this is something I have heard a lot, but I think it's one of those things that - yeah, it can increase your metabolism a little bit (more so than other foods)... but it's not as if you can eat swiss cake rolls, then eat something with crushed red pepper flakes to make up for it. .... i wish.
I stumbled on information about cayenne pepper, and it's not only supposed to rev your metabolism, but it's also supposed to help your body burn fat instead of muscle. Additionally, it's supposed to be a digestion aid. So, I figured - what the heck? - and bought some cayenne fruit capsules for about $3 for 100. I take 3 a day - one before each meal. They make my chest feel a little warm after I take them, and they're also slightly warm upon *hmm* discharge *hmm*, but I will take the rest of the bottle. I don't know that I see a scale difference, but it's so hard to tell when I'm making adjustments to my diet and exercise on a daily basis still.
Apparently the effects are real (I've seen some of the studies that are rather persuasive) but quite modest. You won't lose massive amounts of extra weight, or be able to eat hundreds of extra calories.
That being said, I found another nice side effect of eating spicy food (an effect that cayenne capsules wouldn't help) and that is that I'm less likely to overeat very spicy food. I love spicy food, but with spicy food I have a lot less strong a desire to overeat. The pleasure I get from spicy food, seems to drop off much faster - when I'm done, I feel done... no "maybe just one more bite."
I used to joke that it was a matter of diminishing returns... once I wasn't hungry any more, it was as if the pain wasn't "worth it" any more.
I thought this was just a fluke of my own experience, and then I read a summary of research studies which found essentially the same thing. The study found that people eat less and feel more satisfied on less when eating very spicy food (even among people who love spicy food).
Combine the tendency to eat less, with the (small, but statistically significant) metabolism boost, and you may have a small weight loss aid.
However, capsules may or may not help (especially if it's actually the firing of the flavor-receptors that is accounting for the diminished hunger) and the benefits aren't necessarily worth the expense or the inconvenience if you're not a chili-head.
I love spicy food, and I think it does help me eat less, and possibly burn more - but at most we're talking about an extra few ounces a month, a few pounds per year (I rather doubt it's going to help much more than that, the study results were pretty paltry. If I'm remembering correctly the chili-group lost on average a pound or two more than the control group, and it was like a 6 to 12 month study. Not necessarily such a great reward for the expense and inconvenience if you're not going to be eating chilis anyway.
So if you like spicy food, great - it may even boost your metabolism a teeny bit, only you're not likely to be able to notice the difference, even if it exists, because the "advantage" is likely to be too small to notice.
Besides a modest actual increase in metabolism I think it's associated with the intense flavor spicy foods have. From what I've seen in culinary school and working in restaurants I think this actually applies to any food with any intense flavoring and not just heat.
We use to specifically plate smaller portions for highly flavorful foods (anything with a really reduced sauce or asian spices for example) compared to typical 'north american' style foods (fish and chips, or anything that relies on salt, fat and sugar for flavor). Customers just never ate the same amount of the really flavorful foods and never missed it on their plates.
If you've ever gone to a higher end restaurant and seen a plate come out with a teeny tiny serving and wondered WTH? That's why, there is sooo much flavor built into those couple of bites that it seems to satisfy our mental hunger which drives such a large amount of our eating habits.
I'm pretty suree that is correct. I can't link back to the study but I get subscribed to a LOT of healh/weight loss emails and they always talk about spicy foods as increasing metabolism
Just thought I'd add to this thread - been taking cayenne fruit capsules for a few weeks and been tolerating them well. Today, not so much. Not sure why or what was different, but I swallowed the capsule and drank water to ease the warm chest thing. Next thing I knew, I was hunched over worshiping the porcelain god. They are NOT pleasant on their way up. Think I'll discontinue their use. Uncertain about the real benefits anyway for reasons mentioned on this thread, and it's an experience I don't care to repeat.
Last edited by LaurieDawn; 07-19-2012 at 01:38 PM.
I have sometimes tried to generally eat spicier food, with the metabolism boost in the back of my mind. But I haven't tried capsules and I haven't really stuck with it.
However, my treat at the end of the day is two squares of Lindt dark chili chocolate (which is pretty spicy). The great thing is that I actually am happy with just two squares. That doesn't happen for me with other forms of chocolate.
Spicy food and metabolism?
.... i wish.
