This easy 3 ingredient Satay Sauce Recipe is good with chicken skewers or grilled fish! I love a good satay sauce. It’s an easy flavour to punch into noodles or tofu skewers. Not to mention, I have a ton of recipes that include it! It’s one of my favourite sauces, but I had no idea how easy it is to make! All you need is soy sauce, sugar and peanut butter!
HEALTH BENEFITS OF BELL PEPPER
Because of its less hot flavor, bell pepper (capsicum annuum) is a sweet pepper fruit. The bell pepper fruit is a member of the nightshade family that relates bell pepper to chili pepper, breadfruit, and tomatoes.
The large furrowed fruit comes in various colors, including green, red, yellow, purple, and orange. Green bell pepper is an unripe fruit that turns into red bell pepper once matured. The bell pepper lacks capsaicin (the reason for the spicy hot flavor of pepper), thus making them a minimum spicy food product.
Green pepper has a slightly bitter taste to fully ripe sweet pepper. Bell peppers are rich in vitamins and other antioxidants and low in calories, making them a healthy addition to our diet.
Health benefits
Bell peppers are a great source of vitamins, water content, and many oxidants that has countless health benefits:
- Bell pepper contains high water content, fibers, and carbs. So, it is a perfect addition to a nutrient-rich diet plan.
- Bell peppers are rich in vitamins like vitamin A, B6, C, E, K1, and folate.
Bell pepper is rich in beta carotene (pro-vitamin A), which converts into vitamin A in our body. Vitamin A is crucial for normal vision, reproductive function, and immune system.
Folate is crucial for fetus development in the mother’s womb.
- Bell pepper contains numerous antioxidants, including violaxanthin, lutein, Quercetin, capsanthin, and luteolin. These antioxidants are abundant in the unripe green and yellow variety of bell pepper. Adequate intake of these antioxidant-rich bell pepper helps our body fight against many chronic diseases, eye problems, cancer, and oxidative-damaging conditions.
- Bell peppers are a rich source of iron and vitamin C that improves and prevent anemia condition in our body.
- Potassium-rich bell pepper improves heart health by regulating muscle contraction and lowering blood pressure.
- Carotenoid-laden bell pepper shows significant improvement in age-related visual impairment (cataract and age-related macular degeneration).
Bell peppers are rich in nutrient and plant-based compounds. So, add them to your diet to relish their unique health benefits.
Bell Peppers Are Nutrient-Dense and Low in Calories — Here’s How to Eat More
Bell peppers pack in about 10 percent of your Daily Value of fiber along with other essential nutrients.
Crunchy, sweet bell peppers pack a punch of nutrients in every bite. These versatile veggies originated in South America and, because of their ability to adapt well to different climates, they were quickly cultivated and adopted into various cuisines worldwide.
Bell peppers are available in a range of colors — red, orange and yellow peppers are sweeter while green and purple peppers have a slightly bitter flavor. Red bell peppers are actually green peppers that have been allowed to ripen on the vine, making them sweeter. The widely-used spices paprika and pimento are both prepared from bell peppers.
Often thought to be a vegetable, bell peppers are technically fruits since they are produced from a flowering plant and contain seeds. Whatever you choose to call them, bell peppers are a smart and delicious way to get more nutrients.
Are You Getting Enough Fruits and Veggies?
Bell Pepper Nutrition Facts
One serving of bell peppers is 1 cup chopped, raw or cooked, or 1 medium raw bell pepper. One serving of bell peppers contains:
- Calories: 31
- Total fat: 0.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
- Sodium: 4.8 mg
- Total carbs: 7.2 g
- Dietary fiber: 2.5 g
- Sugar: 5 g
- Added sugar: 0 g
- Protein: 1.2 g
Bell Pepper Macros
- Total fat: One medium bell pepper has 0.4 grams of total fat, which includes 0.1 grams of saturated fat and 0 grams of trans fat.
- Carbohydrates: One medium bell pepper has 7.2 grams of carbs, which includes 2.5 grams of fiber and 5 grams of natural sugars.
- Protein: One medium bell pepper has 1.2 grams of protein.
