The magic of peppers

Five daily portions of fruit and vegetables provides a healthy, balanced diet. Or so we are told, but is it true? The answer is, not always! Unfortunately, as with most things, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

VITAMIN A

For example, if your daily intake consists of a selection of mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, turnips, radish, beetroot, onions, cauliflower, celery or lettuce - to name but a few - then you may develop vitamin A deficiency.

GOOD HEALTH

All of these fruits and vegetables are very nutritious in themselves, but the wrong combination means you are not obtaining all of the nutrients you desperately require for good health. How can you be certain your diet is healthy and nutritious (without spending three years at University obtaining a degree in nutrition)? Simple! Include red and yellow vegetables (red peppers, carrots and tomatoes), high in vitamin A, and green vegetables (mangetout, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, green peppers) for vitamin C, and you've simply and effectively covered most of the essential antioxidants you need for a healthy life - and you're a long way towards your goal of a ‘balanced' diet.

Read the label on any packaged foodstuff and you may be mistaken for believing you are on the wrong planet! With concentrations of vitamins and minerals in milligrams and RDIs (Recommended Daily Intake to we lesser mortals), it seems you need a degree in biochemistry to understand how to stay healthy - but you don't. Enter the humble pepper (or capsicum).  I'm sure Christopher Columbus didn't realise what a wonderful vegetable this was when he brought peppers to Europe from the New World five hundred years ago.

PEPPERS

Columbus is credited with the introduction of the potato (which is good, but not as good as the pepper!) and tobacco (not good), but the pepper is one of his greatest - and least appreciated - discoveries. Why? Because the pepper isamong the highest sources of vitamin A, and both red and green peppers are the highest source of vitamin C - more than twice the concentration of lemons and oranges! And vitamins A and C are the antioxidant vitamins which keep us healthy and prevent ageing. So if you want to be healthy (and not read as many labels), include peppers in your diet.

Dr Charles Clark is one of the world's leading authorities on glaucoma and diabetes. He is the author of The New High Protein Diet.