Current events 8

A pepper part that burns fat
May 19, 2010
By Stephen Ornes
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59289/title/FOR_KIDS_A_pepper_part_that_burns_fat

Hey guys! Can you imagine that in taking food into your body can help you lose calories? Unfortunately, not the food that we would like to eat, like pancakes, pizzas, spaghetti etc… but foods containing chemicals with dihydrocapsiate that comes from pepper. You know how grown-ups, mostly male, sweat when they eat something super hot? The cause of that is capsaicin. Capsaicin is a substance that makes the pepper hot, and chilli.
This article represents a part of a study that has shown how these chemicals boost the body’s energy to burn. David Heber tested some people to see how much calories they consumed in four weeks. He and his scientists together found out that these calories can form a nutritious liquid which contained no fats. During the experiment, the scientists gave to these people two kinds of pills-one that contained pills with high amounts of dihydrocapsiates and another one that DIDN’T change anything, these are called placebos. After everything was finished, they determined how much fats the people were losing.
They concluded that the people who in took high amounts of dihydrocapsiate were burning more body fat, than people who were given placebos, however, the scientists estimated this, it is not for sure. They also found out that the pepper chemical works by attaching itself to another receptor, which is a person’s gut, then, this is sent to the brain, which causes burning calories. My dad once ate super hot chilli peppers, and got all sweaty, I wondered if he felt pain while he was eating them, because their capsaicin was too big.
So, the scientists showed, but in the theory, that this chemical could be consumed safely and that it can ‘help a 100-pound person burn an extra 160 calories per day’, but they have also underlined that it can’t help us change our bad eating habits. This article has surprised me because I never heard of a type of food that can burn down calories, especially hot peppers!