Paprika: Reich an Vitamin C
When shopping for peppers, you are usually spoiled for choice, because the healthy vegetable is available in a wide variety of variants: whether red, orange, yellow or green – there is a large selection even when it comes to colors. Then there are different shapes: while sweet peppers tend to be thick and round, spice peppers have a longer and narrower shape. The different types of paprika also differ in their taste: the paprika is available in a wide variety of gradations, from mild to hot. However, the different types of peppers have one thing in common: peppers are healthy, have many vitamins and only a few calories.
Peppers: Healthy Nutritional Values
The different colors  of the peppers reflect the degree of ripeness of the vegetable: when they are unripe, all peppers are green, but as they ripen they become more yellow or reddish and therefore also sweeter in taste.
But whether red, yellow or green, the ingredients of the peppers differ only slightly from each other: all peppers have hardly any calories, depending on the degree of ripeness, 100 grams of peppers bring just 19 to 28 kilocalories. The low calorie content is due to the fact that 100 grams of peppers contain only 3 grams of carbohydrates, 0.3 grams of fat and 1.1 grams of protein.
But peppers are not only healthy because they have hardly any calories, but also because of their ingredients.  The pepper has large amounts of:
In addition, the pepper is rich in vitamins. In addition to vitamins A and B, it  contains a particularly large amount of vitamin C. In red peppers, the vitamin C content is particularly high compared to other colored peppers. While 100 grams of green peppers contain around 140 milligrams of vitamin C, a red tomato pepper contains around 400 milligrams. This makes peppers one of the foods richest in vitamin C.
Other ingredients of the peppers
Flavonoids and carotenes are also  present in peppers.
Flavonoids have an antioxidant effect and thus have a major impact on human health. They act as radical scavengers in the body and reduce the risk of certain diseases. With increased flavonoid intake, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease decreases. Carotenes are mainly found in colored fruits. They also have a cell-protecting effect as antioxidants.
The different shades of color in the pepper are due to different cartinoid pigments. Most cartinoids are red, but there are also yellow dyes.
The substance capsaicin is responsible for the hotness of the peppers . Capsaicin does not irritate the taste buds on the tongue  , but triggers a heat and pain stimulus. The hotness of peppers is determined using the Scoville index. It indicates the capsaicin content in the respective fruit. A normal sweet pepper is classified as mild on this scale, cherry peppers or hot peppers are considered spicy, jalapenos are classified as medium hot and cayenne plants are classified as hot.
Paprika as a remedy
Peppers were used medicinally by Native Americans. Here they were used, among other things, as a remedy for osteoarthritis. Today, peppers are mainly used in the so-called ABC plasters, which are used to relieve rheumatic pain. Products containing capsaicin are also used for problems such as lumbago  or migraines  .
Because of their high vitamin C content, peppers also help prevent heart attacks and improve circulatory disorders.
Allergies and other negative effects
In addition to these positive effects, the hotter varieties of peppers are also suspected of triggering stomach pain , diarrhea , bladder irritation and incontinence  .
Occasionally, eating paprika can also  trigger an allergy . This is mostly a  cross-allergy:  Peppers probably contain a protein that is also found in birch  . People who are allergic to birch pollen can also have an allergic reaction when they eat peppers.
The pepper family is large
The pepper belongs to the nightshade family. This makes it closely related to plants such as tomatoes, aubergines and potatoes. However, while the root of the potato is used for food production, the fruit of the pepper is harvested.
These are also referred to as bell peppers, but have other names depending on the colour, size and heat of the fruit. Hot peppers and chillies also belong to the paprika family. In general, a distinction is made between spice peppers, which taste relatively hot due to their high capsaicin content, and sweet peppers, which contain only little capsaicin.
The pepper originally comes from South America, from the area between Brazil and Bolivia. Over time, the peppers were spread to Central America by birds. Evidence has been found in Mexico that peppers were cultivated here as early as 7000 BC. Chr. served as a crop. Today, the peppers are grown worldwide in tropical and temperate zones.
use of the peppers
Peppers are used in cooking almost everywhere in the world today, either as a spice or as a vegetable. The hotter forms of peppers are primarily popular in southern countries such as Mexico. The most well-known spice made from paprika is paprika powder. There are different types of paprika powder, depending on how hot it is.
To make the spice, the peppers are first dried and then ground. Hotter spices are obtained from different types of chili, such as cayenne pepper from the Cayenne chili variety. In addition, spicy sauces such as sambal oelek, tabasco sauce or ajvar are made from paprika.
As a vegetable, the peppers can be used raw, stuffed, steamed or fried. A particularly popular dish in Germany is stuffed peppers with rice  or minced meat. Instead of minced meat, you can alternatively fill the peppers with vegetables and feta cheese.
Fresh peppers will keep for two to three days at room temperature and up to a week in the refrigerator.
