Eating slowly is an old trick to satisfy us before. Now some researchers have an idea to make it easier: spicy

The spicy is a culinary element that is indifferent. It is not considered a flavor like sweet or acid, what molecules such as capsaicin do is “deceive” our sense of touch and make it think that we are burning ourselves. An evolutionary mechanism to prevent us from eating the fruit of some plants.

More spicy, less calories? Now a team of researchers He has discovered A new potential in the spicy, to help us ingest less calories. The team observed in its study that the ardor feeling made the participants consume less food and with it, less calories.

The key may be in something that we already know about previous studies: eating more slowly makes us eat less. What I would do The spicy It would be to eat slower, which in turn would increase the feeling of satiety and indirectly, causing us to eat less.

“We know for previous studies that when people (eat) more slowly, they eat significantly less,” pointed in a press release Paige Cunningham, co -author of the study. “We suspected that making a more spicy meal could stop people. We think, we are going to try, in controlled laboratory conditions, if a small amount of spicy (…) will make people eat more slowly and therefore eat less.”

Sweet, or spicy paprika. In his study, the team carried out three experiments in which a total of 130 people participated. The team prepared different versions of the same dish (more or less spicy) altering the proportion between sweet and spicy paprika in order to keep the taste altering only the spicy. “Science is proof and error. I prepared a recipe, and I saw how far the spicy could take, then we tried it,” Cunningham explained.

The team recorded the participants during the food to monitor their behavior when eating. They checked how how much food they consumed, but also the water they drank, the duration of the food, speed, rhythm of chewing, etc.

It is not water, that time. They could see that the participants ate less and that they did it more slowly, something that can explain as a mediating cause in the relationship. The team was able to contrast this with an alternative hypothesis, the possibility that they ate less because they drank more water and that is why they were filled before. This turned out to be the case.

The details of the study have been published In an article In the magazine Food Quality and Preference.

It is not always easy. According to the team itself, previous studies have revealed that various food properties, such as texture and even food shape can have similar effects. Even A recent study Performed by the same team indicated that something similar happens when we burn with a food too hot.

Introducing auditory patterns can also help. A Recent study He pointed out that there are different factors, for example gender, which affect the speed with which we eat our food. The same study indicated that there are also external factors, such as rhythmic patterns, which can make us eat faster or more slowly.

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Image | Qurratul Ayin Sadia