Pepper comes in different varieties and each variety of pepper is unique in hotness, size, color, etc. But in this article we’ll be looking into the health benefits of pepper, what you stand to gain by adding pepper to your diet and so on.
However, all over the world pepper has become an integral part of everyone’s life, as cooking without adding pepper will make your food taste odd.
Now, you should know that the potential health benefits of pepper or what one can gain from adding pepper to his or her diet comes from a chemical contained in it called ‘Capsaicin’.
Looking into the history of pepper, it became very popular due to the presence of Capsaicin in it. Now, why is Capsaicin important? This is because it’s presence in pepper empowers it with the ability to hinder the growth and formation of bacteria by 75%, by using it in your food it can acts as a preservative.
Therefore, the addition of spices made from hot pepper or adding pepper itself to you food will not only make your food stand out amidst your spices but also continually preserve your food from bacteria’s. It can also protect us from food poisoning due to Capsaicin in.
You can benefit from all this by just eating pepper. Now, let’s see the potential health benefits of pepper.
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10 Health Benefits of Pepper
(1) Benefits the Digestive Tract
How you may say? Well as mentioned earlier, capsaicin a chemical in pepper also acts as an anti-irritant. This may sound contrary to common sense, as we’ve heard for years that people with ulcer should avoid spicy foods. But recent research has received that pepper can be both beneficial to people with or without ulcer.
Do you know that pepper contains traces of anti-oxidant and other compounds that are capable of healing an upset stomach, reducing intestinal gas, curing diarrhea and acting as a natural remedy for cramps.
So you should try it today. Eating pepper will also help your body produce saliva and stimulate gastric juices aiding digestion.
(2) Promotes a Healthy Heart
Pepper also helps improve the heart and also the circulatory system thereby reducing the chances of you getting heart diseases or any related disease.
However, pepper helps lower blood serum cholesterol and reduces lipid deposits and therefore, reverses excessive blood clotting. It also dilates the blood vessels to aid in blood flow.
(3) Mitigates Migraines
Try and imagine the scenario whereby you have an existing injury or wound in your body that was your main focus untill you had another new injury or wound.
In this case now you will discover that your focus will shift from the former injury to the new one, let’s say the new injury is more severe than the former.
This same thing happens when you consume peppers. Your body becomes desensitized to the migraine and the overall sensation of pain is lessened.
(4) Relieves Joint Pain
Peppers are well know for there powerful pain relieving properties, due to Capsaicin. It can be applied to area you’re injured on your body to reduce the ‘Chemical P’, which carries the pain message to the brain.
However, the pain sensory cells exhaust themselves by depleting the body’s reserves. Once this happens, the capsaicin acts as a pain reliever.
Pepper can also be used for HIV neuropathy and other types of pain.
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(5) Improves Metabolism / Promotes Weight Loss
Peppers when consumed increases the rate of metabolism in the body by replicating the thermogenic processes in the body.
The thermogenic processes in the body is responsible for generating heat, which utilizes energy also and thereby burns all excess calories in the body.
Consuming peppers in the morning can help suppress your appetite for the rest of the day which helps in weight loss. It will even alter the proteins in your body to tackle fat accumulation.
Capsaicin when studied by medical experts has been showed for it’s role in weight loss. This eventually alleviates nerve fibers that send message from the stomach to the brain.
(6) Quells Psoriasis
Psoriasis is known as a skin condition which presents itself in form of an itchy ugly skin patches on infected skins. However, the capsaicin will help in reducing the number of cells regenerating and aids in the reversal of the auto-immune skin lesions.
(7) Reduces Cancer Risk
Peppers magic chemical Capsaicin, is said to possess both anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Capsaicin can also help in fighting cancer and greatly reduces the growth of prostate cancer cells, thereby leaving normal cells unharmed.
Pepper is very effective when it comes to fighting all kinds of cancers as consuming it in large quantity can help fight against breast, pancreatic and bladder cancers.
(8) Fights the Flu, Colds and Fungal Infections
Have you ever had cold and after eating pepper get well? If you haven’t tried it out then you should as pepper is full of beta carotene and antioxidants that support your immune system and will aid in fighting against colds and the flu.
You should know that nasal sprays containing Capsaicin can help ward-off Flu and cold. When you consume pepper you body temperature increases which in turn triggers your immune system to fight against flu and cold. It reduces fungal pathogens.
(9) Prevents Bad Breath
Pepper acts as a disinfectant to the air you breathe out by improving the odour of your breath.
(10) Prevents Allergies
Due to the anti-inflammatory benefits of capsaicin, hot peppers can help prevent allergies and symptoms from allergies.
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