Responsible not only for converting food into energy your body can use, your metabolism also works behind the scenes to circulate blood, maintain healthy cell tissue, and perform other vital functions. Although speeding up your metabolism is always a matter to discuss with your physician, exploring the scientifically studied relationship between spicy foods and metabolic rate is worth considering if you're looking to boost your metabolism.
Spicy Foods and Capsaicin
Spicy foods that make your tongue tingle and cause you to break a sweat while dining are generally "heated" with a sauce or spice made from a hot pepper. Hot sauces and spices that contain chili extract, jalapenos, habanero peppers, cayenne or crushed red pepper are the key players in speeding up metabolism. These peppers contain a chemical called capsaicin, reports Purdue University Extension. Capsaicin is responsible for the heat of hot pepper-spiced food, and the chemical is also used in ointments to treat back pain and muscle aches through its temperature-raising properties.
Spicy Foods and Metabolism
According to Penn State University, hot peppers do indeed have the ability to raise your metabolic rate quite significantly, although for a short period of time. Heavily-spiced foods can speed up your metabolism by as much as twenty percent, for up to 30 minutes after you eat them.
Body Temperature
The link between spicy foods and their ability to speed up your metabolism has to do with a key component of the metabolic process--regulating body temperature. When you dig into that spicy Mexican or Thai dish loaded with capsaicin-rich hot peppers, you may begin to pant and even sweat profusely. Even as your tongue burns and tingles, you may feel physical sensations of heat in your face, ears, and even your body. This effect of spicy foods is intimately tied to your metabolic rate--since capsaicin raises body temperature, it in turn boosts the cycles of your metabolism for a short period of time.
Metabolism Considerations
Spicy foods do speed up your metabolism through the action of capsaicin on your body temperature. However, it is crucial to understand that this effect is exclusive to your basal, or resting metabolic rate--not your body's active metabolic rate, which gives you energy for exercise and helps to burn fat. Also, since the effects of spicy foods are so temporary, they don't significantly raise your overall metabolic rate throughout the day. Although eating spicy foods can speed up your metabolism, keep in mind that exercising to build lean muscle, eating breakfast every day, and drinking plenty of water are far more effective at working to speed up your overall metabolism--and keep you healthy and energized in the process.
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