Obesity and obesity‐related illness are an increasingly prevalent problem globally, especially in Western society. One of the largest contributing factors to the obesity pandemic is the modern food environment and food culture. It is necessary to identify and develop strategies to increase the sensory appeal of healthy food and beverage options in order to provide healthy options to consumers without sacrificing the fundamental sensory enjoyment of eating. Since flavor is the largest driver of food intake and choice, it follows that flavor ought to be part of the solution. This paper reviews the potential of chili pepper or capsaicin (the pungent component of chili pepper) as a healthy eating strategy, by increasing energy expenditure, decreasing intake, decreasing eating rate, and enhancing flavor and satisfaction. Furthermore, we suggest a holistic chemesthetic approach to weight management, by using the sensory impact of trigeminal stimulation (spiciness or heat) in foods, rather than medicinally, in order to cross‐modally enhance tastes and odors, increase perceived complexity and overall flavor, increase sensory satisfaction, and decrease salt and caloric intake. Future research directions are discussed.

中文翻译：

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风味的第三个维度：一种化学方法，可以使饮食更健康（评论）

肥胖和与肥胖相关的疾病在全球范围内日益普遍，尤其是在西方社会。导致肥胖病流行的最大因素之一是现代饮食环境和饮食文化。有必要确定并制定策略来增加健康食品和饮料选择的感官吸引力，以便在不牺牲基本的饮食感官享受的情况下向消费者提供健康选择。由于风味是食物摄入和选择的最大驱动因素，因此，风味应成为解决方案的一部分。本文回顾了辣椒或辣椒素（辣椒的辛辣成分）作为健康饮食策略的潜力，方法是增加能量消耗，减少摄入量，降低进食速度并增强风味和满意度。此外，我们建议通过使用食物中的三叉神经刺激（辛辣或热）的感官影响（而不是药物性治疗）来整体控制体重的化学方法，以交叉方式增强口味和气味，增加感知的复杂性和整体风味，增加感官满意度，并减少盐和热量的摄入。讨论了未来的研究方向。