Another interesting fact about both hot peppers and bell peppers is that they're a great source of vitamin C.
One poblano pepper has 17 calories and 95% RDA of vitamin C
One cup of tangerine secgments has 100 calories and 87% RDA of vitamin C
Most peppers (hot or not) have far more vitamin C than citrus fruits per ounce, but serving sizes are much smaller for the hotter peppers.
I don't know how much of the vitamin C survives processing to cayenne powder or tabasco, but I would bet that I get more of my vitamin C from peppers than from oranges. I love hot peppers.
Right now, flavor isn't much of an issue. It seems to be more than just loss of smell, because I can't even taste salt. Hubby made me scrambled eggs and bacon this morning, and I couldn't taste the bacon at all. Even the tabasco (at every meal) didn't taste hot, it just felt "warm." I even tried some hot sauce (actually a chili paste) that I usually find super hot (hubby isn't the chili head that I am, and won't go near the jar, claiming the fumes make his eyes water), and even it was muted (it felt literally hot, but not nearly as painful as it should have been).
Usually a cold doesn't actually rob you of your sense of taste, only your sense of smell (which is actually of greater part of the perception of flavor).
I don't know that I've ever had a cold before that took away the basic sensations of taste: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. This virus has managed to take away all of them. Today, I've noticed for the first time in the last several days, I'm starting to be able to detect sour, and to a lesser degree sweetness.
Another weird fact (I'm a trivia buff, if a piece of information has little practical value, I'll remember it forever):
If you take away the sensation of smell and taste in laboratory animals, they will still eat a normal diet (and tend to actually eat a little bit more than they normally would). However, if you take away the sensation of texture, the animals will virtually stop eating entirely.
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