Eat Less With Hot Pepper and Cayenne?
Author: Shannon Miller
We’re back with more tips on how to use natural remedies that health and fitness expert, motivational speaker, and wellness consultant Susan Smith Jones, PhD, recommends in her new book Walking on Air: Your 30-Day Inside and Out Rejuvenation Makeover.
by Susan Smith Jones, PhD
A popular ingredient in Southwestern cooking, chilies (hot peppers) add spice and interest to many foods.
Hot peppers also provide a 4-pronged attack against obesity.
First, eating chili peppers may help fight off cravings. Some experts believe that eating sharp-tasting foods such as hot peppers, pickles, and tomato juice can overwhelm taste buds, cutting off cravings.
Second, chili pepper may help you eat less. Researchers in the Netherlands gave men .9 gram of ground cayenne pepper, either as a pill or mixed into a tomato juice beverage. Then 30 minutes later, they turned the men loose at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Compared with men who were given a placebo, the men who had chili pepper reduced their food intake by 10 to 16%.
Third, it actually requires energy to eat chili peppers. That’s right, it burns calories to eat them! That’s because the heat you feel when you eat chili peppers takes energy to produce.
Fourth, it increases fat burning during exercise. A study in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology reports that taking a capsaicin supplement one hour before aerobic exercise increased fat burning.