Topic: Hot Sauce for health

[Ke-ke wan]

I haven't posted about using food as medicine for quite some time, but it is still something I am passionate about.

There are three foods (or spices/herbs) that I think every human should have in their diet, on a regular basis.

One is garlic, the other is ginger, and the other = chilli (capsaicin, capsicum, specifically).  These three in combination will keep your immune system strong and keep your body, and digestive system in tip-top shape.

I am a big fan of hot sauce, so I just like to sprinkle or pour it on to any of my food, but also, if I am cooking for a milder palate, I will add some red chilli flakes to certain dishes. 

There are zillions of varieties of hot sauces and I like almost all of them,  Chilli and lime is a delicious flavour combo, but you can find sweet varieties, spicy varieties, sour, honey, bitter, tart etc.  As well as many different salsa.  Take your pick!

Some info about capsaicin:
Capsaicin is an active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact. Capsaicin and several related compounds are called capsaicinoids and are produced as secondary metabolites by chili peppers, probably as deterrents against certain mammals and fungi.

So careful if you put it directly on skin, or open sores.  Ouch!  I have used cayenne for dental pain, though, so it works but the side effects are a little intense. 


The health benefits of capsicum include
relief from cancer, peptic ulcer, menopausal problems, low risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It has anti-inflammatory, analgesic properties and may also provide relief in pain related to arthritis. It also provides relief from fibromyalgia, skin aging and psoriasis.

An ancestral spice, red chili peppers are a diverse and pungent edible fruit from any of the varieties within the Capsicum genus of plant.1 With known popular use of capsicum, multi culturally, and for generations around the globe.2 Interest is developing in knowing about the medicinal benefits of this natural plant food and culinary spice.2 Many people are familiar with use of chili peppers in the preparation of spicy meals. What is it that makes the chili pepper spicy? The answer is capsicum. An odorless, tasteless phyto chemical and producer of the chili pepper’s heat.

Some of my faves:



And in case y'all are wondering, No, I am not spicy enough!

More later, have to go to work!

[Michael]

As everyone knows, I am a lover of chilli. My preferred chilli mixes are Chinese and Indian pickles.

But I have become aware of the enormous amount of salt found in these mixes.

I am reverting to mostly using fresh chillies.

[runningstream]

bought a nice bottle couple days ago 

To have with lamb rosemary pastries in a cafe at the time

when they've told me they ran out of tomato sauce

I couldnt bear the thought

And that's when I ran out for a minute and bought
 
 

[Ke-ke wan]

As everyone knows, I am a lover of chilli. My preferred chilli mixes are Chinese and Indian pickles.

But I have become aware of the enormous amount of salt found in these mixes.

I am reverting to mostly using fresh chillies.

I suppose you could grow your own over there in Australia.  Could probably have quite a beautiful garden hey?

[Michael]

Julie does the vegie garden thing, although she wants me to build another. She always plants chillies for me, which I gobble up with relish. Bit early for them to fruit yet.

BTW, I have a great selection of chilli pickles.

Firstly, there are the Chinese chilli pastes. These have wonderful flavours, and every trip to the city, I stock up on them. My three main types are the straight chilli and weird stuff jars. Then there is the fish flavoured chilli pastes. I am highly keen on these foul smelling prawn-shrimp-fish chilli pastes. So much so, that I actually always buy the best fish paste that doesn't even have chilli in it, but OMG, what a fantastic flavour. Julie hates these things, as she says they smell like a garbage bin outside a fish and chip shop - just my style. Thirdly, I love chilli bean curd. A Chinese friend put me onto the best, called Wangzhihe. You can get non-chilli Wangzhihe, but I always look for the chilli variety, and it's a lucky dip, because no English tells you which is which.

Secondly, there is the Indian pickles. Lime chilli pickle I always have open for putting on fried fish, especially mullet. Julie always uses Pataks lime pickle, which is admittedly one of the best, but I keep exploring different ones. Straight chilli pickle is delicious, but this is the one which always has too much salt. Fish flavoured chilli pickle. I try not to fill up the fridge, so I have either a Chinese or Indian on the go at one time (doesn't always work out, and Julie often assails me with accusations of clogging the fridge with pickle jars). The best Indian versions are Sri Lankan, because they love shrimp flavoured foods.

[Ke-ke wan]

Secondly, there is the Indian pickles. Lime chilli pickle I always have open for putting on fried fish, especially mullet. Julie always uses Pataks lime pickle, which is admittedly one of the best, but I keep exploring different ones. Straight chilli pickle is delicious, but this is the one which always has too much salt. Fish flavoured chilli pickle. I try not to fill up the fridge, so I have either a Chinese or Indian on the go at one time (doesn't always work out, and Julie often assails me with accusations of clogging the fridge with pickle jars). The best Indian versions are Sri Lankan, because they love shrimp flavoured foods.

I do not know what this is!
I think I would like the extra salty one, though. 

I always have a fridge full of hot sauces and salsas. 

[Michael]

I gave up on hot sauces because they were not hot enough. The Indian pickles have heat with strong flavour, such that you only need a little. When I used Australian made hot sauces, I have to empty a third of a bottle on my food, to get the heat, which just yucked it up. I do think Mexican sauces should be good, but the Indians add in such amazing flavours.

[Ke-ke wan]

I bought a green chilli salsa this morning.  Good with breaky.

Here is an article, from Mercola.com

I like what he has to say because he has done piles of research.  He used to be a ttraditional doc, but got fed up and went alternative and now publishes his finidings to attempt to counteract all of te mis-information we have been fed about our health.  (Tangent!)

