Drop it like it's hot

I remember taking a supplement called Rocket Fuel when I was a stupid teenager. It came in a medicine dropper bottle, touting itself as a workout energy booster that would surely make you the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like I said, I was a stupid teenager. In reality, all the stuff did was burn the hell out of your mouth, making you want to workout as fast as possible so you could bury your mouth under the kitchen sink. Not that I know for sure -- or really feel like taking the time to look it up to find out -- but, I'm guessing that Rocket Fuel had some sort of chili pepper extract in it. However, the crazy thing is that there is plenty of evidence suggesting that eating foods that contain chili peppers and chili powders can help reduce fat. Granted, the last thing my 130 pound teenage body needed at the time was to lose weight, but it's still pretty funny to think that there may have been something to that foolish Rocket Fuel after all.

This chili pepper phenomenon was examined by Australian scientists, who discovered that capsaicin -- the chemical that makes chili peppers hot -- may improve the liver's ability to clear insulin from the bloodstream after a meal. This is rather important, for it is insulin that signals the body to store fat. With respect to the results of the Aussie's research, they found that their test subjects' insulin levels were 32 percent lower following their consumption of a chili pepper flavored meal.

To receive the benefits of capsaicin, you could try adding Tabasco sauce to your foods. As for Rocket Fuel, that should probably be left in the heaping pile of useless supplements where it belongs.