughnuts and black licorice; and number three is a combination of pumpkin pie and doughnuts.”

Notice how pumpkin pie was mentioned twice? So, ladies, I guess if you want to get close to your man, bake a pumpkin pie. Now that’s a passion for pumpkins!