Spicy Peppers Raise Body Temp and Burn Calories

The sweat that beads up on the foreheads of spicy pepper aficionados just may be the key to weight loss associated with the consumption of jalapenos, habaneros, and serranos. While not everyone can tolerate such hot culinary fare, those peppers can be beneficial to your waistline, at least in a small way.

A member of the nightshade family, peppers contain capsaicin, a chemical compound that causes the pain receptors in your mouth to send urgent messages to your brain to do something…quick. The brain then responds by pumping up the adrenaline levels, increasing your heart rate, and causing you to perspire. It is these reactions that help to burn calories.

A recent study at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition took a small group of 34 volunteers and split them into two groups. The control group got a placebo pill, while the active group received pills containing dihydrocapsiate (DCT), a version of capsaicin. The pills were taken prior to each meal. Each volunteer had their energy expenditure monitored after eating and researchers found that those volunteers taking the DCT had the highest expenditure, almost twice that of the control group. The DCT participants also burned more fat than their counterparts.

Although the average American consumers almost 6 pounds of chili peppers per year, many cannot tolerate the heat of the higher-capsaicin peppers, such as the jalapeno, habanero, and serrano. While removing the white pith and seeds can help reduce the burn, it’s not enough to eradicate it entirely. All peppers, from sweet bells to pepperoncini to poblano to cayenne, have some level of capsaicin but the hotter the pepper, the higher the reaction and therefore more energy expended in eating and digesting it.

Because the study had such a small group of participants, and all were on a low-calorie liquid weight-loss diet to begin with, the results may be different from the average individual with a full-calorie solid food diet. But, there is some merit to the results and further studies are needed to verify results and to find an alternative to the tongue-burning, forehead-perspiring peppers that many of us cannot tolerate.