April 4

Casual Connoisseur

Facts About Peppers
By Laura Ng

Ever wonder if peppers are fruits or vegetables? Actually, peppers are fruits but eaten as vegetables most of the time.

Peppers can be very flexible in any food combinations, be it barbecues, baking, steaming, stir-frying with any vegetables, nuts, seeds, or legumes. They can even be eaten raw as snacks or in salads. It's no wonder they are the favorites of the vegetarians and vegans.

They come from the colorful Capsicum family, which can be split, into two main categories - sweet bell peppers and the spicy chilies, such as jalapenos. The difference arises from the presence of capsaicin in chilies (which is explained later) but not in sweet bell peppers.

Sweet bell peppers are also known as capsicums, sweet peppers or green/red peppers.

All sweet bell peppers start out green and change color as they ripen. Depending on the stage of ripeness and their variety, their colors range from orange, yellow, red, purple, brown, black, ivory or green and so do their sweetness.

But green bell peppers remain green throughout the ripening process. Thus, it can be challenging to differentiate the other bell peppers from the green variety before they ripen.

All peppers are an excellent source of vitamin C. Green bell peppers contain as much as two times of vitamin C as oranges while red or yellow pepper pack three or four times the daily value of vitamin C.

Besides power-packed with vitamin C, bell peppers also provide vitamin B6, phytochemicals such as lycopene and beta-carotene (the precursor for vitamin A), folate, potassium and plenty of fiber. The only difference between sweet peppers and chili peppers is the presence of capsaicin in chili peppers. Capsaicin itself holds numerous health benefits:

• Effective treatment and natural pain relief for inflammation such as arthritis, psoriasis, diabetic neuropathy.
  
• Reduce risk of heart attack and stroke as it helps to reduce cholesterol levels and formation of blood clots.
  
• Clear blocked nose and congested lungs.
  
• Prevent prostate cancer by inhibiting growth of cancerous cells · Prevent stomach ulcers by killing bacteria in the stomach and stimulate more protective stomach juices.
  
• Help to lose weight as it speeds up the body's metabolism rate, suppresses appetite and cravings for sweet foods.
  

Lower risk of Type 2 diabetes by controlling the blood sugar.

Capsaicin is what makes the chilies hot as it produces a strong burning sensation in the mouth. The seeds are not the main culprits for causing the hotness. Actually, capsaicin is most concentrated in the white membrane where the seed is attached.

Thus, you should be careful when handling the chili peppers so as not to let them come in contact with your skin or eyes such as rubbing your eyes with your hands after touching the chilies. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after handling the chilies.

Should you eat a really hot chili, which causes an unbearable burning sensation in your mouth, drink milk, or eat yogurt, rice, or bread instead of water to ease the pain.

I often use these few ways to handle the chilies:

• Wear gloves.
  
• To remove the seeds without touching them, hold the chili stem and cut open with a paring knife. Cut away the membranes and seeds with the knife. Another handy tool is the melon baller. Place the chilies in water for 15 minutes before cutting them. Note that this will only reduce but will not fully remove the "hotness" of the chilies.
  
• If you do not need to remove the seeds, just hold the chili by the stem and cut the chilies into rings. Asians like to eat the raw chilies as a dip in this manner, with the chilies soaked in limejuice or soy sauce.
  

Chili peppers come in different sizes, shapes, and degrees of heat or spiciness. The more mature the pepper, the hotter it will be. The commonly used method to measure how hot the chilies are is Scoville Scale. The Scoville Scale converts the amount of capsaicin in parts per million into Scoville heat units. So the greater the number of Scoville Scale, the hotter the pepper. A sweet bell pepper measures 0 Scoville unit and a habaneros or scotch bonnet, the hottest known chili peppers, records at around 300,000 units.

Peppers are not seasonal fruits, meaning you can find them in supermarkets any day during the year. Choose well-shaped, firm, and glossy peppers, which feel heavy for their size. Look out for unhealthy peppers with soft or wrinkled areas, cracks, slashes, or black spots. Except for jalapeño which you will see some tiny cracks at the end of their stems, fresh chili peppers should not have any cracks at all.

It's best to wrap the peppers in paper bags or paper towels and store in the refrigerator to keep their freshness, up to 5 days for bell peppers and up to 3 weeks for chili peppers.

Remember to wash the peppers before cooking so as to remove the wax on their surfaces.