One of the best parts of growing poblano peppers is the health benefits that you’ll reap!
Poblano peppers are great-tasting, relatively mild peppers with some surprising potential health benefits. Poblano peppers are high in fiber and vitamin C, and also provide you with lower levels of potassium, vitamin A, and iron. The peppers can help boost your metabolism, improve eye health, and help prevent and treat anemia.
Read on for an in-depth analysis of each of these benefits!
Potential health benefits of poblano peppers
Poblano peppers are delicious, but are they healthy?
Some potential health benefits of poblano peppers include:
- High in vitamin A
- High in fiber
- Capsaicin boosts metabolism and encourages weight loss
- Good for eye health
- Prevents anemia
Read on to learn about each of these health benefits in detail!
High in vitamin A
Poblano peppers are high in vitamin A. Why is that important?
Vitamin A can help reduce cancer risk. It also contributes to epithelial tissue health and helps the skin replenish its cells. Vitamin A is anti-inflammatory because it regulates immune system responses. A vitamin A deficiency can greatly increase your risk of severe infection.
Vitamin A provides “dietary carotenoids” that are antioxidants and fight free-radical damage. Vitamin A supplementation can be effective at reducing cancer risk if you’re deficient in the vitamin.
Vitamin A is also vital for epithelial tissue health. It helps skin cells replenish and encourages mucous membranes to produce adequate amounts of mucous.
It is also anti-inflammatory because it helps regulate immune system responses.
Vitamin A deficiencies can increase your risk of severe infections.
High in fiber
Poblano peppers are high in fiber. What’s the big deal?
Fiber can lower serum cholesterol levels and blood pressure. It fights constipation and encourages healthy bowel movements. High fiber consumption is related to lower rates of stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and some gastrointestinal conditions.
Fiber can lower serum cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
People who eat a lot of fiber are show to have lower rates of:
- Stroke
- Coronary heart disease
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Obesity
- Some gastrointestinal conditions
Fiber also encourages healthy stools and combats constipation.
Capsaicin boosts metabolism and encourages weight loss
Cap-what?
Poblano peppers are high in capsaicin, aka the spiciness compound! Capsaicinoids boost metabolism. Capsaicin also decreases appetite and increases sympathetic nervous system activities. Eating spicy peppers at breakfast can even make you choose healthier lunch options!
Capsaicinoids enhance metabolism. This can lead to a percent change in body fat. Although this study was conducted using capsaicin pills, it can be theorized that regular consumption of poblano peppers will also boost metabolism – especially poblanos that are fully ripe and, therefore, spicier.
Obesity is a serious risk factor for many health conditions and is considered a worldwide epidemic.
In the study linked above, dietary capsaicin consumption was employed – not pill supplements. It resulted in decreased appetite and increased sympathetic nervous system activities.
Good for eye health
We should care more about preserving our vision than most of us do.
Poblano peppers are good for eye health because of their high vitamin C content. Vitamin C can lower your risk of developing cataracts. It can also slow visual acuity loss and macular degeneration. Vitamin C can be found in the lens of your eyes to protect them from oxidative damage.
Poblano peppers are high in vitamin C. Vitamin C can lower your risk of developing cataracts and slow degeneration.
As you age, the amount of vitamin C in your lens decreases; increased vitamin C uptake can help replenish these levels.
Prevents anemia
Anemia is highly dangerous, so the possibility of a pepper helping to prevent it is a huge deal.
Poblano peppers can help prevent and treat anemia. Their high vitamin C content increases your ability to absorb iron. Poblanos have a lot of iron on their own, but you can pair them with other iron-rich foods to get even more benefits.
Peppers are especially well-suited to help treat anemia.
For starters, they’re highly rich in vitamin C. Why does this matter? Vitamin C increases your ability to absorb iron.
Combine a high vitamin C content with a decent iron content and it’s a match made in heaven!
For even more benefits, pair your poblano peppers with other iron-rich foods.
What is the nutritional value of a poblano pepper?
Now that you know some of the health benefits, let’s go over the nutritional value.
The nutritional value of 1 cup of poblano pepper is:
- Calories: 30
- Potassium: 11%
- Dietary fiber: 14%
- Vitamin C: 134%
- Vitamin B6: 30%
The net carbs in poblano peppers are also fairly low because of the fiber content, unless you plan on eating stuffed poblano peppers, of course!
These nutritional facts were compiled from FoodData Central.
Are poblano peppers healthier than bell peppers?
Poblano peppers are healthy because of the nutrients, vitamins, and capsaicin in them. But what about poblano vs bell peppers?
Poblano peppers are healthier than bell peppers because of the addition of capsaicin which fights inflammation and boosts the metabolism.
Both peppers contain more than 100% of the recommended daily value of vitamin C, and similar amounts of other vitamins and nutrients.
What is the healthiest pepper you can eat?
Generally speaking, hot peppers are healthier because they contain all the same nutrients as bell peppers while also containing capsaicin.
What is the best way to eat poblano peppers?
Alright, so how do you optimize all those benefits?
Cooking poblano peppers makes the carotenoids more bioavailable but will destroy some vitamin C. Since poblanos are already so high in vitamin C, the tradeoff is typically worth it.
Some vitamin C is lost when you cook poblano peppers, but at the same time, the carotenoids become more bioavailable.
Considering how high the vitamin C content is to begin with, it usually makes sense to lose a bit of vitamin C in exchange for increased carotenoid consumption.
Who shouldn’t eat poblano peppers?
Despite being generally healthy – and delicious to boot! – there are certain people who shouldn’t eat poblano peppers.
People with a nightshade allergy or intolerance shouldn’t eat poblano peppers.
Nightshades include foods like peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and potatoes.
