Are Hot Peppers Good For You?

Posted: November 23rd, 2010 | Author: Dr. Bill Stillwell | No Comments »

Every now and then, I like some food with some real zip. It’s not
an everyday kind of thing, it’s just something I like once in a
while. And I like to eat that spicy food during the day, not at
night. Eating really hot food at night rattles my system a little
too much.

As more and more ethnic restaurants appear on the horizon, peppers
of all kinds are making appearances in the marketplace. It used to
be that jalapenos were the hottest peppers you could find at the
grocery store, but no more. In a market I visited this weekend,
there were probably two dozen peppers that fell into the “hot”
category.

Many of them were hot, way beyond my capacity to tolerate. But I
saw many people test them, by just biting in. Some of those would
have blown my head right off, but didn’t appear to affect the
testers, in any way.

When I grew up, people would tell you that hot food wasn’t good for
you. It was their way of steering you away from Indian and Chinese
cuisine and keeping you coming back, for the blander, milder things
that they produced. As I got older and a little more well traveled,
I began to get bored with all the everyday stuff I’d been feeding
on for years.

It started in the Caribbean, where I was introduced to a number of
things that had a heat level I wasn’t used to. Then it continued in
Mexico and in a good number of joints in New York.

Peppers are filled with nutrients that have been shown to battle
cancer, heart disease and eye problems, specifically cataracts.
Peppers are full of beta carotene and vitamin C. Beta carotene plays
a huge role in keeping the body’s immune system healthy. Vitamin C
is a powerful antioxidant.

One cup of red bell pepper has twice the amount of Vitamin C as an
orange, which is usually regarded as “the source” for vitamin C.
Eating peppers raw is the best way to get the most out of them, as
cooking destroys many of the nutrients.

This is where the Mexicans had everything figured out, when they
came up with salsa, one of the greatest ways to get a good amount of
pepper in your system. And the wonderful thing about salsa is that
you can use all colors of pepper, not to mention that you can vary
the heat level to your own taste.

Hot peppers won’t hurt you, if you exercise caution. If you’re not
used to them, start down at the bottom of the heat scale. Peppers
have their own heat rating, called the Scoville scale. Bell Peppers
are at the bottom and you can move up, in steps. I never got past
the Serrano stage, which is about 6000 on the Scoville scale.
Habernero’s run at about 250,000 on the index, and can light you up.

A friend of mine once slapped habernero sauce on everything at a
BBQ. It can fool you, because it can have a sweet front end. He
ended up in the hospital where they had to cool him off (they used
ice cream). He also needed some cooling salve for one of his body
parts.

But the heat you can stand is good for you and the antoxidants will
keep flu and common colds at a distance.

A very quick, and supercharged antioxidant drink would be 5 carrots
and 2 green peppers, in a juicer.

I often add a pepper, of some sort, to my morning smoothie and wash
down my Heart Charging Formula with it:

Click here

Lately, that concoction consists of 1 cup of fresh pinneapple, a
banana, 1 cup of celery, 1 cup of cucumber, a pepper, half an apple,
and two cups of spinach. I add a little water and blend, then drink
that all morning. You could add a protein powder to that, if you
wanted to, as well.

I’ll be back with more tomorrow.

With my best wishes for your optimum health,

Dr. Bill

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