AMAZING FACTS ABOUT PEPPERS

People think all fruit is sweet, like apples, oranges and plums. However, scientists define fruit as something which comes from a flowering plant and has seeds. Although peppers are often called vegetables, they are actually fruits.

The hottest pepper is chilli pepper. People often think that the larger peppers are the hottest. But this isn’t true. The smaller and thinner a chilli pepper is, the spicier it will be. So, what causes the hot taste, actually? A colourless and odourless substance called capsaicin creates the hot taste. It doesn’t really hurt our body physically. However, the moment we taste chilli pepper, our body thinks it’s burning, and we get watery eyes and a runny nose. Capsaicin is also the ingredient used to make pepper spray.

Some people avoid the painful taste of chilli peppers. Others love the burn. A quarter of the world’s population eats chilli peppers every day. Why would anyone willingly eat something that causes pain? One reason is that people enjoy the taste of hot and spicy food. People in countries like India, Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia and many more prefer eating delicious dishes with pepper. They even have spicy candies as a snack, and they have green chilli with every meal, even though there is pepper in their dishes.

After eating a chilli pepper, don’t make the mistake most people do and drink cold water. The best choice is to eat or drink dairy products like milk or yoghurt. They can help to take off the heat in your mouth better than water can.

The reason why people eat spicy foods is not just the taste. Hot peppers actually make food safer to eat. When food is out in warm weather, microbes on the food start growing very fast. If people eat food with too many of these microbes, they get sick. The cold temperature inside a refrigerator stops microbes from growing. That’s why people use them to keep their food fresh: That’s why people who come from warm parts of the world use pepper a lot in their dishes, and people living in cold areas don’t.

Scientists are still trying to learn all of the secret powers of chilli peppers. Some say that people who have a spicy diet live longer than people who don’t. However, this isn’t scientifically proved yet. There are also methods used in alternative medicine where they use capsaicin to relieve patients’ joint and nerve pain. Scientists will probably find more benefits to eating peppers.