14 DAY TRIAL // Spices are usually not recommended with diets or, for that matter, to anyone whose main concern is weight maintenance. However, there is one such condiment that can be added to meals and that, besides making it tastier, also helps burn more calories by boosting the metabolic rate. A recent study indicates Tabasco can do all this – but that’s not to say we should start pouring it on everything.
The study in question, although relatively small and, therefore, not extremely reliable, seems to hint that adding the spicy sauce to a meal can actually burn more calories. However, should we add it to foods that already have a high fat content, such as French fries or other type of fast food and takeout, it will not tip the balance towards weight loss no matter how much condiment we add, researchers point out. For Tabasco to actually work even a bit, our overall diet has to be a healthy and balanced one.
“Perhaps more interesting is the research that has already been carried out on small numbers of volunteers at Oxford Brookes University, which shows that 5g of Tabasco sauce eaten with a meal can raise your metabolic rate (the speed at which you burn calories) by between 15 per cent and 20 per cent for up to two hours after eating. In this instance, it is caused by the super-nutrient capsaicin, which is present in the chillies. But to achieve any lasting effect you would have to be prepared to add Tabasco sauce to every meal, which is not very practical.” Times Online writes in a recent piece on the conclusions of the study.
Naturally, no one can have Tabasco with every meal and not expect some more or less unpleasant side-effects, so whether the findings of this recent study have any real importance in terms of our diet is yet to be established. Still, previous research has also highlighted the many benefits of capsaicin and cayenne pepper in general, so perhaps a future study will manage to incorporate all this into one major conclusion applicable in real life.
As we were telling you a while back, capsaicin is known to lower blood pressure and to ease pain (alleviates twinges in the lower back and with chronic arthritis). Cayenne pepper is also an important ally in the fight against disease, so including it – to whatever extent it is possible for us – in our daily eating routine is highly recommended at this point.