Slimming tip: Eating spicy

Are you looking for a simple way to reduce your portions without feeling a deprivation? A recent study suggests that adding a little spice to your dishes could be an effective strategy.

Spices, allies of your health and your palace

For centuries, spices have played an essential role in cooking. Used to flavor and enhance the taste of dishes, they advantageously replace salt. Formerly they were used to keep food thanks to their antimicrobial properties.

Cumin, cinnamon, clove, turmeric, nutmeg, ginger, chili … Many spices are recognized for their health benefits, especially thanks to their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

Read: 5 herbs and anti-inflammatory spices

But raising your dishes could also help you maintain your ideal weight.

Add pepper to the plate to eat less

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University suspected that when people eat slower, they tend to limit their contributions (1). Based on this observation, they imagined that serving spicy dishes could naturally slow down the pace of meals.

“We said to ourselves that we had to test, in experimental conditions controlled in the laboratory, if adding a small amount of spices, but not to the point of making the meal immigable, could encourage people to eat more slowly and therefore to eat less.” said Paige Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher and the main study of the study.

The study included 130 adults to whom beef chili or Tikka Masala chili, in a soft or spicy version, with a more or less raised paprika (2). During their meals, the participants were filmed to analyze their eating behavior precisely. The researchers scrutinized every detail: quantity of food and water ingested, duration of the meal, consumption speed, number and size of the bites. They also collected the impressions of the participants regarding their appetite, the taste and the intensity of the spice.

Results: The fact of moderately increases the spice of dishes effectively reduces the amount of food consumed during a meal. Participants ate the most spicy dishes more slowly, which was able to increase satiety signals. For John Hayes, professor of food sciences at the University of Penn State, and co -author of the article, “Although control of portions was not the explicit objective of this study, our results suggest that this could work. The next time you are looking to eat a little less, try to add a little spice, as it could slow you down and help you eat less. »»

Water consumption did not differ significantly between spicy meals and mild meals: if the participants ate less when the meal was spicy, it was not because of their water consumption. In addition, the participants felt the same level of satiety after their meals noted, despite reduced portions.