Chili Pepper 101

How about a veggie that stimulates your immune system and can curb your appetite? What if it offers your vitamins, eases your aches and pains, clear your sinuses? And while doing all this it also boosts your metabolism to burn calories faster, what would that be?

Of course, New Mexico state’s official vegetable, the fabulous chili pepper.

New Mexico Department of Agriculture says New Mexico has the most acreage devoted to chilies. Southern New Mexico is number one in delivering the largest number of different types of chilies produced and researched. In 2006 New Mexico state earned the title of chili capital of the world.

Two of the most active proponents of chili’s greatness are New Mexico State University Regents Professor of Horticulture, Paul Bosland, director of NMSU's Chile Pepper Institute, and Danise Coon. Both, or either can virtually spend days extolling the virtues of peppers support of the body.

A single red chili pepper per day provides 100 percent of the vitamin A your body requires. A green chili offers more vitamin C then six oranges. Chilies are additionally high in B vitamins, potassium, magnesium and iron. As a result of being often consumed with beans chili’s assist iron uptake delivered by beans due to high vitamin C content.

Can you ask more of chilies? Well, how about Capsaicin, the active and spicy component in chilies? A recent UCLA study indicates that capsaicin kills prostrate cancer cells. Other studies have shown capsaicin to help blood vessels relax meaning peppers are potentially useful in lowering blood pressure. Yet another study demonstrated that rats fed capsaicin had less body fat and accumulated smaller fat molecules within fat cells, consiquently gained less weight then others in the same control group. Many weight loss over-the-counter (no prescription required) products offer simply, capsaicin. Capsaicin is an ingredient used to produce arthritis pain relieving creams as well as topical pain relief for sore and aching muscles.

Research has also determined chilies can help lower cholesterol as they rapidly burn calories by increasing temperature, thereby, speeding up the metabolism, all the while increasing effectiveness of the body's immune system.

Famous Purdue University found that chilies curb appetites. Easily added to any diet, spicing up your meals is as simple as adding a chili to most dishes. Of course ever popular salsa tops the list. Salsa over vegetables, meat, fish, deliver an extra spark of energy to nearly anything. Spicing up meals gives your life a healthy kick!