Capsicum Helps Increase Diet-Induced Thermogenesis

When human subjects are purposefully overfed in a laboratory setting, some of them gain large amounts of weight, while others manage to burn most of the excess calories. Why? The answer may be found in varying rates of diet-induced thermogenesis, a process whereby excess calories are converted to heat rather than stored as fat. Along with basal metabolic rate and activity-induced thermogenesis, diet-induced thermogenesis is one of three factors that contribute to a person’s daily energy expenditure. Increasing diet-induced thermogenesis may therefore help combat obesity.

Scientists assess whether a substance is thermogenic by monitoring changes in energy expenditure following its ingestion. In a series of human studies conducted at the University of Tsukuba, Japan and Laval University, Canada, energy expenditure increased significantly after subjects ate a meal containing capsicum (Yoshioka 1995, 1998, 2001).

Capsicum Helps Manage Appetite

One of the main reasons diets fail is hunger. Therefore, appetite control is a key consideration in developing effective diet plans.

Several studies have found that the addition of capsaicinoids to the diet causes a reduction in ad libitum energy intake during subsequent meals — in other words, eating capsicum at breakfast causes a person to eat fewer calories at lunch. A dramatic example of hot pepper’s appetite-suppressing capability is illustrated by a 2001 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition (Yoshioka 2001). When subjects ate 22 grams of hot pepper, providing 66 mg of capsaicinoids, plus 800 mg of caffeine spread out over a 24-hour period, they had a negative energy balance of 956 kilocalories compared to the placebo group.

Capsicum Beneficially Affects Body Composition

A person’s body composition is determined by the ratio of body fat to lean body tissues. Excess body fat, particularly visceral fat which accumulates around the internal organs, increases the risk for heart disease and stroke.

Research has shown that capsaicinoids stimulate a chain of physiological events that aid lipolysis (the breakdown of fat), which can be expected to positively affect body composition (Kawada 1986, 1991). Indeed, animal and human studies have shown that capsaicinoid ingestion causes a reduction in the percentage of body fat. In a study published in 2003 in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, supplements containing capsaicin, green tea extract and chicken essence caused about a one-pound loss in body fat over a two-week period compared to placebo (Tsi 2003).