Capsaicin

What is capsaicin?

Capsaicin is a type of capsaicinoid, a category of alkaloids often found in fruits of the Capsicum genus of the Solanaceae family. Capsaicin is known for its role in making chili peppers spicy.

What are capsaicin’s main benefits?

Capsaicin and its analogues (e.g., capsiate, a non-spicy capsaicinoid) show promise as preworkout ergogenic supplements, producing small improvements in performance on strength-based exercises (e.g., squats) when taken about 45 minutes before a workout. Capsaicinoids like capsaicin might lead to weight loss, but the effect seems very small, if it exists at all. Intriguingly, two clinical trials found that capsaicinoids led to a decrease in abdominal/ visceral fat (with no change in total body fat levels). Consuming foods high in capsaicin (e.g, chili peppers) is associated with a lower risk of early death, possibly mediated by a reduction in heart disease mortality. Topical application of capsaicin can be helpful for nerve pain, with analgesic effects reported in the context of diabetes and HIV-associated neuropathy as well as shingles-related neuralgia. Topical capsaicin may also reduce pain due to osteoarthritis.

What are capsaicin’s main drawbacks?

Ingestion of capsaicin-containing foods causes a burning sensation to the mouth that can be unpleasant (although some people find it enjoyable, possibly due to endorphin release). Topical capsaicin can result in a burning sensation at the application site. Capsaicin can provoke adverse gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (e.g., abdominal pain, diarrhea, and heartburn), especially in high dosages and in people with GI disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)). There is some evidence that GI symptoms subside with regular consumption, although more research is needed. Case-control studies have frequently observed an association between chili pepper consumption and a higher risk of stomach cancer. However, this finding remains controversial, given the limitations of case-control evidence and the fact that the China Kadoorie Biobank study, one of the highest quality studies on the topic, found that people who ate chili peppers more frequently actually seemed to have a lower risk of stomach cancer.

Does eating spicy food increase the body’s metabolic rate?

It’s been suggested that capsaicin-rich foods like cayenne pepper can help with weight loss by increasing the metabolic rate, possibly by stimulating adrenaline release and promoting thermogenesis. However, clinical trials on the topic do not consistently support this hypothesis, with a number of studies finding no effect of consuming capsaicin or chili peppers on daily energy expenditure. Some studies have found that capsaicin-containing supplements increase the number of calories burned after a single meal, but it’s not clear that this one-time increase in calorie burning is maintained over the long term. Furthermore, capsaicin supplementation does not seem to produce meaningful weight loss, suggesting that any effects on the metabolic rate are clinically insignificant.

What beverages are best at relieving the burning caused by spicy foods?

If you're a chili enthusiast with a penchant for peppers, you’ve likely found yourself on the receiving end of a meal that exceeded your tolerance for spice. When that unpleasant burning sets in, a natural reaction will be to reach for a drink to try and tamp down the blaze. But what beverage is best to soothe the scald? Plain water eases the burning from spicy foods. Colder water seems to result in greater relief, possibly because the cold inhibits heat receptors activated by capsaicinoids.

Does eating spicy food cause stomach ulcers?

Despite occasional claims that spicy foods can “irritate” the stomach, thereby promoting stomach ulcer development, there is no human evidence linking spicy foods to a higher risk of ulcers, nor is there good reason to think that capsaicin causes damage to the stomach lining. Eating spicy food might cause abdominal pain in people with an existing ulcer, but this doesn’t mean spicy food is actually making the problem worse.