Does Spicy Food Burn Fat?

My husband turned me on to spicy foods after we got married, and now I love turning on the heat!

But I Don’t Like Spicy Food!

If you don’t like spicy food, it may be just because you haven’t tried the right kind. Perhaps the spicy food you tried was far too spicy, or you tried to wash it down with water, which swirls the spiciness around your mouth and makes spicy food even hotter. If you would like to neutralize the spiciness, Isuggest that you eat your spicy dish with a glass of non-fat milk to lessen the sensation. If you still can’t take the heat, you can skip this article. But I warn you - you’re missing out on something delicious, not to mention something very potent for weight loss!

Hand Me The Chili Flakes Now

As you may have already guessed cayenne pepper will increase your core metabolism through the naturally occurring substance known as capsaicin. In an article by the New York Daily News, men who drank coffee and ate red pepper snacks for one day burned about 955 calories more than those who didn’t. The men in the study were given free reign to pick what food they wanted to eat, so this information may help food ‘grazers’ who absent-mindedly pick at foods.. That means you should go for the hot stuff first, or opt to add chili flakes to your food. A lot of dishes can be spiced up, especially dishes which are already tomato based.

How Many Pecks of Pickled Peppers (Did Peter Piper Pick)?

But the question is: how much spicy red pepper should you eat? In order to replicate the study and hopefully achieve similar results, you need to consume a lot of red pepper, namely about 19 grams of red peppers and 200 mg of caffeine [1]. That means a cup of coffee at every meal, something I don’t advocate, as the recommended daily limit is 300 mg of caffeine (two cups of coffee per day). What I can recommend is that you exchange the caffeine for the much safer option of green tea, which also has fat-burning benefits.

In another study published by a Japanese scientist in the eminent British Journal of Nutrition [2], the subjects were fed four different kinds of soup. One of these soups had a strong dose of red pepper and the others had weaker amounts of red pepper or placebos. It was discovered that those who ingested the soup with the strong dose of red pepper significantly lowered their fat intake – not to mention decreased their appetite!

How Do I Start?

You might want to start the hot food nights at your house by hosting Spanish-style tapas nights, where you can serve a variety of small Spanish appetizers that taste great with a lot of heat. Or try cooking an Asian fusion meal for dinner, which often requires spicy ingredients. Take it slow, and try to build up your tolerance over time. Is your mouth watering yet?
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Sources:
[1] http://www.suite101.com/content/thermogenesis-and-calorie-burners-a183084