the bell pepper

I love bell peppers and, lately, I've been eating a lot of them. So, I decided to do a little research. As it turns out, they are quite good for your health! But, first, a little background:

Bell peppers are in same family as chile pepper, potato, tomato, and eggplant - all in the nightshade family. They come in a variety of colors including green, red, orange, yellow, white, blue, purple, brown, and black. Green is the unripened color while the other colors are the ripe versions of different cultivars of the pepper.

While many cultures around the world use peppers in their cuisines, the bell pepper originated in the Americas. Apparently in a stroke of marketing genius, good 'ole C. Columbus decided to call them peppers to capitalize on the then very popular black peppercorn. Regardless of the veracity of that story, the bell pepper became quite popular throughout the world.

The beautiful bell pepper has some great health benefits for us. The red, yellow, and orange versions have more vitamin C than citrus and the red peppers contain Lycopene (thought to aid in fight against cancer). They also, of course, have Vitamin A, beta carotene, and fiber.

I love the taste of the yellow and orange peppers, but also enjoy the red and green. I put all of them on my salads several times a week. The crunchy sweetness of the yellow and orange is especially enticing. Plus, they make my salads look positively festive! My most recent salad was red-leaf lettuce and arugula with purple cabbage, and red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. It was beatiful and tasty.