Link for health related info
http://pepperheads-hotsauces.com/blog/category/health
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What is Colorado Proud?
Colorado Proud was developed in 1999 by the Colorado Department of Agriculture to help Coloradans identify and purchase Colorado food and agricultural products.
Why Local is Better.
Purchasing products grown or produced in Colorado keeps the state’s economy strong and
guarantees freshness. Whether you’re at the grocery store, a farmers’ market or a restaurant, look for the mountain and sun Colorado Proud label and ask for Colorado products wherever you are.
Colorado Proud. Better for you. Better for Colorado.
10 Health Benefits of Eating Spicy Food
By LifeMojo Team / February 27, 2010
Spicy Food is enjoyed all over the world because spices add an incredible amount of flavor to food. Cultures all over the world have dishes that excite and stimulate your palate with spices and add heat and flavor to everyday ingredients. But if you like spicy food like chilies, curry and hot sauces, there is so much more to look forward to.
Recent research shows that adding some spice to your meal can provide more health benefits than was ever thought. Yes! You heard it right; in addition to making your taste buds sizzle, spicy foods can also deliver many health benefits. These include:
- Helps in Losing Weight: Hot peppers contain Capsaicin which can speed up metabolism and help the body burn calories faster. This is because Capsaicin increases your body temperature and contributes to an increase in your heart rate. Furthermore, studies have shown that people who eat spicy foods eat smaller portions which can reduce their calories intake.
- Good for heart: Hot peppers may help to improve heart health by improving the body's ability to dissolve blood clots. Research has shown that low-density cholesterol (LDL or bad cholesterol) resisted oxidation for a longer period of time (which can clog your arteries) when chili was added to the diet, thus reducing the heart stroke risk. The capsaicin in peppers also fights inflammation, which has been identified as a risk factor for heart disease. Additionally statistics show that cultures that eat spicy foods frequently have a much lower rate of heart attack and stroke.
- Improved circulation: Spicy foods also promote good circulation, and they appear to lower blood pressure. When you eat spicy food, your body's temperature is raised; therefore, it increases your blood flow and gets your heart pumping. Peppers help strengthen the blood vessel walls as they are high in vitamin A and C.
- Anti-cancer: Many studies have shown that regular consumption of chilies and curry decrease the risk of cancer. Capsaicin slows the growth of cancer cells and in some cases, even causes the cancer cells to die off without harming the surrounding cells. In countries where diets are traditionally high in capsaicin like India and Mexico, people tend to have lower rates of some cancers.
- Improved digestion: Spices also improve your digestion because they increase the hydrochloric secretion of your stomach. This in turn will increase blood flow to the stomach and even increase the mucous lining. Capsaicin also helps to kill bacteria like H. pylori and help to prevent or cure stomach ulcers. However, if you get heartburn from spicy foods, try taking an antacid relief tablet which will neutralize acids in the stomach.
- Arthritis: Turmeric (haldi) reduces joint inflammation and bone destruction in people. Circumin present in turmeric helps to alleviate the pain associated with arthritis.
- Cold and Flu: Capsaicin promotes sweating and eases the discomfort of cold and flu symptoms. It also helps to open up the nasal passages. It may also reduce sinusitis, and other flu symptoms.
- Improved Sleep Pattern: Australian researchers have found that people who regularly consumed spicy meals fell asleep more easily. They also woke up easier and had more energy throughout the day.
- Mood lifter: Chili peppers boost the level of endorphins and serotonin that dulls pain and give us a feeling of well-being. It can act as a depression fighter and powerful stress reliever.
10. Improves breathing: Hot peppers act as an expectorant, and can help people with asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, sinusitis, and other respiratory conditions breathe easier. Hot peppers can help you to breathe better by opening up clogged nasal passages.
However, it is important to take spicy foods moderately especially if you have sensitive stomach or you simply have a low tolerance for them. Learn to have your food spicy and hot and enjoy the amazing health benefits of spicy foods.
