The promise is appealing: Can the heat within spicy foods actually melt your body fat and unearth your chiseled six-pack?
As a dietitian, this promise pops up every now and then with a new study touting the fat-loss benefits of hot peppers or with a new supplement marketing the belly-shrinking benefits of “capsaicin.”
Men’s Health
The connection sort of makes sense: when you eat hot foods you sweat, which is also what happens when you exercise so … maybe there’s a similar effect occurring in your body?
Sort of. So that word, “capsaicin,” refers to a compound that gives spicy peppers their heat. (It’s also what makes pepper spray so awesome or awful, depending on which side of the spray you’re on.)