The Healing Power of Hot Peppers

I considered my father the healthiest man walking the face of the earth, indestructible, fearless and in possession of a multitude of skills. He was a builder, a gardener, friendly to all he met and a fisherman. He loved nothing better than to share his catch of fish, caught in Lake Erie, with his family, friends, and neighbors. He did the same with the vegetables he grew and the fruit he picked from his own fruit trees.

He ate well, loved fish, vegetables and fruit, but he was especially fond of hot peppers. He would laugh with delight as he watched us try to down a hot pepper, then run for a glass of water and bread. He didn’t flinch as he ate red hot cherry peppers. It must have had something to do with his Polish ethnicity. The Italian side of my family didn’t ever indulge in eating hot peppers. Now, as I research the foods that give us all these nutrients, that make healthy cells, what pops up as one of the king pins in the link to good healthy foods? Hot peppers were his favorite snack food. My father would eat anything his heart desired and this heart-healthy food was his medicine, for he didn’t believe in doctors and he didn’t like pills.

Even if you don’t like fiery-hot foods, you should spice up your food with some chilies - I do. Capsaicin, the extract that is the main ingredient in the hottest hot sauces on the shelves today, is so full of good stuff, it’s no wonder someone bottled it.

Capsaicin is an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. (No wonder dad never ached - even when fishing on Lake Erie on the frozen ice in the wee hours of the morning and in his 70s.) It is chock-ful of vitamins and beta-carotene. Hot peppers contain calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, thiamine (B ), riboflavin (B ) niacin (B ). They contain more vitamin C than oranges, and they lose only about a third of that after cooking.

In 1982, a study found that chilies thin the blood and lower blood pressure. They also—hold on to you fajita—lower the blood level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), the cause of arteriosclerosis. And unlike so many anti-cholesterol agents, they act on the bad cholesterol without affecting the good variety (HDL).

Better yet, a 1986 study published by the American Institute of Nutrition demonstrated that capsaicin reduces the amount of stored fat (triglycerides) in blood cells and reduces blood triglyceride levels.

You’d think that chilies would harm the lining of the stomach, but, in fact the opposite is true. A 1995 medical study at the National University Hospital in Singapore found that orally administered capsaicin has a gastroprotective effect when followed by 600 milligrams of aspirin.

This increased intestinal activity may aid digestion by increasing circulation, allowing food to be processed and absorbed more efficiently. Dad didn’t have any degrees, but instinctive, innovative and self-confident, he went way beyond all that we are just discovering to be true. Mostly, he loved life and sharing his abundance of vegetables, fish and fruit with others.

Real Health Is Simply A Question of Keeping Your Cells Healthy

My health did not improve when the doctors said, "Trust me." My disease did not go away when the drug makers said, "Trust me." "Trust us," say the vitamin makers when they tell you that leafy greens are in their bottles of supplements.

My subsequent research led to a new theory of disease, based on the simple concept of cell-health. Anything toxic to the cell produced illness—inevitably. Every illness has this root cause. Anything supportive of the cell produced recovery—rapidly. All health has this root cause. And everything else is simply symptom-chasing.

No one ever told you about the strongest medicine you take—food! Food, I discovered is a pharmacy of such power and complexity, it can make drugs and supplements look crude!

From ginger to red grapes, onions to artichokes, apples to yogurt, once I had unlocked the medicine cabinet of pure food, I understood how cell-health could indeed be sustained—indefinitely. The cutting-edge of modern medicine was as old as chicken soup and green beans, calamita olives, barley and seaweed, strawberries, avocados, cantaloup, watermelon, roasted almonds, walnuts and peanuts, salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel.

Eating, it turns out, is one of the greatest drug experiments you can perform! This frontier is so important and still so little understood that I have made it my new mission in life. The good doctor said, "We don’t have to do studies, we know it works." When inches come off along with pounds and the blood test shows cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose in the healthy range - you’ve got to believe. When blood pressure returns to normal and flexibility begins to return, fungus toes heal and nails look healthy, skin is taut and aglow without wrinkles - you’ve got to believe.

I am so glad that it is eating that brings us back to good health. Mediterraneans love to eat and they love to eat food that consists of fresh fruits and vegetables, tomato sauce and fresh fish, fresh chicken and even dark red meat without all the fat. Wow, what more could you want from God? Like manna from heaven, the real truth is that the food that God produces, without the contamination of dangerous human additives, is the answer. Manmade pills are the problem. Your choice: the disease or the prescription drugs that exacerbate the problem. Manufacturers of supplements refuse to accept testing and research because of the contaminants they contain. Make Eating A Lifestyle Change!