A Penn State study finds that adding chilies to meals can slow down eating and reduce calorie intake, offering a tasty strategy for portion control.
Putting some extra heat on your plate might help you trim down your food intake, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.
In an innovative experiment, scientists at Penn State’s Sensory Evaluation Center explored how increasing the “oral burn” from ingredients like chili pepper affects the amount of food consumed during a meal.
“We know from previous studies that when people slow down, they eat significantly less,” lead author Paige Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher who earned her doctorate in nutritional sciences from Penn State in 2023, said in a news release. “We suspected that making a meal spicier might slow people down. We thought, let’s test, under controlled experimental conditions in the lab, if adding a small amount of spice, but not so much that the meal is inedible, will make people eat slower and therefore eat less.”
The study found that adding a bit of spice can slow down eating and decrease overall caloric intake — all without making the meal less enjoyable.
“This points to added chilies as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of energy overconsumption,” added corresponding author John Hayes, a professor of food science at Penn State. “While portion control wasn’t the explicit goal of this study, our results suggest this might work. Next time you’re looking to eat a little less, try adding a blast of chilies, as it may slow you down and help you eat less.”
The research team conducted three related experiments involving 130 adults who were served two different lunch dishes: beef chili or chicken tikka masala, each in mild or spicy versions. To ensure consistency, the spiciness was carefully adjusted using variations of hot and sweet paprika.
Participants were recorded on high-definition video while they ate, allowing the researchers to monitor and measure various eating behaviors, such as meal duration, speed, bite rate, and food and water intake. Additionally, participants provided ratings on appetite, taste and spiciness before and after the meal.
“Formulating the recipes took a long time for the chicken tikka,” Cunningham added. “It took so many rounds of testing that my lab mates were sick of it. But science is about trial and error. I’d make a recipe, see how far I could push the spiciness, and we’d taste it. We did that until we reached a level where palatability was matched even when spiciness increased.”
The findings, set to be published in the October issue of the journal Food Quality and Preference, revealed that those who ate the spicier dishes consumed less food and energy, supporting the hypothesis that spiciness can be an effective tool for portion control.
The researchers observed that the spicy meals led to slower eating speeds, allowing the food to stay in the mouth longer, which can promote a sense of fullness and reduce overall intake. Despite the added heat, participants reported no negative impact on the food’s palatability.
Hayes added that there were no significant differences in the amount of water participants had with spicy and mild meals, so their water intake could not have been the primary reason why people ate less.
“This is why we need to do empirical studies of behavior, because what you might intuitively expect is often not the case,” he said.
With these promising results, the team is now looking to explore how the sensation of “oral burn” can influence other eating behaviors, such as snacking, providing further insight into how spice can be incorporated into dietary strategies for better health.