Black Pepper vs. Cayenne Pepper : Which Is Healthier?
Both black pepper and cayenne pepper go way beyond enhancing the flavor of your food, they’ve been around for centuries with a prolonged history of use in the medicinal sphere. Ancient healers used them to treat various illnesses and conditions from toothaches, constipation, insomnia to stomach pain and ulcers. To this day they both offer a wide range of health benefits.
Black Pepper
What gives black pepper its strong taste is a natural alkaloid known as piperine and is the very thing responsible for all its health-boosting properties. By adding black pepper to your food, it raises the amount of nutrients that will be absorbed into your bloodstream. It can have a positive effect on your metabolism as it increases the number of white blood cells. In addition, it promotes weight loss as it prevents body fat accumulation and the forming of new fat cells.
Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne pepper on the other hand, possesses just as many health benefits, if not more. Along with its ability to stimulate circulation, reduce acidity and lower cholesterol it also lends a hand in the digestion process as it stimulates the production of saliva and increases the production of digestive fluid. There are several ways in which it is used for pain relief from headaches to arthritis. This pain relief is accomplished by having a compound known as capsaicin, which reduces the amount of substance P that travels to the brain to signal pain. Besides capsaicin, cayenne pepper has so many other healthy compounds like flavonoids, vitamin C, B6, E, potassium, manganese.