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A Pepper Part that Burns Fat

Study finds that dihydrocapsiate may give a diet extra power

By Stephen Ornes

Web edition : Monday, May 17th, 2010

The main compound that gives peppers (pictured) red

savina habaneros of New Mexico their sting has a close

cousin that may burn body fat without irritating the

mouth or stomach. (NSF; Chile Pepper Institute)

Diet fads come and go, but in the end, there’s really

only one rule for losing weight: Burn more energy than

you consume. In April, scientists from California reported on a chemical that might

help people burn fat. It’s called dihydrocapsiate, it comes from a pepper, and in a

recent study it was shown to boost the body’s energy burn.

Its name, dihydrocapsiate (di-HI-droh-CAP-see-ate), isn’t easy to say. And Peter

Piper never picked it. But it might be easy to find: It is a chemical cousin of

capsaicin (kap-SAY-sin), the chemical that makes chili peppers so hot. But unlike its

fiery family members, dihydrocapsiate won’t send you running for a glass of water

if you eat it. In fact, you won’t even know it’s in your body.

Painful foods — like the ones that contain capsaicin — stimulate pain receptors in

the mouth. Once stimulated by a fiery food, these pain receptors signal nerves,

which send a message to the brain. Dihydrocapsiate, however, is too big to fit into

the receptors and tickle those nerve endings, which means it enters and passes

through the body without causing pain.

David Heber, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles reported on

the dihydrocapsiate research in April during a meeting of scientists who study

nutrition. He and his colleagues tested the chemical on 33 obese men and women.

For four weeks, these volunteers consumed only 800 calories per day, and all of

those calories came from a nutritious liquid, instead of from solid foods. These

liquids did not contain any fat.

At every meal, the participants were also given pills. People in one group received

pills that didn’t do anything. Drugs that don’t do anything are called placebos, and

they help experimenters figure out whether the drug being tested really works.

Other participants were given a small dose of dihydrocapsiate. Finally, other

participants were given a high dose of dihydrocapsiate.

All of the pills looked the same, so neither the participants nor the doctors knew

who had consumed placebos and who had consumed the pepper chemical.

After the end of the dihydrocapsiate-enhanced (or placebo-“enhanced”) diet, the

scientists determined how much fat the participants were burning.

The scientists observed that not everyone burned the same amount of fat. People

who were given high doses of dihydrocapsiate were burning more body fat than

people who had been given placebos, UCLA’s Heber says. So much more, he says,

that the people taking high doses of dihydrocapsiate may have been losing one

more pound per month than the people taking placebos. But that’s a guess: The

scientists didn’t measure that number, so they don’t know for sure.

Heber and his team think that the pepper chemical works by attaching itself to

another type of receptor, this one in a person’s gut. This receptor helps send a

message to the brain, which then starts a process that causes a body to burn,

burn, burn calories. This process is the same that, when triggered by capsaicin,

causes some people to sweat while they eat hot foods. The scientists say that

capsaicin could have the same effect as the dihydrocapsiate, but capsaicin causes

intense pain to a person’s mouth and gut.

Dihydrocapsiate could help people lose weight, delivering the positive effects of

hot peppers without the fiery side effects. In theory, the chemical could be

consumed safely and help a 100-pound person burn an extra 160 calories per day.

Of course, it would be very easy to undo these sizzling effects with one slice of

cake or a sugary soft drink. A chemical like dihydrocapsiate may help a person burn

more than he consumes — but it can’t change a person’s eating habits.

“As I always say,” Heber told Science News, “a supplement doesn’t make up for diet.”

POWER WORDS (adapted from Yahoo! Kids dictionary)

placebo An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or

as a test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug.

capsaicin A colorless, pungent chemical compound that is derived from capsicum (in

chili peppers) and is a strong irritant to skin and mucous membranes.

calorie A measurement of the energy content in food; the unit of heat equal to

1/100 the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water

from 0 to 100° Celsius at a pressure of 1 atmosphere.

metabolism The chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that

are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism, some substances are

broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary

for life, are synthesized.

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