Capsaicin & Satiety

Hi all, I thought I'd share some interesting work I came across while doing some university work - [Westerterp-Plantenga et al., (2005)](https://www.nature.com/articles/0802862#citeas) and [Kang et al., (2016)](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/101/12/4681/2765040?login=true) among others, examining the effect of capsaicin on satiety. I've not linked every paper I've read, but the literature seems to suggest: * Capsaicin enhances prevalence of *Faecalibacteria* in the gut, increasing production of short-chain fatty acids * The increase in SCFAs has some influence on feelings of satiety, or else some other factor improves feelings of satiety and reduces hunger. * 25mg/day capsaicin in the diet appears to be sufficient to achieve a reduction in consumed calories. Thoughts? I can't imagine many people having a pinch of chilli powder on their cornflakes every morning - perhaps the more experienced members might be able to suggest a potential practical application?

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This is half of why I started eating spicy foods.

The other half was that spicy is one of the lowest calorie flavors you can add to food. Dieting tends to get really bland quickly - and hot sauces are usually low/no cal compared to others.

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This is interesting to me, having read some months ago about the correlation of ice cold drink consumption and obesity… The idea being that low temp confuses the brain, it thinks you’re weak and hungry, and so increases appetite through hormone regulation

I wondered if spicy might make you skinny in the same way… Controlling appetite… And here is your post! The mechanism seems to be another metabolic pathway… But result seems to be there.

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Hot sauce on eggs in the morning. Finely diced pickled chili added to your salads. Pinch of cayenne in like, most dinner foods would be great. Soak a bunch of hot chillies in vodka and have a spicy shot as a night cap

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OP thanks for sharing - could also add to hot cocoa drink. It’s likely it also increases the expression of the GPR109A receptor too which enhances niacin use and if you look at the Krebs cycle / TCA cycle - metabolism should benefit