Article from: http://www.lifemojo.com/lifestyle/10-health-benefits-of-eating-spicy-food-9682300#ixzz1DyoyHmRn
Burning love - people who like very spicy foods
American Demographics, Oct, 1997
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, the odds are he was a chilehead.
Terry Barckholtz and Melinda Shriner were married in May on a Caribbean-bound ocean liner. It sounds like the Love Boat, but this romantic trip had a twist. The cruise was sponsored by Chile Pepper magazine, and the couple spent their first wedded week with other lovers of things hot.
Not long ago, American food had a reputation for being stodgy, starchy, and soggy, with a bill of fare that ran the gamut from tuna casserole to Jell-O with bananas. Ketchup was the condiment for all seasons. The only thing preventing U.S. chow from being a global laughingstock may have been the even greater disdain with which epicures viewed British food. In recent years, however, regional and international flavors have been making inroads. Thai and Indian sauces are common on supermarket shelves alongside the current king of condiments, salsa.
But for some people, plain old "spicy" doesn't cut it. Chileheads like their food hot, hot, hot. Not to be confused with chiliheads, who are aficionados of the four-alarm tomato-sauce-based concoction, chileheads tap into tongue-burning foods and sauces that span the globe from Jamaica to Java.
Fiery-food eaters are a colorful bunch, as gourmets go. Whereas many connoisseurs present the coordination of the perfect appetizer, entree, and wine as a delicate ballet, chileheads are more likely to take an approach that seems half vaudeville, half rodeo. Sauces with names like "Jump Into an Open Grave," "Gib's Nuclear Hell," and "Ass in the Tub" vie for enthusiasts' dollars with T-shirts showing anthropomorphized peppers firing guns into the air.
"The whole genre tends to attract people who are characters," says Joel Gregory, publisher and editor-in-chief of Chile Pepper. "Or more than that, they're like lawyers who ride Harleys--they like to pose as characters. One way to do that is by collecting sauces, paraphernalia, wearables, and usables. You'll find these people wearing it, drinking out of cups displaying it." All the while, they're not taking it all that seriously.
HEATING UP THE MARKET
Chileheads have fun with food, yet they spend serious money on it. The median income of Chile Pepper readers is in the $90,000 range, and 25 percent have incomes of $100,000 or more. "The magazine appeals to affluent chileheads," says publisher Gregory. "This is by no means everyone, but it's a good deal of the economic drive behind the industry, which involves 5,000 manufacturers in the continental U.S."
Average everyday chileheads might not subscribe to Chile Pepper, but they help support the market for peppers, sauces, and other food products. They may even buy the occasional chile-decorated kitchen mitt or towel. And if there's a hot-food festival in town, they might spring a few bucks to check out the latest and greatest in the world of pepper.
The 10th annual Fiery Foods Show will be held in Albuquerque in March 1998. The 1997 show had 250 exhibitors, up from 37 in 1988. Just over 12,000 attendees checked out the action at $6 a pop for general admission. The Chile Pepper magazine Web site features a calendar of other such events, most of them held in southern and western states where hot is most popular.
Then there are the extremists. About 70 chileheads joined Barckholtz and Shriner on their Caribbean wedding cruise, along with 2,100 passengers of more conventional tastes. "At dinnertime, we always had a formal seating of six or seven tables, and they would bring out about 150 different types of hot sauce every night," says Barckholtz. "These waiters did not like us because they had to drag all this stuff out, and here they prepared all this food, and we would doctor up all the food that came."
Although he's been a spicy-food fan since childhood and describes himself as a self-made gourmet, even Barckholtz can still be surprised by chilehead antics. "It was pretty wild to meet some of these people," he says. "A lot of them were a heck of a lot crazier than I am. They were putting it on their ice cream."
One reason why chileheads are on the wild side may have to do with their gender. More than most other food-related niches, superspicy is a guy thing. "We have a two-to-one male-to-female readership. I doubt that's the case with any other food magazine," says Gregory. "So there is some macho in it. There's that edge to it of, `I can eat a hotter one than you can.'"
