Bell Peppers – 7 Health Benefits Of Bell Peppers That’ll Make You Always Eat Them

Bell peppers are a delicious addition to a variety of dishes, whether you’re sautéing them to toss in a stir fry or making this low-carb pizza recipe.

Bell peppers are a delicious and healthy way to enjoy your favourite dipping sauces and snacks on the go. Fortunately, bell peppers have a number of health benefits in addition to being a tasty and practical vegetable.

While bell peppers have particular qualities that offer a beneficial combination of health advantages for you to enjoy, it’s also crucial to concentrate on including enough of a variety of vegetables in your diet overall because, according to Harvard Health, there isn’t just one miracle vegetable that can provide everything your body requires.

Read our list of bell pepper benefits, which are supported by science, if you like them and want to include them in more of your meals. Bell peppers are a nutrient-dense snack.

Benefits Of Bell Pepper

1. Lycopene In Bell Peppers May Help Fight Cell Damage.

Lycopene, a naturally occurring pigment also present in watermelon, tomatoes, guava, and pink grapefruit, is present in bell peppers. Red bell peppers have by far the most lycopene of any bell pepper colour.

But what health benefits does this plant substance have? Lycopene is one of a few different plant pigments that has been discovered to potentially aid in the body’s fight against free radicals, according to a report published in Nutrients.

Free radicals are substances that can harm the cells in your body, resulting in oxidative stress, which can cause disease.

According to this study, lycopene lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases by preventing the formation of free radicals.

Zeaxanthin and lutein, two naturally occurring pigments that are also referred to as carotenoids, can be found in yellow and orange bell peppers. These carotenoids, which are also present in a wide variety of naturally yellow and orange foods like cantaloupe, carrots, eggs, and salmon, have been discovered to have numerous positive effects on your health.

The health of your eyes, for example, may benefit from these naturally occurring pigments, claims a report in Nutrients. According to the study, the pigment found in the yellow area surrounding the retina of your eye, which is known for helping to block out blue light, contains lutein and zeaxanthin.

Additionally, it appears that these pigments may help to guard against cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Vitamin C is abundant in bell peppers. In actuality, bell peppers contain more vitamin C than oranges do. Unknown to many, vitamin C has been shown to support cognitive function as we age in addition to its many health advantages, such as boosting immunity and lowering blood pressure.

A vitamin C deficiency has been linked to depressive symptoms and slower cognitive function, according to a review of studies that were published in the journal BMC Psychiatry.

Although more research is needed, there have been numerous studies over the past 20 years linking vitamin C to cognitive function, including this cohort study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, which demonstrated that vitamin C could guard against mild to severe cognitive impairment.

Taking care of your immunity is crucial to maintaining the health of your body. Bell peppers are a good source of vitamin A, which is known to support the health of our immune systems.

The cause of this is still up for debate, but most researchers agree that getting enough vitamin A can help shield us from infectious diseases. It may be because vitamin A deficiency impairs our capacity to absorb nutrients through the regeneration of specific intestinal barriers after infection, according to the Annual Review of Nutrition.

Additionally, vitamin A is necessary for the development of vital cells that fend off infectious diseases.

Foods like bell peppers have another advantage that some people might not anticipate: they can actually improve your mood. More than 35% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin B6, which is known to elevate mood and lower the risk of depression, can be found in red bell peppers.

A study in the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease found that supplementing with vitamin B6 can lessen the symptoms of depression.

However, it’s crucial to remember that we can’t obtain sufficient amounts of B6 from just bell peppers, so it shouldn’t ever be used as a treatment for depression.

Capsanthin is a naturally occurring substance found in bell peppers, particularly red bell peppers. Additionally present in paprika, cayenne peppers, and chiles, this substance gives food its red colour.

Scientists are starting to learn that consuming capsanthin can reduce inflammation and help with weight loss, even though there is still much more research to be done on this subject. Mice were used in one study, which was published in Food Research International, to examine the impact of capsanthin on weight loss.

In addition to losing body weight, the study’s mice also saw significant drops in their glucose and cholesterol levels.

As a member of our Medical Expert Board and the author of The Sports Nutrition Playbook, Amy Goodson, MS, RD, CSSD, LD, points out, “You probably cannot get the entire amount you need to boost your metabolic rate from bell peppers alone.” Capsanthin “helps with potentially causing a very small increase in metabolic rate.”

A naturally occurring pigment called quercetin is found in bell peppers. The flavonoids that make up this pigment function as a potent antioxidant in the body. Quercetin has been linked to a wide range of health advantages, including anti-inflammation, battling cancer cells, lowering blood pressure, and lowering the risk of heart disease.

In a five-week experiment, rats were given various doses of quercetin according to a study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Blood pressure dropped by an average of about 23% in the rats.

These are encouraging results, but Goodson points out that “This specific study used a dose of 10 milligrams of quercetin and 3.5 ounces of green bell pepper only has 2 milligrams.”

In order to improve blood pressure, bell peppers may help us get some beneficial nutrients into our systems, but we cannot rely solely on bell peppers to do so.