Female hands in yellow knitted sweater holding a bowl with pumpkin cream soup on dark stone background with spoon decorated with cut fresh pumpkin, top view. Autumn cozy dinner concept

Why and How to Incorporate Pumpkin Into Your Autumn Meal Plans

Pumpkin, in its various forms, provides a versatile canvas for creativity in the kitchen. Canned pumpkin purée, a pantry staple, can be easily incorporated into soups and pies, and frozen pumpkin can be added to oatmeal and pancakes. When fresh pumpkin is roasted, its caramelized edges and tender interior add a delectable dimension to salads, pastas, or a standalone side dish. Don’t overlook the seeds; toasted pumpkin seeds make a crunchy, nutritious snack or a flavorful salad topper.

Clear glass food storage meal prepping containers with fresh berries, carrots, fruits, vegetables and meat on white background.

Mealtime Strategies for Your Busiest Dance Days

While cooking from scratch is often touted as the ideal approach to healthy eating, it’s not always feasible for dancers during busy rehearsal and performance periods. Elaborate home-cooked meals are also not the be-all and end-all of nutritious eating. Particularly when time is scarce, turning to nutritious snacks and relying on packaged and frozen foods can be part of a healthy eating plan, offering convenience without sacrificing nutrition.

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A Dancer’s Guide to Healthy Eating While Healing

A healthy approach to eating during recovery involves an abundance and a variety of foods that offer the body tools to support tissue repair, muscle building, energy replenishment, and immunity. In addition to nutrition, it’s important that dancers focus on mindset—and the ability to stay motivated and confident—during injury recovery.

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Why Cultivating Food Flexibility is Crucial for Your Health

Just as nutrition is important to a dancer’s fuel plan, eating patterns that support a dancer’s relationship with food can have an incredible impact on performance potential onstage and in the studio. Yet research suggests that dancers are three times more likely to struggle with an eating disorder than the general population. This often involves inflexibility around foods that diet culture deems to be “bad” or “unhealthy,” like processed foods or desserts.