Dr David Heber, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA Center for Human Nutrition in Los Angeles, and colleagues, presented their findings at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting that took place from 24 to 28 April in Anaheim, California. An abstract of their study was also published in the The FASEB Journal.

For the study, Heber and colleagues tested the weight-reducing potential of dihydrocapsiate or DCT, a non-burning but structurally similar version of capsaicin, a spicy compound found in hot peppers.

DCT occurs naturally in a non-pungent pepper called CH-19 Sweet and is often used in studies instead of its spicy cousin capsaicin because it has none of the side effects.

Heber and colleagues recruited 51 male and female volunteers and asked them to follow a very low calorie diet based on a liquid meal replacement product for 28 days (800 Cal and 120 g per day).

At the end of the 4 weeks of dieting, the researchers then randomly assigned the volunteers to one of three groups: one took a a high dose pill of DCT (9 mg), another took a low dose pill of DCT (3 mg), and the third group took a placebo pill, three times a day.

The researchers took measures of body weight, body fat and how quickly the participants burned energy, at the start of the study, and at the end, after eating a single high protein test meal (400 Cal/60 g protein) of the same product they had been using in their diet.

Complete data was available for 33 of the subjects at the end of the study.

The results showed that for several hours after consuming the test meal, the group on the high dose of DCT (13 subjects) burned significantly more energy, at almost twice the rate of the placebo group (9 subjects).

They also showed that in both the DCT groups (24 subjects), fat oxidation increased significantly, which results in more fat being used for energy.

The researchers concluded that after following a low calorie diet, people may benefit from using DCT to “provide metabolic enhancement to weight management efforts”.

In other words, although this is a small study, and the results are based on one analysis after a single test meal, which may not be borne out in a larger study with repeated tests, the findings suggest DCT, like its cousin capsaicin, may cause the body to burn energy faster, which could boost metabolism.

Good news, perhaps, for people who like their chili peppers.

“Effects of dihydrocapsiate on diet-induced thermogenesis following 4 weeks of very low calorie dieting.”
T.Y. Amy Lee, Alona Zerlin, Gail Thames, Zhaoping Li, and David Heber.
The FASEB Journal, MeetingAbstracts, 24: 343.7, accessed online 29 April 2010.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

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• Effects of dihydrocapsiate on diet-induced thermogenesis following 4 weeks of very low calorie dieting
• CHILI PEPPER IN CHILDRENS DIET

In a study designed to test the weight-loss potential of this DCT containing, non-spicy cousin of hot peppers, researchers at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition set out to document its ability to increase heat production in human subjects consuming a weight-loss diet. Under the direction of David Heber (Professor of Medicine and Public Health), they recruited 34 men and women who were willing to consume a very low-calorie liquid meal replacement product for 28 days. The researchers then randomized the subjects to take either placebo pills or supplements containing the non-burning DCT pepper analog. Two dosage levels of DCT were tested. At the beginning and end of the study, body weight and body fat were assessed, and the researchers determined energy expenditure (heat production) in each subject after he or she consumed one serving of the test meal. On Tuesday April 27, Heber and his research team will present their results at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting in Anaheim, CA. This presentation is part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition, home to the world’s leading nutrition researchers.

Their data provided convincing evidence that, at least for several hours after the test meal was consumed, energy expenditure was significantly increased in the group consuming the highest amount of DCT. In fact, it was almost double that of the placebo group. This suggests that eating this pepper-derived substance that doesn’t burn can have the same potential benefit as hot peppers at least in part by increasing food-induced heat production. They were also able to show that DCT significantly increased fat oxidation, pushing the body to use more fat as fuel. This may help people lose weight when they consume a low-calorie diet by increasing metabolism.

Note, however, that a limitation to this study was that the researchers only tested the effect of DCT on the thermic response to a single meal. Heber and colleagues also point out that that there might be a different effect in lean vs. obese subjects. But to their credit, this was the first study ever conducted to examine the potential health benefits of DCT consumed together with a very low calorie diet. The bottom line: don’t be afraid to pile on the peppers.

Dr. David Heber, Dr. Amy Lee, Alona Zerlin, Gail Thames, and Dr. Zhaoping Li are all researchers at UCLA’s Center for Human Nutrition in Los Angeles, CA and were coauthors on this paper.

Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)

Dr David Heber, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA Center for Human Nutrition in Los Angeles, and colleagues, presented their findings at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting that took place from 24 to 28 April in Anaheim, California. An abstract of their study was also published in the The FASEB Journal.

For the study, Heber and colleagues tested the weight-reducing potential of dihydrocapsiate or DCT, a non-burning but structurally similar version of capsaicin, a spicy compound found in hot peppers.

DCT occurs naturally in a non-pungent pepper called CH-19 Sweet and is often used in studies instead of its spicy cousin capsaicin because it has none of the side effects.

Heber and colleagues recruited 51 male and female volunteers and asked them to follow a very low calorie diet based on a liquid meal replacement product for 28 days (800 Cal and 120 g per day).

At the end of the 4 weeks of dieting, the researchers then randomly assigned the volunteers to one of three groups: one took a a high dose pill of DCT (9 mg), another took a low dose pill of DCT (3 mg), and the third group took a placebo pill, three times a day.

The researchers took measures of body weight, body fat and how quickly the participants burned energy, at the start of the study, and at the end, after eating a single high protein test meal (400 Cal/60 g protein) of the same product they had been using in their diet.

Complete data was available for 33 of the subjects at the end of the study.

The results showed that for several hours after consuming the test meal, the group on the high dose of DCT (13 subjects) burned significantly more energy, at almost twice the rate of the placebo group (9 subjects).

They also showed that in both the DCT groups (24 subjects), fat oxidation increased significantly, which results in more fat being used for energy.

The researchers concluded that after following a low calorie diet, people may benefit from using DCT to “provide metabolic enhancement to weight management efforts”.

In other words, although this is a small study, and the results are based on one analysis after a single test meal, which may not be borne out in a larger study with repeated tests, the findings suggest DCT, like its cousin capsaicin, may cause the body to burn energy faster, which could boost metabolism.

Good news, perhaps, for people who like their chili peppers.

“Effects of dihydrocapsiate on diet-induced thermogenesis following 4 weeks of very low calorie dieting.”
T.Y. Amy Lee, Alona Zerlin, Gail Thames, Zhaoping Li, and David Heber.
The FASEB Journal, MeetingAbstracts, 24: 343.7, accessed online 29 April 2010.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

The project, entitled “A nutrigenetic and nutrigenomic study in relation to the control of body weight and inflammation,” examines how the individual genetics of obese patients can help or hinder weight loss when dieting and even influence the subsequent long term maintenance of their weight loss.

Some overweight or obese people have mutated or altered genes that initially make it difficult to lose weight and later make it easier to regain lost body weight in a period of six months or a year. This problem occurs similarly in patients who have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their blood.

This genetic predisposition, along with external and personal factors such as inadequate dietary habits or physical inactivity, predispose patients to obesity and the complications that arise from it (diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure) which in turn increase cardiovascular risk.

The future: customized diets

The study, conducted by the Department of Food Sciences, Physiology and Toxicology has provided new data on the genetic and plasma biomarkers that predict the response of obese patients to specific diets. The goal is to develop customized therapeutic strategies in the near future based on the genetic characteristics of each person.

A bank of biomarkers (genes and proteins) capable of predicting a person’s response to weight loss would enable doctors to know, with a simple blood test, how each patient would react to different types of nutritional intervention.

The study involved 180 overweight or obese patients, who followed a hypo-caloric (low energy) diet for 8 weeks and were evaluated after six months and again a year after the end of the dietary intervention.

Source: Elhuyar Fundazioa