Taking a mouthful of a very spicy dish may make you speed to the refrigerator for some cold water to alleviate the burn on your tongue -- and it may cause your metabolism to speed up at the same time. Exploring the physiological connection between spicy foods and an increase in your body's metabolic rate may make you appreciate the heat of spicy foods to a higher degree.
Capsaicin Heat
Aside from the tingling, burning or even scorching sensation you feel on your tongue and lips when you bite into a very spicy meal, you may also begin to sweat and breathe hard -- feeling sensations of heat in your face and body. This is due to the action within your body of a chemical called capsaicin, the source of the spicy heat from hot peppers such as jalapenos, red peppers and chili peppers. Interestingly enough, capsaicin's heat-inducing properties are so pronounced that the chemical is used not only to spice up foods, but also as an active ingredient in topical anti-inflammatory creams for muscle aches and joint pain as well as in self-defense pepper spray, reports Florida State University.
Capsaicin and Metabolism
Capsaicin-rich hot peppers used to spice up foods do indeed have the capability to raise your metabolism. Penn State University reports that meals spiced with hot peppers have the capability to raise your body's metabolic rate by as much as 20 percent, simply by consuming spicy foods. This effect, however, is temporary -- lasting only up to 30 minutes after you consume spicy foods -- and affects your body's basal, or resting, metabolic rate.
Body Temperature
Your body's metabolism works as a cycle, converting food energy to energy your body uses to perform many vital functions -- including regulating body temperature. If you've ever noticed that the spicier the food is that you eat, the more sweat begins to bead on your forehead, you've already observed one facet of the effects of capsaicin on your basal metabolism. Capsaicin can raise your body temperature with its chemical heat, contributing to the temporary increase in your overall basal metabolic cycle.
Spicy Foods and Digestion
Another key component of metabolism is digestion, and spicy foods affect this aspect as well, according to FSU. Foods with added hot peppers can increase the secretion of saliva from the salivary glands in your mouth, and continue to augment digestion by increasing gastric juices in your stomach, as well as promoting the food-breakdown activity in your small intestine. This unique feature of capsaicin-rich spicy foods not only has the potential to speed up your metabolism through increasing the metabolic process of digestion, but can act as an overall aid for good digestive health.
Precautions
Since spicy foods can raise your metabolism temporarily, you may be tempted to spice up everything you eat. However, use caution with the amount of hot peppers you add to your meals, since too much capsaicin can cause upset stomach and gastrointestinal pain. Talk to your doctor about other ways to speed up your metabolism before dramatically increasing the amount of spicy foods you eat.
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