Most of my home-cooked dishes are flavored with freshly ground black pepper. I love adding lots of black pepper into my egg dishes and porridge.  Often called the king of spices, black pepper is more than just a terrific flavor enhancer. It’s known to offer a wealth of health benefits while imparting an excellent depth of flavor to any dish.

Black Pepper Nutrition Facts
Black pepper contains minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, as well as vitamins such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B6, according to the USDA National Nutrient Database. Other nutrients include vitamin E, folate, and vitamin K.

As black pepper is such an important health-promoting ingredient, multiple studies on its health benefits have been carried out, including one by US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

Black pepper (Piper Nigrum L.) is an important healthy food owing to its antioxidant, antimicrobial potential and gastro-protective modules. Black pepper, with piperine as an active ingredient, holds rich phytochemistry that also includes volatile oil, oleoresins, and alkaloids. More recently, cell-culture studies and animal modeling predicted the role of black pepper against a number of maladies.

The free-radical scavenging activity of black pepper and its active ingredients might be helpful in chemo-prevention and controlling progression of tumor growth. Additionally, the key alkaloid components of Piper Nigrum, that is, piperine assist in cognitive brain functioning, boost nutrient’s absorption and improve gastrointestinal functionality. In this comprehensive treatise, efforts are made to elucidate the antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, gastro-protective, and antidepressant activities of black pepper.

Here’s are some good reasons to sprinkle some black pepper into your food:

1. Cancer prevention
The piperine in black pepper can be credited with the prevention of cancer, and becomes twice as potent when combined with turmeric. The spice also has Vitamin C, Vitamin A, flavonoids, carotenes and other anti-oxidants that help remove harmful free radicals and protect the body from cancers and diseases. The best way to eat pepper to harness maximum benefits is to eat freshly ground pepper, and not cook it along with food.

2. Stimulates digestion
The piperine in black pepper eases digestion and stimulates the stomach, which then secretes more hydrochloric acid that helps to digest proteins in food. Thus adding a dash of pepper into your food will actually help you to digest it faster.

3. Relieves cold and cough
Black pepper is antibacterial in nature, and therefore helps to cure cold and cough. A teaspoon of honey with freshly crushed pepper does the trick. It also helps to alleviate chest congestion, often caused due to pollution, flu, or a viral infection. You can add it to hot water and eucalyptus oil and take steam. And given that black pepper is rich in Vitamin C, it also works as a good antibiotic.

4. Enables weight loss
Studies have found that piperine in black pepper, the very compound that makes you sneeze, also fights the formation of fat cells.  Research says that black pepper might offer an alternative to treatments for fat-related issues.

Black pepper’s characteristic to inhibit fat cell formation sets off a chain reaction that can keep fat formation in check at various other biological levels.

5. Improves skin
Crushed pepper is one of the best exfoliators nature has provided us. However, don’t use it directly though; add a bit of honey or fresh yogurt to it. It also enables blood circulation, and provides the skin with more oxygen.  Black pepper is known to help in the cure of Vitiligo, a condition where the skin loses pigmentation, and creates white patches.

6. Alleviates depression
It’s believed that the piperine in black pepper helps to deal with depression. It stimulates the brain, and helps it to function properly by making it more active.

With so much health benefits and a wonderful flavor, there’s just no reason not to add black pepper into all your food.