[Graeme]

Chiles add spice -- and nutrition -- to your life

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut these pale in comparison to the Bhut Jolokia — which has a confirmed Scoville rating of more than a million units.

For many of us, the heat of the pepper is what makes it such a palate pleaser. But peppers also have a lot going for them nutritionally — they are good sources of vitamin C, beta carotene, folic acid, magnesium and potassium. Peppers and capsaicin also have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which might reduce the risk of heart disease, certain cancers and other chronic diseases that occur with age.

Chile-laden meals have been shown to boost energy expenditure in several human trials. In one study, for instance, 10 grams of dried hot pepper added to breakfast increased energy expenditure by 23% immediately after the meal and for more than two hours afterward.

The best fire quencher, though, is milk. And nonfat milk will do. Although it was once thought that fat in the milk stripped capsaicin from its receptor on the taste buds, it is now known that casein, the milk protein, is the active component.

[oswald622]

thank you for this! i love chiles, and now i can feel better about eating so much hot food.

[Kingcoal]

A pepper is just another fruit. Like other fruits, they are nutritious and healthy. I read a theory of why peppers make capsaicin. The theory is based on a problem that small fruit plants have. The problem is that one animal can eat all of the fruit off a small plant which puts all of the plants eggs in one basket. The plant wants many animals to have some of it's fruits so as to spread it's seeds to the widest possible area. Pepper plants came up with an elegant solution - capsaicin. As an animal eats a pepper, they get a pain reaction. That causes them to walk away, but as the walk away, the pain triggers endorphins which activate the reward center of the brain. The animal then associates pleasure with eating the fruit and will eat more in the future. In this way, a "one per customer" policy is created. Fascinating?

I like my endorphin rush from peppers.

[Falconoffury]

I never noticed the endorphin feeling, but I do like the flavor they add to a sandwich.

[I_Like_Plants]

To me they are "appatite stimulators" if it's early in the morning and I don't feel like eating, add some Sriracha or if nothing else, Tobasco, and I get interested.

But peppers are in no danger of saving Homo americanus midwesternus, since that breed considers putting butter on mashed potatoes to be "getting pretty spicy".