According to a new study led by Penn State researchers, throwing some heat can be an effective strategy to reduce calories.
The scientists of the University Sensory Evaluation Center examined how the increase in “oral burn”, the spicy flavor of ingredients such as Chile, affects the amount of foods that people consume during a meal. The findings, available online now and scheduled to publish in the October edition of the magazine Food quality and preferencesuggest that making the food a little more spicy led the participants to eat less, consuming less calories.
“We Know From Previous Studies That When People Slow Down, They Eat Significantly Less,” Said Paige Cunningham, A Postdoctoral Researcher and Lead Author on The Study Who Earned Her Doctor Pracente In Nutritional Sciences From Penn State In 2023. “We Meal Spicier Might Slow People Down.
The researchers found that the increase in spicy slightly using dry Chile slowed down and reduced the amount of food and energy consumed in a meal, all without negatively affecting the palatability of the dish.
“This points to additional chiles as a potential strategy to reduce the risk of excessive energy consumption,” said John Hayes, a professor of food science at Penn State and corresponding author in the document. “While portion control was not the explicit objective of this study, our results suggest that this could work. The next time you seek to eat a little less, try to add an explosion of chiles, since it can delay it and help you eat less.”
The team conducted three related experiments in a total of 130 adults to whom one of the two lunch meals was served: beef chili or chicken Tikka Masala, in one of two versions: soft or spicy. The spicy level was controlled by carefully varying the hot paprika ratio ratio. Dulce de Dulce Added to the dishes for varying heat while keeping the taste of Chile constant.
Then, the researchers recorded the participants in high definition video while eating their meals to monitor their eating behaviors. From the videos, the Hayes equipment measured the amount of food and water consumed, the duration of the food, the feed rate of the grams per minute, the bite rate, the bite size and the classifications collected on the appetite, the taste and the spicy before and after the food.
“The formulation of the recipes took a long time on the Tikka chicken,” said Cunningham. “He took so many rounds of tests that my laboratory companions were fed up with that. But science is about proof and error. I would make a recipe, I would see how far the spicy could push, and we would try it. We did that until we reached a level where palatability coincided even when the spicy increased.”
The study suggests that the reduction in intake is driven by changes in oral processing behaviors, he explained. Specifically, participants ate the most spicy foods more slowly. He explained that a slower feed rate often means that food is in the longest mouth, which can help point fullness and lead to eating less. Other studies that slow down the feeding rate manipulating the texture have demonstrated similar effects, he said.
“What is critical here is that the reduction in intake occurred without negatively affecting the number of participants who liked food,” said Hayes.
He added that water intake did not differ significantly between spicy and soft meals, which suggests that an apparently obvious explanation, that people drank more water and filled faster, was not the main reason why people ate less.
“That is why we need to do empirical studies on behavior, because what intuitively expects often not the case,” he said.
Hayes also noted that appetite grades made before and after meals were similar, which suggests that the participants still felt full after spicy food, despite eating less. Looking towards the future, the team is now focused on understanding how oral burn can affect other food behaviors, such as refreshments.
Isaiah Smith, a university student of Penn State from West Chester, also contributed to this work as part of a program of undergraduate internships of the NASA Pennsylvania Space Subsorce Consortium. This work was supported by a gift from the McCormick Institute of Sciences and federal appropriations under the Hatch Law of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture.