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🗓️ 17 February 2015
⏱️ 1 minutes
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0:00.0 | This is scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins. This will just take a minute. |
0:07.5 | Looking for a diet that will help you burn fat, consider the chili. Because kapsaysan, the chemical compound that gives chili peppers their kick, |
0:16.3 | appears to prevent weight gain in mice that are fed a high-fat diet. |
0:20.2 | The finding was presented at the Biophysical Society's annual meeting in Baltimore. |
0:24.0 | Obesity is caused by an energy imbalance. |
0:27.0 | More calories go in than go out. |
0:29.0 | So conventional wisdom has it, to tip the scales the other way, |
0:32.0 | you could eat less less or move more. But maybe |
0:35.9 | there's a third option. Researchers treated mice to a diet high in fats, but |
0:40.7 | some mice also got a pinch of capsaicin. After 25 weeks, the mice with added |
0:45.6 | spice gained less weight than those on fat alone, even though they ate and drank the same amount. |
0:51.5 | Seems the mice that got the Caliente treatment were more likely to get off their |
0:55.1 | rodent rears. They naturally spent more time exercising than their fat-fed counterparts. |
1:00.1 | But before you stock up on chili-flavored cheetos, keep in mind that mice that ate a well-balanced diet in the first place were the most active and sleek. |
1:09.0 | So feel free to use your serracha, but maybe skip the chips. |
1:13.0 | Thanks for the minute. |
1:14.0 | For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkins. |
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