What’s On My Mind 2Don’t cry over spilled milk.

by Cecile Cinco

I love chilli peppers. I learned how to eat it with minimal pain until I got to love it that every time I ate, there has to be some chillies with my food. Eating without made the food bland for me.

In place of chillies, I use hot sauce, the base of which is still red hot chillies. The best commercially sold I enjoyed was Tabasco but it’s so expensive so I go back to the real fresh red hot chillies or what we locally call “labuyo” which has gone expensive also buying from the market (still a lot cheaper, though).

It is a common idea that eating hot chilli gives you ulcer or aggravates hemorrhoids, if not start one. My own idea was labuyo is great anticarcinogen and it did not cause hemorrhoids otherwise I could have had it long time ago.

I did some research and what I found out is nothing less than satisfying.

It turns out that capsaicin, the one that causes the hotness, is your healthy friend. As you eat the hot chilli, the capsaicin causes the nerve cells in your spinal cord to release the Substance-P which is a neurotransmitter that informs your brain that you are in pain. The more you eat, the less your brain reacts to pain signals. It’s acting more like anesthesia.

Ironically, it gives you warmth during cold weather and coolness during hot summers. Medicinal benefits as treatments for asthma, arthritis, blood clots, cluster headaches, shingles, PMS, prostate cancer, and severe burns are just some of it’s healing wonders. It normalizes blood pressure and allows blood to flow with ease and reduces inflammation.

It is also high in magnesium which helps calcium get absorbed by your body. It also helps in treating diabetes and arthritis. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

If you do not like hot chillies, you might probably change your mind. Perhaps you are just afraid of the INITIAL pain it might cause you because you’re not used to it.

There is a right way to eat hot chilis. Just remember, when you eat hot chilis, NEVER let any of it touch your lips. Just your tongue and the inside of your mouth, NOT YOUR LIPS, especially if you’re just starting to learn to eat it. Once you’re used to it, it really doesn’t matter.

Also, don’t panic. When, for one reason or another it got into your throat at a wrong timing and it gets you to cough, try to hold your breath and inhale deeply. Control your breath and take away your mind from hotness that you feel. In not time the numbness will take over and you’re almost already enjoying your chilli.

Are you having frequent headaches and migraines? Try red hot chilli! The more, the better!

Know more about chilli peppers and your health.

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