Vitamins, Minerals and Other Micronutrients
- Vitamin C: 169% of your Daily Value (DV)
- Vitamin A: 21% DV
- Vitamin B6: 20% DV
- Folate (vitamin B9): 14% DV
- Vitamin B1: 5% DV
- Vitamin B2: 8% DV
- Vitamin B3: 7% DV
- Vitamin B5: 8% DV
- Vitamin E: 13% DV
- Vitamin K: 5% DV
- Potassium: 5% DV
- Manganese: 6% DV
Red Bell Pepper vs. Orange and Yellow Bell Pepper Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Red Bell Pepper | Orange and Yellow Bell Pepper |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 26 | 27 |
| Carbs | 6 g | 6 g |
| Fiber | 2 g | 1 g |
| Protein | 1 g | 1 g |
| Vitamin C | 128 mg | 184 mg |
| Vitamin A | 157 mcg | 10 mcg |
| Beta-Carotene | 1624 mcg | 120 mcg |
| Potassium | 211 mg | 212 mg |
The nutritional value of yellow peppers and orange peppers are the same. However, red bell peppers have significantly higher levels of vitamin A and beta-carotene than orange and yellow peppers because they are more pigmented.
There are 50 calories in an orange bell pepper (large) and just about 27 calories in a 100-gram (3.5-ounce) serving of pepper.
The Health Benefits of Bell Peppers
1. Bell Peppers Are a Vitamin C Powerhouse
Vitamin C serves many purposes throughout the human body and its most vital roles are related to its antioxidant capacity and nutrient synergy, according to a November 2017 article in Nutrients. Clocking in at 169 percent of our DV of C, one serving of bell pepper gets you more than your allotted amount of this fundamental vitamin.
Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant in the body, protecting against the negative effects of free radicals and protecting DNA, proteins and lipids from oxidative damage. Eating foods rich in vitamin C is associated with helping prevent and/or treat a range of health conditions, including heart disease, cancer and the common cold, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Another amazing benefit of vitamin C is its ability to help us absorb non-heme iron. Non-heme iron is found in plant foods, such as beans, lentils, leafy greens and whole grains. Humans cannot easily absorb non-heme iron and vitamin C acts synergistically to reduce the non-heme form from ferric to ferrous, which allows us to more easily absorb the nutrient, according to the October 2019 issue of Antioxidants.
This is particularly important for vegans and vegetarians who primarily eat non-heme iron versus the animal-based heme iron and are more likely to experience anemia.
2. Bell Peppers May Contribute to Healthy Eyesight
Bell peppers are an excellent source of vitamin A, in addition to a range of carotenoids, which are integral to eye health. Vitamin A is critical to our vision and is a major component of the protein rhodopsin, which supports the retina and cornea, according to the NIH. So much so that vitamin A deficiency may lead to blindness.
Many of us have heard that beta-carotene is good for our eyes. Bell peppers contain high levels of this vital vision carotenoid, which the body can convert into vitamin A. Carotenoids, which are yellow, red and orange pigments produced by plants, give bell peppers their hue.
Bell peppers also contain the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect the retina and are linked to a decreased risk of cataracts and macular degeneration as we age, per an April 2013 article in Nutrients.
3. Bell Peppers May Aid in Weight Loss
Bell peppers’ combination of dietary fiber, low calories and high water content helps you to feel full for a longer period of time. It also allows you to add volume to your plate without adding extra calories.
Generally speaking, eating whole foods like bell peppers is preferable to processed and packaged foods, particularly when you’re trying to lose weight.
The crunchy texture of bell peppers requires more chewing as well, which may slow down the rate at which you eat your meal. Eating slower and more mindfully allows your body to recognize when you are full and may help keep you from overeating.
Bell Pepper Health Risks
Food Allergies
Bell pepper is generally regarded as safe for most people to consume. There is a chance, however, that an individual with a pollen-related food allergy may be sensitive to bell peppers, according to an article in the May 2017 issue of Allergo Journal International.
The majority of IgE-mediated food allergies stem from sensitivity to pollen and show up in a variety of foods including apples, stone fruit, hazelnuts, soy, tomatoes and bell peppers. Many of these symptoms, however, are eliminated or reduced if the food is cooked, a process that breaks down the cell structure.
Another area of concern is the buzz around produce in the nightshade family and whether or not they increase inflammation in some people. Anecdotal case histories link improvement in arthritis when these are removed, however, there are no case-controlled scientific studies to confirm these observations.
Nightshades are a rich source of nutrients and benefit most diets, so be cautious when seeing unsubstantiated negative claims regarding these fruits and vegetables.
Green Peppers and IBS
Green peppers (but not red, yellow or orange peppers) are listed as one of the foods that cause gas, according to the International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders. So if you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or are prone to excess gas, you might want to pick a different pepper.
Sweet & Hot Pepper Benefits and Uses You Need to Know About
SUMMARY
Peppers, from sweet to wickedly hot, became staples of cuisines around the world almost as soon as they arrived from their original homes in South America. Both mild bell peppers and 5-alarm chili peppers provide significant health benefits. In this article, we’ll look at what those benefits are, whether the hottest of peppers are safe, and how to prepare peppers to please the palates of the people you love.
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Most of the tongue twisters are frankly disappointing. But Peter Piper and his pickled peppers have been challenging child and adult tongues’ dexterity for centuries.
And do you know what else challenges our tongues? Those very peppers that Peter Piper picked.
While not all varieties bring the heat, some peppers can cause inflammation and extreme discomfort to any mucous membrane they touch. The active ingredient in peppers, capsaicin, actually fools the tongue’s temperature receptors into responding as if the pepper was burning hot, which produces the symptoms we associate with eating extremely spicy or “hot” foods.
You might not think that extreme pain, coughing, sweating, hyperventilation, crying, and rivers of snot would be sensations people would gladly experience, but it’s wise never to underestimate the allure of social media, and the human response to a challenge. From shows like Hot Ones in which famous people interview each other while eating progressively more incendiary chili-infused hors d’oeuvres, to the subculture devoted to breeding the world’s hottest peppers, it’s clear that mouth pain is a real turn-on for lots of people.
But peppers aren’t all about the heat. There are plenty of pepper varieties that provide flavor — and exceptional nutritional value — without setting off fire alarms in your mouth.
In this article, we’ll look at the range of peppers, from “mild as a child” (to coin a beginner-level tongue twister) to “one taste can literally stop your heart.” We’ll see that peppers across the spiciness continuum have enriched culinary traditions worldwide for centuries, and can help you add variety, color, and some level of spice to your meals, as well.
In the end, we may even find out how many pickled peppers Peter Piper actually picked!
Peppers Around the World
Chili peppers originated somewhere in South America, though researchers argue about the exact location, citing evidence for Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, and around the Andes mountain range. Birds may be responsible for their seed dispersal since they are unaffected by the intense capsaicin that deters other animals from eating many varieties.
Humans have cultivated peppers for somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 years, making them among the oldest cultivated plants known.
Various cultures and cuisines feature peppers of different shapes, colors, sizes, and degrees of heat. You’ll find peppers in Mexican, Thai, Eastern European, Korean, Chinese, Malaysian, South African, Italian, Hungarian, and Indian cooking.
Some cultures stick to sweet peppers like bell peppers, and others lean heavily on hot peppers to flavor popular dishes.
Peppers have also been used medicinally for centuries. The Mayans used chilis to treat asthma, coughs, and sore throats. And the Tukano people of the Amazon basin administered crushed chili peppers and water nasally to relieve hangovers. Other uses include putting crushed red pepper fruits on the feet to cure athlete’s foot fungus and curing snakebites by making a drink from boiled green peppers. And I say fruits because botanically, peppers are berries. But unlike most berries, their seeds aren’t embedded in the flesh (called the pericarp, if you want to get technical), but instead are found in what is called the placenta, that spongy white mass just below the stem (known as the calyx).
Hot Pepper Challenges
And then there’s the modern “hot pepper challenge” trend, in which people eat (and try to tolerate the pain of) some of the hottest peppers on the planet, as measured in Scoville units. In a recent Carolina Reaper challenge, the winner, who ate 22 of the little buggers in a minute, described his experience as follows: “Once I stopped eating, a horrible burning in my throat started. I started screaming because it helped alleviate the pain in my throat. Then the stomach cramps started kicking in.”
The world’s hottest pepper, the Dragon’s Breath, is thought to be too dangerous to ingest (so far nobody’s tried). Since its’ unveiling in 2017, it’s been shown under glass at flower shows (kind of like a doomsday device in a superhero movie), and studied for its potential to numb the skin of people who are allergic to pharmaceutical anesthetics. So it seems that peppers’ medicinal properties have not been lost to the ages.