The pepper is one of the most popular vegetables. Perhaps also because word has gotten around about their richness in vitamins. The taste of the red, yellow and green peppers differs slightly. But which one is the healthiest? FITBOOK found out.
Anyone who prefers one color of pepper should know the dilemma in the vegetable department: Red, yellow and green peppers are often packed as a set. And most of the time, the three-packs look more appetizing and are even cheaper than the single ones. They are all healthy – but which color variant is the VERY healthiest?
Different sugar content
Immature bell peppers are green and then ripen to yellow, orange or red, depending on the variety. Many prefer the red variety of the nightshade plant because it tastes the sweetest. Of course, this also speaks for a certain sugar content. The red one has about 6.4 percent carbohydrates, which is the most. The slightly bitter-tasting green pepper is the lowest in carbohydrates (only about 2.8 grams of sugar per 100 grams). This makes them the most popular pepper color among low-carb eaters.
Also interesting: This is what happens in the body when you do without carbohydrates
distribution of other nutrients
When it comes to vitamin C content, red peppers have the edge. While the green pepper contains an average of 115 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams, the red pepper already contains around 140 milligrams – and that is around three times as much as, for example, kiwis (46 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams). The trace element potassium is also present in red peppers almost twice as much (about 300 to 600 milligrams per 100 grams) as in green ones (about 160 to 300).*.
In addition, red, but also intensively yellow-colored peppers score with valuable ingredients «such as various secondary plant substances,» explains medical journalist Sven-David Müller. The expert particularly emphasizes the coloring agent beta carotene. It is ingested through food and converted into the important provitamin A in the human body.
Not everyone tolerates raw peppers. Fortunately, the vitamins are not lost during cooking.
Ingredients are not everything
Of course, whether and which peppers are good for you depends not least on how well you tolerate them. In some people (especially raw) peppers come up badly and cause stomach problems, «probably because of certain ingredients in the skin,» suspects nutritionist Uwe Knop in an interview with FITBOOK. In boiled or stewed form, it can behave differently again. If not, the following applies: If you get stomach ache from paprika, you can of course do without this food – vitamins or not.
* Information from the potassium table of the pharmaceutical company Roche.
By the way: The pepper is a member of the nightshade family and, strictly speaking, the «fruit» of the pepper plant, so it’s actually not a vegetable in the literal sense. Chili, pepperoni and co. are also made from it.