Temperatures aren't the only thing rising in the hot-food market. Volume is way up. Red-pepper imports to the U.S. totaled 48 million pounds in 1995, more than four times the 1976 level, according to the American Spice Trade Association. Supermarkets are the main purveyors of flaming fare, representing 79 percent of retail sales in 1994. Smaller grocery and specialty stores account for 13 percent of sales, and direct marketers claim 7 percent.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOT
Although a growing variety of spicy foods are now available in virtually every supermarket in the nation, the U.S. still harbors bastions of hotness. The Chile Belt stretches over 11 states, according to FIND/SVP of New York City. Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California make up this region, defined as the states where fiery foods are most popular, most engrained in local culture, and where a majority of manufacturers and marketers of hot products are located. It's no surprise that these states are home to a disproportionate share of Americans of Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander descent.
But fiery-food lovers spread their love of hot wherever they go. Many of the adults who work on Alaska's oil pipelines and at military installations are Chile Belt natives. This explains why T.C. Mitchell, assistant features editor for the Anchorage Daily News, was able to sell his boss a story about fruit salsas. "I moved up in 1982 from Colorado," says Mitchell. "So I maybe as good an example as anybody of bringing that kind of culture with me."
Terry Barckholtz's connection with peppers shows one way in which hot foods have moved beyond the Hispanic, Asian, and Caribbean groups that originally brought them to the U.S. A lifelong Michigan resident, he didn't grow up in a spicy food culture. "It was the mid-1950s, or something like that, and I was probably 10 or 11, and my aunt, who lived in California, would bring this green taco sauce. No one had ever heard of a taco here." The openness to new experiences that is the hallmark of the baby boom may have played a role, too. "Everyone turned up their noses, but for some reason, it didn't bother me. I really enjoyed these things," says Barckholtz.
He may have even more company in years to come. The population of the Chile Belt could see growth of 34 percent between 1990 and 2010. In the same time period, the total U.S. population is only projected to grow 21 percent. Retail sales of fiery foods could top $1.8 billion in 2000, according to Packaged Facts, up from $1 billion in 1994.
THE TIES THAT BIND, AND BURN
One attribute that seems to unite chileheads from all places and all walks of life is an eclectic sense of internationalism. A recent issue of Chile Pepper featured recipes from the Pacific Rim, Catalan region of Spain, Java, and, in a down-home salute, the American Southwest. "I think the principle interest of the chilehead enthusiast is with products and events available in the continental United States," says publisher Gregory. "However, the readership of the magazine is interested in Far Eastern, Pacific Rim, Oceania, South American, and Caribbean hot-and-spicy recipes."
Fire isn't reserved for main dishes, either. Genuine capsaicin addicts can also knock back Pecos Heat Chile Pepper Tequila and snack on XXX Hot Fire Nuggets, billed as the hottest pretzels in the world. They can even satisfy their sweet tooth with Hot Chocolate. Make no mistake--this isn't the steamy, marshmallow-filled comfort beverage Mom used to make when you came in from sledding. The chilehead version is chocolate candies filled with jalapeno jam.
Like many people with hobbies, chileheads are easy targets for gift-giving family and friends. "We just had our wedding reception a couple of weeks ago, and we had 200 guests," says Barckholtz. "And you could imagine what the primary gifts were: salsas, dried peppers, pepper oils. I could start a store now."
Hot-food boutiques aren't unheard of, but Barckholtz is beginning to generate a different kind of business from his obsession. On his wedding cruise, he met some chile-product manufacturers. One was so taken with a bottle-label design Barckholtz and his wife had created for a local Ad Club competition that the couple's "Road to Flame" graphic will appear on the manufacturer's new habanero sauce.
Hobbies are no fun alone, so it's fortunate that Shriner shares her husband's appreciation for fire. "We go to this Chinese restaurant that has levels zero through five," says Barckholtz, "and she's right up there at four or five now."
Article from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4021/is_n10_v19/ai_19827503/