Vitamin C
“What is it about peppers that makes them so refreshing?”
One of the delightful bonuses to studying medicine in Hungary was the opportunity to be constantly reminded of the contribution Hungarians make to, well, everything. The legendary Albert Szent György was reputed to have asked this question, or something very much like it, while lunching on the very traditional repast of bread, salami and sweet peppers. I don’t know what Hungarians ate prior to Columbus, but since 1492, peppers have been part of the Holy Trinity of Hungarian cooking, a status they share with lard and onions.
Pursuit of this quest led to the discovery of vitamin C. Or at least the isolation of the chemical long known to cure scurvy and thereafter dubbed “a-scorbic (anti-scurvy) acid.”
Peppers turned out to be one of the richest natural sources of ascorbate.
If vitamin C doesn’t completely account for why Hungarians are regularly refreshed by peppers, it’s as good a candidate as one could find. Vitamin C is the quintessential antioxidant and plays a crucial role in managing the potentially devastating effects of free radial production inside our cells, especially in the mighty mitochondria which produce most of our energy.
Vitamin C, along with copper, is also necessary for the production of collagen, the essential component of connective tissue. The…