3 Health Benefits of Spicy Foods

TIME magazine recently featured three of the many reasons why you might want to add some spice to your diet.2

1. Reduce Your Risk of Tumors

Capsaicin has been shown to activate cell receptors in your intestinal lining, creating a reaction that lowers the risk of tumors. Mice genetically prone to develop tumors had reduced tumors and extended lifespans when fed capsaicin, and the researchers believe the compound may turn off an over-reactive receptor that could trigger tumor growth.

Capsaicin has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and has even shown some promise for cancer treatment. Research has shown, for instance, that capsaicin suppresses the growth of human prostate cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.3

In one study, about 80 percent of the prostate cancer cells in mice were killed by capsaicin, while treated tumors shrank to about one-fifth the size of untreated tumors.4

Capsaicin has also been shown to be effective against breast, pancreatic, and bladder cancer cells, although you might need to eat unrealistically large amounts of capsaicin to get such benefits (such as eight habanero peppers a week).5

2. Improve Your Sex Life

In this case, it’s not the spice from chili peppers but that from ginseng and saffron that showed benefit. In a review of purported aphrodisiacs, both ginseng and saffron were found to boost sexual performance.6

3. Help with Weight Loss

Spicy foods increase satiety, helping you to feel full while eating less, and hot peppers may even help your body to burn more calories. Capsaicin has actually been used to selectively destroy nerve fibers that transmit information from your gut to your brain.

This procedure was said to have a "remarkable" impact on weight,7 but destroying these nerve fibers could have serious long-term implications on your health. Fortunately, capsaicin may be effective for weight loss when added to your diet, as opposed to via surgery.

Studies have shown the substance may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering blood fat levels, as well as fight fat buildup by triggering beneficial protein changes in your body.8

Part of the benefit may be due to capsaicin's heat potential, as it is a thermogenic substance that may temporarily increase thermogenesis in your body, where your body burns fuel such as fat to create heat, with beneficial impacts on your metabolism and fat-burning potential.

Research suggests that consuming thermogenic ingredients may boost your metabolism by up to 5 percent, and increase fat burning by up to 16 percent.9 It may even help counteract the decrease in metabolic rate that often occurs during weight loss.

Capsaicin’s Remarkable Role in Pain Relief

While eating spicy foods may cause you some temporary pain, applying capsaicin topically is known to alleviate it. Capsaicin helps alleviate pain in part by depleting your body's supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain. It also works by de-sensitizing sensory receptors in your skin.10

This is why it’s used in topical pain-relieving creams and patches (some of which contain the equivalent of 10 million SHU). It’s actually the very intense burning sensation that, ironically, ultimately relieves pain. Gizmodo explained:11

“Applied externally, chilies cause a sensation of burning, as capsaicin activates TRPV1 in nerves in the skin. But, if exposed to capsaicin for long enough, these pain nerve cells will become 'exhausted,' having depleted their internal chemical stores.

The nerve cells are no longer able to respond to capsaicin (or indeed, anything that might cause pain) and so you are no longer able to perceive pain. This is why chronic exposure to capsaicin acts as an analgesic.”

Most often, capsaicin has been studied for relieving postherpetic neuralgia, or pain associated with shingles, and HIV-associated neuropathy, although it’s shown promise for treating other types of pain as well.

In one study, a man with persistent pain due to wounds from a bomb explosion experienced an 80 percent reduction in pain symptoms after using a capsaicin (8 percent, known as high concentration) patch.12

Topical treatment with 0.025 percent (low concentration) capsaicin cream has also been found to relieve pain associated with osteoarthritis, with 80 percent of patients experiencing a reduction in pain after two weeks of four-times-daily treatment.13

It’s also been shown to help reduce or eliminate burning, stinging, itching, and redness of skin associated with moderate to severe psoriasis.14 There’s even a nasal spray containing capsaicin that significantly reduced nasal allergy symptoms in a 2009 study.15

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/09/27/why-eat-spicy-food.aspx

[Ke-ke wan]

Salsas are so pretty, bright, colourful and good for ya.


Salsa Verde — Green Chile Sauce — is just as common in Mexican cuisine as  Salsa Roja, made with tomatoes and chiles. The classic recipe for Salsa Verde is made with green chiles and tomatillos (known as tomate verde in Mexico). This Mexican native has a papery husk which is removed before cooking. Tomatillos impart a tangy, acid flavor which provides a counterbalance to the sweetness of corn tortillas.

ontaining all the right ingredients for optimal nutrition, tomatillos are a very good source of dietary fiber, niacin, potassium, and manganese. They contain 20 percent of the daily recommended value in vitamin C, 13 percent of the vitamin K, and a healthy amount of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and copper. Compared with tomatoes, tomatillos provide a few more calories, fat, and protein per ounce, but the extra fiber, minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins make up for it.

A medium tomatillo may only contain 11 calories, but with it comes 91 milligrams of potassium. B-carotenes zeaxanthin and lutein impart extraordinarily potent antioxidant properties that work with vitamin A to protect vision and help prevent macular degeneration. Vitamin A also helps maintain healthy mucus membranes and skin, and the flavonoids do their part in inhibiting lung and mouth cancers.

A recently-discovered set of naturally occurring phytochemical compounds called withanolides, such as Ixocarpalactone-A, is one of the compounds in tomatillo found to be not only antibacterial, but also a natural cancer fighter. Traditional healers in India have been known to prescribe foods containing these compounds as a tonic for arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions,

[Ke-ke wan]

This pic is really big!  Posted from my iphone.  This oil and chilli is new for me.  It's very hot and delicious and not salty at all like some hot sauces.  M, you might like this one.  The chillies are dried and then preserved in oil. 

[Ke-ke wan]