The Chili Pepper Diet
by Heidi AllisonHealth Communications Inc., 400 pp., $12.95 (paper)
In case you need another reason to consume hot peppers, Heidi Allison has conveniently provided one. While recent medical studies corroborate longstanding folk wisdom that chiles are good for us (with positive effects on cardiovascular, digestive, and immune systems), Allison presents an additional convincing argument that they can help control food cravings and promote weight loss.
The book includes extensive explanation of the known effects of capsaicin (the active ingredient in chiles) on the body. In a nutshell, capsaicin can reduce pain, minimize blood glucose and cholesterol levels, lower high blood pressure, raise metabolism, and trigger the release of endorphins and seratonin, brain chemicals that counteract depression and mood swings.
Allison contends that capsaicin also helps curb appetite by activating the same neural response as fat, signaling to the brain that the belly is full. She says that because fat ingestion releases mood-enhancing seratonin, dieters are often depressed and irritated when they reduce fat consumption. Chiles also trigger seratonin release, so eating more chiles when you eat less fat helps maintain that critical sense of well being. She also points out, quite reasonably, that peppers make food taste better, thus addressing the palate boredom that characterizes too many diets.
The author, a medical representative for an unnamed pharmaceutical company, designed this diet based on her own experience. (She lost 90 pounds and has kept it off for a decade.) She supervised a study comparing this diet to a conventional low-fat diet; the results, analyzed by the UCLA School of Medicine, were dramatic. Participants lost significantly more weight when chiles were a part of their low-fat diets than when they were not. Allison recommends eating the equivalent of 5-6 peppers daily with meals.
Besides the peppers, what differentiates this system from other diets is the author’s emphasis on flavor and her extensive information about making low-caloric food taste good. She discusses vinegars, citrus, mustards, spices, and herbs, drawing on traditional Asian and Latin American flavors like soy, mirin, nampala, curry, ginger, horseradish, achiote, and tamarind (and chiles, of course). She includes 130 pages of interesting, tasty recipes that rely heavily on ethnic dishes such as fresh corn with lime and chiles, and Indian lentil soup with orange, ginger, and garlic.
The book’s biggest problem is the peculiar structure of the bibliography. While many readers won’t be interested in sources, I am not the only one who wants to know where the scientific information comes from; for credibility’s sake, this should be easily accessible. Allison cites numerous studies without footnotes, and although the bibliography is extensive, it is listed in order of mention in the text, not alphabetically. This forces readers to guess which source a reference comes from, a process both tedious and unreliable.
Source identification aside, The Chili Pepper Diet at best begs consideration, and at worst provides low-fat, high-flavor recipes with a slant toward spicy food. Particularly for chile-heads, how bad is that? — MM Pack
This article appears in August 23 • 2002.
