How to Eat Chili Pepper Leaves as a Medicinal and Edible Plant: Benefits, Effects, and Who Should Avoid Them

As the saying goes, no spicy food, no joy, which shows just how popular chili peppers are. In real life, chili pepper leaves are also edible and can achieve the effects of dispelling cold and aiding weight loss, so many people also boil chili pepper leaves or serve them cold dressed. So how should chili pepper leaves be eaten? What are the benefits and effects? These groups of people cannot eat them!

1. Can chili pepper leaves be eaten?

Chili pepper leaves can be eaten.

Chili pepper leaves are rich in calcium, carotene, multiple vitamins and other nutrients. They taste sweet, tender and fresh, with a very good texture. They can be cooked on their own, stir-fried with meat, or made into soup. Regularly eating chili pepper leaves can help dispel cold and warm the stomach, nourish the liver and brighten the eyes, and aid weight loss and beauty. In addition, eating an appropriate amount of chili pepper leaves can also promote gastric juice secretion and increase appetite, making them suitable for weak stomach, indigestion, gastrointestinal bloating, stomach cold pain, and so on.

2. What are the benefits, effects and dietary restrictions of chili pepper leaves?

1. What benefits do chili pepper leaves have?

(1) Calcium supplementation: The calcium content of chili pepper leaves is 233 mg (per 100 grams), while “high-calcium milk” contains only 118 mg, so they help supplement calcium.

(2) Dispelling cold and warming the stomach: Chili pepper leaf soup has effects such as dispelling cold and warming the stomach, removing dampness and strengthening the spleen, nourishing blood, dispelling cold, and tonifying the liver and brightening the eyes. It is especially helpful for stomach pain of the deficiency-cold type.

(3) Weight loss: Chili pepper leaves can burn fat and also promote the body's production of two enzymes, which can, on one hand, “persuade” fat cells to unload and, on the other hand, prevent excessive fat accumulation.

2. Who should not eat chili pepper leaves?

(1) People with asthma should eat them in moderation, because capsaicin can sometimes trigger a recurrence of asthma.

(2) People taking aspirin, because chili peppers can inhibit the body's absorption of aspirin.

(3) Eating excessive amounts of chili pepper leaves will not damage people's taste nerves, but it can also affect liver and kidney function.

3. How do you make chili pepper leaves taste good?

1. Cold dressed: Blanch briefly in boiling water, then rinse in cold water, add minced ginger, and dress with salt, soy sauce and vinegar;

2. Soup: 150 grams of fresh chili pepper leaves and 2 eggs. First fry the shelled eggs until golden in cooking oil, add an appropriate amount of clear water, and after it comes to a boil, add the chili pepper leaves and cook together. Finally, add salt to season. (Stir-frying chili pepper leaves with egg batter is also a simple and delicious medicinal dish.)

3. Pancakes: Mix the batter with chili pepper leaves (slightly chopped), add a little salt, and pan-fry or deep-fry until crisp, then eat directly.

4. In addition, chili pepper leaves can also be stir-fried plain or stir-fried with shredded meat. If chili pepper leaves are added to chicken giblet soup, pork liver soup or fish soup and cooked, they taste fresh, fragrant and smooth, with an especially distinctive flavor.