Peppy Pepper!

by Francine

photo via 21food.com

It's safe to say, say I, that most people like pepper. The amount that we use varies from person to person, obviously, but other salt, it's also safe to say that it is the most widely used spice there is. I never thought of it as having much health value until I started to realize how many health benefits were found in all herbs and spices. But for some reason, the old standby just didn't seem like a great source of anything other than fantastic flavor. I was wrong!

Think digestion. And think other benefits as well. Here you go:

As we know, black pepper (Piper nigrum), stimulates the taste buds. That stimulation isn't just for our enjoyment. It's the body's method to send an alert to to the stomach to increase hydrochloric acid secretion, which aids in digestion. Don't undermine the importance of hydrochloric acid, btw. Without sufficient quantities, food may sit in our tummies for too long. This can turn to heartburn or indigestion, or go through the intestines, where gut bacteria uses it. The results being gas, irritation, and/or diarrhea or constipation.

Along with antioxidant properties, black pepper has another surprising quality: the outer layer of the peppercorn helps stimulate fat cells, which in turn help keep us slim.

Here's an interesting factoid about black pepper, according to McCormick.com: "[Black pepper]  once was used as money to pay taxes, tributes, dowries, and rent. Peppercorns were weighed like gold and used as a common medium of exchange. Black pepper was even used as ransom when the Visigoths captured Rome in 410 A.D."

In the same article, McCormick tells us that Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus, sought India’s Malabar Coast in hopes of gaining access to pepper’s source. And later American clipper ships traveled to far away tropical lands to buy black pepper (and other spices) to meet the rapidly increasing demand back home.

As with everything that is grown or raised, try to stick with organic. This offers you the greatest assurance that it has not been irradiated. Black pepper that has been irradiated may lead to a significant decrease in its vitamin C content and irradiation is linked to a host of other unwanted side effects as well.

Like with so many other herbs and spices, best to add black pepper toward the end of the cooking process--to maintain its wonderful and inimitable flavor.

Keep in mind that TofuYu has a tofu that is teeming with black pepper. Like our other packaged tofus, we offer it in a block, ready to be sliced, cubed, or whatever else. Pepper tofu is fantastic on its own (sauteed, for instance), or mixed with veggies, seafood, chicken, etc. You'll love all those specks of black and even more--you'll enjoy the incredible flavor!

Sources:
McCormick.com
whfoods.com