Food is medicine, and there’s a crop of adorable medicine in the fields right now! Sometimes crusading as a jack-o-lantern, sometimes fighting parasites. Here’s a summary about pumpkins from Paul Pitchford’s Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition:

Pumpkin [has a] cooling thermal nature; sweet and slightly bitter flavor; relieves damp conditions including dysentery, eczema, and edema; helps regulate blood sugar balance and benefits the pancreas – used for diabetes and hypoglycemia. Promotes discharge of mucus from lungs, bronchi, and throat; regular use has been shown to benefit bronchial asthma. Cooked pumpkin destroys intestinal worms, but not as effectively as pumpkin seeds. For parasitic worms, eat a small handful of seeds of winter squash or pumpkin once or twice daily for 3 weeks.