Benefits of Multi-colored Sweet Peppers

My last post was on lightly cooked and/or raw onions and their health benefits, not the least of which is to increase testosterone production in men. To me, this is a much better choice than the various testosterone therapies involving creams and gels etc. Onions to NOT replace your natural testosterone production. In fact they encourage your body to make its own and to boost your levels. Combined with working out, doing squats and involving large muscle groups with aerobic exercise, the onions are reputed to be very effective.

One think I like about sweet peppers is that, well they are sweet and are delicious RAW. As mentioned in my past post, I can't say the same for onions. Sweet peppers also make a great addition to green smoothies if you have a VitaMixer or other machine to Make smoothies.

Here is a LINK to their benefits:

http://the-bluestar.com/juice/peppers.php

EXCERPT:

health benefits of sweet pepeprs

One small red, yellow or orange pepper provides three times the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C; way ahead of citrus! Red peppers stand out as one of the few foods that contain lycopene, a carotenoid that lowers the risk of various cancers, including prostate and cervical cancer. These crimson packages are also packed with beta-carotene, converted to vitamin A in the body and essential for night vision. Nature’s best source of zeaxanthin, a compound known to protect against cataracts and macular degeneration, can be found in orange peppers.

For atherosclerosis and diabetic heart disease, peppers also contain vitamin B6 and folic acid. These two B vitamins are very important for reducing high levels of homocysteine, a substance produced during the methylation cycle (an essential biochemical process in virtually every cell in the body). High homocysteine levels have been shown to cause damage to blood vessels and are associated with a greatly increased risk of heart attack and stroke. In addition to providing the vitamins that convert homocysteine into other beneficial molecules, bell peppers also provide fiber that can help lower high cholesterol levels, another risk factor for heart attack and stroke.

For people worried about colon cancer, the fiber found in peppers can help to reduce the amount of contact that colon cells have with cancer-causing toxins found in certain foods or produced by certain gut bacteria. In addition, consumption of vitamin C, beta-carotene, and folic acid, all found in bell peppers, is associated with a significantly reduced risk of colon cancer.

If you or someone you love is a smoker, or if you are frequently exposed to secondhand smoke, then making vitamin A-rich foods, such as bell peppers, part of your healthy way of eating may save your life, suggests research conducted at Kansas State University.

While studying the relationship between vitamin A, lung inflammation, and emphysema, Richard Baybutt, associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State, made a surprising discovery: a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency.