Fiery chili peppers may aid in weight loss, say researchers at the University of Wyoming who are hoping they can transform capsaicin -- the chief ingredient in chili peppers –into a diet-based natural weight loss supplement.
During the Biophysical Society's 59th Annual Meeting this week they are describing how dietary capsaicin stimulates the process in which the body’s white and brown fat cells burn energy.
Our bodies metabolize food as energy and excess energy is stored as fat. White fat cells store energy and brown fat cells serve as thermogenetic (heat producing) machinery to burn stored fat.
In a study, the researchers fed wild mice a diet that was high in fat. They discovered that the addition of capsaicin acted chemically on a type of channel protein known as transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), which is found in the cell’s membranes.
They believe that the capsaicin induced the “browning” of white fat cells, which stimulates the fat-burning process to counteract obesity. They also found that the fat-burning reaction occurred regardless of the amount of food or water that the mice consumed.
The researchers have applied for a patent application to create a diet aid based on capsaicin.
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