October 8, 2008
Christopher Columbus was supposed to sail to Asia and load up on very valuable black peppercorns, the Medieval European equivalent of balsamic vinegar, black truffle, fleur de sel and beluga caviar all rolled into one. Instead, Columbus returns from what is now called the Caribbean with a pile of fiery chilies.
"What is this?" asked the Spanish.
Columbus' answer, as reported in "Why We Eat What We Eat" by Raymond Sokolov, was interesting and evasive.
Instead of calling the chilies by their indigenous name, aji, he calls them peppers after the peppercorns he never found.
In so doing, Columbus started "a worldwide nomenclatural confusion that complicates culinary communication in dozens of languages even today," wrote Sokolov. Today, chilies are grown all over the world. Among the areas where chilies figure prominently are China, India, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Africa and South America, according to "The New Food Lover's Companion."
Health Benefits:
Chili peppers contain a substance called capsaicin, which gives peppers their characteristic pungency, producing mild to intense spice when eaten.
Capsaicin is being studied as an effective treatment for sensory nerve fiber disorders, including pain associated with arthritis, psoriasis, and diabetic neuropathy.
Red chilies are rich in vitamin C and provitamin A. Yellow and especially green chilies (which are essentially unripe fruit) contain a considerably lower amount of both substances. In addition, peppers are a good source of most B vitamins, and vitamin B6 in particular.
Chili peppers have a bad — and mistaken — reputation for contributing to stomach ulcers. Not only do they not cause ulcers, they can help prevent them by killing bacteria you may have ingested, while stimulating the cells lining the stomach to secrete protective buffering juices.
No comments:
Post a Comment