Adding bell pepper to your meal during this extreme cold will guard against cold and flu, a prevalent illness during this season, supplying you with vitamin C that exceeds what citrus fruits can offer.
Although rest and patience are the only true cures for some of the illnesses these season, but there are measures we can take to ease the symptoms while we recover, or even lower our chances of falling ill to begin with.
Diet plays a pivotal role in maintaining a robust immune system, which is responsible for warding off infections. If your immune system is healthy, you’re less likely to get sick but if you do, your body will be better equipped to fight it off swiftly.
The right amount of vitamin C in your daily diet is thought to help reduce the duration of colds. It’s an essential component of any healthy diet and, along with other nutrients like vitamin D, zinc, and potassium, can bolster immunity.
Surprisingly, citrus is not the only or even the best source of vitamin C. Bell peppers is a vegetable that boasts a higher concentration containing 80.4mg of vitamin C per 100g, outstripping lemons, which have just 53mg for the same weight, oranges, 53.2mg, while grapefruits offer 31.2mg.
That means, 50g of bell pepper serving can fulfil the daily advised intake of 40mg vitamin C.
An expert stressed that a normal diet should provide enough vitamin C, but as the body lacks the ability to store it, you do have to eat it every day.
femiores@katsinamirror.ng