SEMENTE
SEMENTE
WHY DO WE LIKE PEPPER?
Our palate is a legacy of what our ancestors already liked and elected as good to make food. In the case of Brazil and Mexico, this taste for peppers comes from the native Indians. They already grew peppers and used them as seasoning and for conservation of some foods, in addition to believing that they would scare away evil eyes, bad spirits. And pepper still carries such fame today. The Mayan empire, for example, cultivated more than 30 varieties of chili peppers for those purposes. According to historians, the Aztec empire had a very sophisticated cuisine and also used peppers. The Mayans loved a recipe with spicy sauces.
​
The Mexican gastronomy, incredibly passionate about pepper, developed many techniques to use the delicacy as "dry pepper", also found mixed with parsley and other seasonings.
In Brazil, we like to mix pepper with pepper, i.e., several varieties in a single sauce, way beyond spicy.
​
Source: BBC News Brasil
PEPPER BALANCES BODY TEMPERATURE
I bet you've been intrigued by the fact that in hot weather places, like the Northeast of Brazil and Mexico, people consume a lot of pepper. In the case of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, with its famous 40 degrees Celsius temperature, tables do no lack feijoada on Saturdays – or fish pirão – and everything with a whole lot of chili pepper. But where would this habit of spicing up what's already so hot come from?
​
So, Science explains it.
Chili pepper has the property of balancing the human body temperature. Whoa! That's right. If it's too cold, it raises our body temperature. If the thermal sensation is hot, when you consume pepper – even if you have a "sudden sweat", during digestion, it imposes itself and gives us an incredible feeling of freshness.
Capsaicin, a typical substance found in pepper, acts in favor of breaking fats in the adipose tissue. That increases our metabolic activity by up to 20% if we ingest as little as three grams of pepper a day. As the active principle of pepper circulates in our body, our caloric burning is accelerated, thus decreasing the sensation of heat. The more fat stored in the body, the hotter you feel. Pepper tackles that and gives us the feeling of freshness.
​
Source: Terra website / Life and Style
PEPPER IS AN APHRODISIAC
It is not the amount of pepper. It is the way you eat it. Too much pepper causes stomach burning, but the right amount can also be quite an incentive to make relationships spicier.
​
Peppers enhance our senses, and this is already quite an asset. Think of a dull dish, like rice with beans and chayote. Now try to add a drop of chili pepper. The effect can also happen in other fields as well. That sudden heat that we feel when we consume chili pepper can be very well used for, let’s say, pleasurable purposes.
Some people turn red after eating chili pepper. This is an indicator that it affects the blood flow, which becomes heated. These effects of pepper make you sweat, raise the temperature, increase the heartbeat and blood circulation. Does that remind you of anything? Yes, pepper can stimulate blood vessel dilator hormones that will irrigate very interesting areas of our body.
Pepper also releases serotonin, the hormone responsible for the sensation of pleasure. It couldn’t be more suggestive! So, don't waste this flavor which, in addition, is a miraculous aphrodisiac.
Oh, and the spicier it is, the more powerful – don’t forget!
​
Source: Chilli Lovers website