The Healthy Secrets Behind Mexican Cuisine

Variety is what Mexican food is known for.It is intense, spicy and full of variety.Corn &corn tortillas, play a fundamental role in most all Mexican cuisine but there are also other ingredients in Mexican cooking that add characteristic flavors and also serve as incredible nutrients.

The healthy secrets behind Mexican Cusine are

1. Avocados
2. Hot Chili Peppers
3. Pinto and Black Beans
4. Cilantro
5. Tomatoes
6. Papaya

1. Avocados

The avocado (Persea americana), also known as palta or aguacate (Spanish), butter pear or alligator pear, is a tree native to Perú, Mexico in South America and Central America, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. The name "avocado" also refers to the fruit (technically a large berry) of the tree that contains an egg-shaped pit (hard seed casing).

Historically avocados had a long-standing stigma as a sexual stimulant and were not purchased or consumed by any person wishing to preserve a chaste image. Avocados were known by the Aztecs as "the fertility fruit".he fruit is sometimes called a butter pear, avocado pear and alligator pear (pear due to its shape, and alligator due to the rough green skin of some cultivars).

The avocado is very popular in vegetarian cuisine, making an excellent substitute for meats in sandwiches and salads because of its high fat content. The fruit is not sweet,distinctly yet subtly flavored, and of smooth, almost creamy texture. It is used as the base for the Mexican dip known as guacamole, as well as a filling for several kinds of sushi, including California rolls. Avocado is popular in chicken dishes and as a spread on toast, served with salt and pepper.In Mexico and Central America, avocados are served mixed with white rice, in soups, salads, or on the side of chicken and meat. In Chile its consumption is widespread and used as a puree in chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs, and in slices for celery or lettuce salads. The Chilean version of caesar salad contains large slices of mature avocado.

Nutritional value

 Avocados also have 60% more potassium than bananas. They are rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and vitamin K.They have the highest fiber content of any fruit - including 75% insoluble and 25% soluble fiber.

2. Hot Chili Peppers

Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BC and perhaps earlier.From Mexico, at the time the Spanish colony that controlled commerce with Asia, chili peppers spread rapidly into the Philippines and then to India, China, Korea and Japan with the aid of European sailors. The new spice was quickly incorporated into the local cuisines.

The chili has a long association with Mexican cuisine as later adapted into Tex-Mex cuisine. Although unknown in Asia until Europeans introduced it there, chili has also become a part of the Korean, Indian, Indonesian, Szechuan, Thai and other cooking traditions. Its popularity has seen it adopted into many cuisines of the World.

They are rich in vitamin C. Psychologist Paul Rozin suggests that eating chilis is an example of a "constrained risk" like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensations like pain and fear can be enjoyed because individuals know that these sensations are not actually harmful.This method lets people experience extreme feelings without any risk of bodily harm.

Nutritional value

Red chilis contain high amounts of vitamin C and carotene ("provitamin A"). Yellow and especially green chilis (which are essentially unripe fruit) contain a considerably lower amount of both substances. In addition, peppers are a good source of most B vitamins, and vitamin B6 in particular. They are very high in potassium and high in magnesium and iron. Their high vitamin C content can also substantially increase the uptake of non-heme iron from other ingredients in a meal, such as beans and grains.

Possible health benefits

All hot chili peppers contain phytochemicals known collectively as capsaicinoids.

    * Capsaicin was shown, in laboratory settings, to cause cancer cell death in rats.
    * Recent research in mice shows that chili (capsaicin in particular) may offer some hope of weight loss for people suffering from obesity.
    * Researchers used capsaicin from chillies to kill nerve cells in the pancreases of mice with Type 1 diabetes, thus allowing the insulin producing cells to start producing insulin again.
    * Research in humans found that "after adding chili to the diet, the LDL, or bad cholesterol, actually resisted oxidation for a longer period of time, (delaying) the development of a major risk for cardiovascular disease".
    * Researchers found that the amount of insulin required to lower blood sugar after a meal is reduced if the meal contains chili pepper.
    * Chilli peppers are being probed as a treatment for alleviating chronic pain.
    * Spices, including chilli, are theorized to control the microbial contamination levels of food in countries with minimal or no refrigeration.
    * Hot peppers are claimed to provide symptomatic relief from rhinitis, but a review study found no effect.
    * Several studies found that capsaicin could have an anti-ulcer protective effect on stomachs infected with H. pylori by affecting the chemicals the stomach secretes in response to infection.
    * By combining an anesthetic with capsaicin, researchers can block pain in rat paws without causing temporary paralysis. This anesthetic may one day allow patients to be conscious during surgery and may also lead to the development of more effective chronic pain treatments.

Pinto and Black Beans

Pinto Beans

The pinto bean is named for its mottled skin, hence it is a type of mottled bean. It is the most common bean in the United States and northwestern Mexico, and is most often eaten whole in broth or mashed and refried. Either whole or mashed, it is a common filling for burritos. The young pods may also be used as green beans.

This is the most commonly used bean used for refried beans (fresh or canned) and in many dishes at Tex-Mex restaurants. Rice and pinto beans served with cornbread or corn tortillas are often a staple meal where there is limited money for meat, as the combination of beans and corn creates virtually all the protein amino acids needed in a meat substitute.

Black Beans

The small, shiny black turtle bean is especially popular in Latin American cuisine. It is often called simply the black bean although this can cause confusion with other black beans.

The black turtle bean has a dense, meaty texture and flavor reminiscent of mushrooms, which makes it popular in vegetarian dishes such as the Mexican-American black bean burrito. It is a very popular bean in various regions of Brazil, and is used in the national dish, feijoada. It is also a principal ingredient of Platillo Moros y Cristianos as in Cuba, a must-have in the typical casados of Costa Rica, and served elsewhere in almost all Latin America.Black turtle beans have recently been reported to be an extremely good source of nutritional antioxidants.

Cilantro

The leaves are variously referred to as coriander leaves, cilantro (in the United States and Canada, from the Spanish name for the plant), dhania (in the Indian subcontinent, and increasingly in Britain), kindza (in Georgia), Chinese parsley or Mexican parsley.

Health Benefits:

Cilantro is rich in beneficial phytonutrients,  which may be responsible for many of its health benefits. Cilantro has been found to help control blood sugar, lower cholesterol and fight inflammation and free radicals.

Tomato

The tomato is native to Central, South, and southern North America from Mexico to Argentina. There is evidence that the first domesticated tomato was a little yellow fruit, ancestor of L. cerasiforme, grown by the Aztecs in Mexico.

Tomatoes are now eaten freely throughout the world, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other things. They contain lycopene, one of the most powerful natural antioxidants, which, especially when tomatoes are cooked, has been found to help prevent prostate cancer.Tomato extract branded as Lycomato is now also being promoted for treatment of high blood pressure. Lycopene has also been show to improve the skin's ability to protect against harmful UV rays.

Papaya

It is native to the tropics of the Americas, and was cultivated in Mexico several centuries before the emergence of the Mesoamerican classic cultures. It is sometimes called "tree melon" or "pawpaw," but the North American pawpaw is a different species, in the genus Asimina.

Ethno medical uses

    * The mature (ripe) fruit treats ringworm, green fruits treat high blood pressure, and are used as an aphrodisiac.
    * The fruit can be directly applied topically to skin sores .
    * The juice of the fruit (specifically the enzymes within it) are used to reduce gastrointestinal gas, useful to sufferers of IBS.
    * The seeds are anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, and analgesic, and they are used to treat stomachache and fungal infections.
    * The leaves are used as a heart tonic, analgesic, and to treat stomachache[1].
    * The roots are used as an analgesic.