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CAYENNE
There's a logic to spooning salsa onto your steak fajitas. The hot substance in chile peppers, called capsaicin, appears to disarm carcinogens in some foods you eat. When Peter Gannett, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at West Virginia University, mixed capsaicin into a witches' brew of cancer-causing nitrosamines (compounds that develop when meat is charbroiled), their power to trigger mutations was completely neutralized. Investigators at Loma Linda University have shown that capsaicin may also deactivate carcinogens in cigarette smoke.
People who suffer from the chronic herpes infection called shingles are using capsaicin ointments to relieve the pain. Lab animals treated with capsaicin have fewer herpes outbreaks, and James Duke, author of The Green Pharmacy, suspects that capsaicin may offer some people the same protection. Evidence from lab animals suggests hot pepper can protect against ulcers, too.
The bottom line:
Cayenne pills are simply gel caps filled with powdered red pepper. Taking them might make sense if you don't like spicy food. But if you're not afraid of a little zing, sparking up a chili with jalapenos or a stir-fry with cayenne is both more flavorful and economical. A bottle of 100 cayenne capsules runs about $8, five times what you'd pay for the same jar filled with ground red pepper.
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