Pepper

I simply love bell peppers, particularly the brightly colored ones. Although they belong to the chili pepper family, bell peppers are mild and can jazz up a salad in an instant, lend a perky crunch to your pizza, and taste fantastic when roasted.

But the appeal of bell peppers goes way beyond their stunning good looks. Here’s a short list of the good things they can do for your health:

• Bell peppers are low in calories! So, even if you eat one full cup of them, you get just about 45 calories. Bonus: that one cup will give you more than your daily quota of Vitamin A and C!
• They contain plenty of vitamin C, which powers up your immune system and keeps skin youthful.  The highest amount of Vitamin C in a bell pepper is concentrated in the red variety.
• Red bell peppers contain several phytochemicals and carotenoids,  particularly beta-carotene, which lavish you with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.
• The capsaicin in bell peppers has multiple health benefits. Studies show that it reduces ‘bad’ cholesterol, controls diabetes, brings relief from pain and eases inflammation.
• If cooked for a short period on low heat, bell peppers retain most of their sweet, almost fruity flavor and flavonoid content, which is a powerful nutrient.
• The sulfur content in bell peppers makes them play a protective role in certain types of cancers.
• The bell pepper is a good source of Vitamin E, which is known to play a key role in keeping skin and hair looking youthful.
• Bell peppers also contain vitamin B6, which is essential for the health of the nervous system and helps renew cells.
• Certain enzymes in bell peppers, such as lutein, protect the eyes from cataracts and macular degeneration later in life.

Bell pepper nutrition facts

Bell pepper, or sweet pepper, is the most popular of the chili peppers in the Capsicum annuum family. It is a fruit pod of small perennial shrub in the nightshade or Solanaceae family, in the genus, capsicum. Scientific name: Capsicum annuum L.

Unlike their fellow capsicum members, sweet peppers have characteristic bell shape with crunchy, thick fleshy texture. Additionally, on comparison with other members, bell (sweet) peppers feature characteristically less pungency that ranges from zero to very minimal hotness. For the same reasons, they generally treated like any other common vegetables instead of spice.

Peppers are native to Mexico and other Central American region from where they spread to the rest of the world by Spanish and Portuguese explorers during 16th and 17th centuries. Today, they grown widely in many parts of the world as an important commercial crop. As in other chili pepper varieties, bell peppers also have several cultivar types. However, the plant type and fruit pod (with 3-5 lobes) are a common features in almost all cultivars.

In structure, sweet pepper features blocky, cube like outer flesh enclosing numerous tiny, white, or cream colored, circular and flat seeds. The seeds are actually clinging on to the central core (placenta). To harvest, peppers are handpicked at different stages of maturity depending upon the local preferences. All varieties of unripe peppers feature green color pods, irrespective of their final destined color. As the fruit matures, it gradually acquires its true genetic color; orange, red, purple, yellow, etc.

The hotness of peppers is measured in “Scoville heat units” (SHU). On the Scoville scale, a sweet bell pepper scores 0, while a jalapeno pepper around 2,500-4,000 and a Mexican habaneros 200,000 to 500,000 units.

Health benefits of bell pepper

• Bell pepper contains an impressive list of plant nutrients that are found to have disease preventing and health promoting properties. Unlike in other fellow chili peppers, it has very less calories and fats. 100 g provides just 31 calories.
• Sweet (bell) pepper contains small levels of health benefiting an alkaloid compound capsaicin. Early laboratory studies on experimental mammals suggest that capsaicin has anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic and anti-diabetic properties. When used judiciously, it also found to reduce triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels in obese individuals.
• Fresh bell peppers, red or green, are rich source of vitamin-C. This vitamin is especially concentrated in red peppers at the highest levels. 100 g red pepper provides about 127.7 µg or about 213% of RDA of vitamin C. Vitamin-C is a potent water soluble antioxidant. Inside the human body, it is required for the collagen synthesis. Collagen is the main structural protein in the body required for maintaining the integrity of blood vessels, skin, organs, and bones. Regular consumption of foods rich in this vitamin helps the human body protect from scurvy; develop resistance against infectious agents (boosts immunity) and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the body.
• It also contains good levels of vitamin-A. 100 g of sweet pepper has 3131 IU or 101% of vitamin A. In addition, it contains anti-oxidant flavonoids such as α and β carotenes, lutein, zea-xanthin, and cryptoxanthin. Together, these antioxidant substances in sweet peppers help to protect the body from injurious effects of free radicals generated during stress and disease conditions.
• Bell pepper has adequate levels of essential minerals. Some of the main minerals in it are iron, copper, zinc, potassium, manganese, magnesium, and selenium. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Selenium is an anti-oxidant micro-mineral that acts as a co-factor for enzyme, superoxide dismutase.
• Further, capsicum (sweet pepper) is also good in B-complex group of vitamins such as niacin, pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), riboflavin, and thiamin (vitamin B-1). These vitamins are essential in the sense that body requires them from external sources to replenish. B-complex vitamins facilitate cellular metabolism through various enzymatic functions.