Find out about the beneficial properties of hot pepper - is it possible for pregnant women to eat it, what contraindications exist, as well as the composition and calorie content. The content of the article:
- The use of hot pepper
- Chemical composition and calorie content
- Chili health benefits
- Harm and contraindications
- Interesting Facts
Hot red pepper is a spice, burning aromatic seasoning. It is the fruit of a tropical shrub of a certain variety Capsicum frutescens or C. annuum. The pods are dried and then ground into powder. There are also names for this product - bitter pepper or chili (chilli pepper - red pepper), which everyone has heard. In cooking and trade, the name "cayenne" is used, which distinguishes it from the less pungent varieties.
The photo shows a hot chili shrub. Hot peppers come from the tropics of America. The shrub itself is low, about half a meter, has many oval leaves, the flowers are large, light with purple spots. In the fruiting period, round or elongated multi-colored berries of yellow, red, dark olive colors appear on its branched stems. Now it is grown almost everywhere, but it occupies a special place in Thailand and India. Hot peppers are used in cooking, medicine, and cosmetology.
The use of hot pepper
There are two main types of peppers: cayenne and vegetable. The first species has small light orange fruits, in contrast to the second, and when ground is much lighter than its counterpart. The stronger aroma and hotter taste of red pepper is due to capsaicin (a phenolic compound found in veins, seeds, skins), which is not present in bell peppers. When they want to reduce the "burning heat" in food, the veins and seeds are simply removed.
Cooking is unthinkable without pepper: any of the species is suitable not only as a seasoning. For example, red chili is used fresh, cooked (stewed, roasted) and dried. Pepper pods are used in vegetable dishes, in canning, and dried pepper is ground and added to kefir, salads, soups, added to meat, marinades. Small fruits are fried, if the skin is thick, then it is first removed. Generally, it is difficult to imagine a dish that does not require the addition of pepper, especially in Asian countries. Spicy adjika is very popular with us, the recipe came to us from Abkhazia.
To preserve the pods of the hot seasoning for the long winter, it is strung on a thread and hung in a dry place. This is also the case in Mexico with large chili peppers, because their national cuisine loves to cook hot sauces. Before cooking, dried pods are cleaned of veins and seeds, and so that they do not become bitter, they are fried for several minutes in a hot pan, then soaked in hot water and ground into a puree-like paste.
Peppers of any kind, fried and frozen, will not lose their taste and useful qualities. Want to freeze fresh? Not a problem: dip it in boiling water for a couple of minutes, remove it, cool it, wrap it in a bag and place it in the freezer.
Medicine also uses red hot peppers. Its "burning substances" are appreciated. It is precisely this kind of shrub capsicum that is used to create a tincture. Such a burning liquid, if taken orally, improves digestion, stimulates appetite, and kills pathogens. And who hasn't treated muscle pain with a sticky pepper plaster? In general, in medicine, no less than in cooking, hot pepper is popular: for shock, fainting, collaptoid conditions, heart attacks, internal bleeding, lack of blood circulation, etc.
For example, in Asian countries - India, Thailand, Vietnam, hot pepper is the king of spices and at the same time an antibacterial agent. In the tropics, because of the heat, microbes multiply very quickly, so all dishes are spicy. To reduce the risk of poisoning or contracting an infectious disease, hot peppers are heavily consumed even by pregnant women., absolutely not risking giving birth before the term. In the northern countries, chile is forbidden to eat women during lactation and while waiting for a newborn, fearing that a large rush of blood to the organs will cause contractions. But in southern countries, even children are born with a "hardened character".
The chemical composition and calorie content of hot pepper
Fresh peppers are very juicy and contain 88% water. The calorie content of hot chili peppers (raw) per 100 g is 40 kcal, as well as:
- Protein about 2 g
- Carbohydrates about 8 g
- Fat - 0.2 g
- Dietary fiber - 1.59 g
- Mono- and disaccharides - 5, 11 g
- Saturated Fatty Acids - 0.02 g
Vitamins:
- A - 59 mcg
- Beta-carotene - 0.7 mg
- C - 242, 48 mg
- B1 thiamine - 0.09 mg
- Riboflavin B2 - 0.08 mg
- B3 (niacin) - 0.059 mg
- B6 pyridoxine - 0.3 mg
- B9 - 22, 9 mcg
- PP - 0.1 mg
- E - 0.7 mg
- K - 14 mcg
- Choline - 11 mg
Macro and microelements:
- Potassium - 341 mg
- Phosphorus - 45, 9 mg
- Magnesium - 25.1 mg
- Calcium - 18.1 mg
- Sodium - 7 mg
- Copper - 173.9 mcg
- Iron - 1.22 mg
- Selenium - 0.44 mcg
- Zinc - 0.29 mg
- Manganese - 0.2 mg
Useful properties of red hot pepper
The pungency of red pepper is the most valuable quality of this vegetable. Without raising the temperature, it heats the place where the soaked pepper powder is applied (in the common people, mustard plaster). As under the influence of high temperature, the blood vessels dilate, the supply of nutrients and oxygen to tissues and organs improves, pain relief (where there is spasm) and healing (where there is inflammation) occurs.
For severe headaches, hot pepper tincture can be rubbed into the nose. Severe headaches disappear after 1–3 days. This was confirmed by American scientists when they conducted this test on students. See the video below for more details.
Spicy peppered food does not spoil longer, and besides, once it gets into the stomach, it kills pathogenic microbes.
The cosmetics industry makes extensive use of hot peppers in anti-cellulite creams, balms and oils to thicken hair. Very popular among fashionistas to lose weight - spicy diet, Hot pepper is filled with B vitamins, trace elements (potassium, iron, magnesium), essential and fatty oils. Ripe red peppers are still rich in vitamins A and C, unlike unripe ones. When consumed with food, all this usefulness enters our body and has a beneficial effect on health.
The harm of hot chili peppers
A useful pungency for some people may be harmful to others. So, contraindications - hot pepper can worsen the health of patients with angina pectoris, hypertension, arrhythmia, it will damage the intake of unhealthy kidneys and liver. People with gastritis and ulcers, with diseases of the intestinal tract can get burned, bleeding and get to a hospital bed. Therefore, it is dangerous to immediately add this spice to food in large quantities.
It is also worth talking about some of the warnings in interacting with hot peppers. For example, there are varieties that can easily irritate the skin from just touching them. If you are preparing a dish with pepper, then be careful - do not touch your eyes. Wash your hands and dishes thoroughly. Hot peppers eaten through carelessness are useless to wash down with water, it is better to "cool the ardor" with milk or yogurt, although the pungency can be easily interrupted with sour - lemon, for example.
For pregnant women, it is not harmful, as we wrote above - in Asian countries, chili is actively eaten by pregnant women.
Interesting Facts
Shown with red and green chili sauce, soy sauce, vinegar or lime juice
- Fresh fruits of hot peppers are light in color, but as soon as they are dried, they become brighter in color, darken.
- In nature, there is a bird - a red-factor canary, so that its feather color acquires a more intense color, it is periodically fed with cayenne red pepper.
- Red hot peppers are unpretentious. It can also be grown at home, on a windowsill in an ordinary flower pot, for example. Do not forget to just water and feed it regularly.
- The hottest pepper in the world officially for 2012 is Carolina Reaper (1.6 million SHU "Scoville heat units"). He took this title from the red pepper Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (1.2 million SHU), named by the champion a little earlier, in February 2012. Both peppers are varieties of Chinese capsicum (Capsicum chinense).
Video about the benefits of red chili:
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