Stock up on Tabasco sauce. Eating hot peppers could help you lose weight, or so one Australian study claims. According to the study, overweight people increase their chances of burning fat after a meal that contains hot peppers.

How can hot peppers aid weight loss? It is all about controlling your insulin levels from going on a wild ride after consuming a meal. As you probably already know, insulin is a hormone responsible for fat storage in your body. In this study, participants who consumed hot peppers with a meal were observed to have significantly lower insulin levels.

The theory goes that capsaicin, the chemical that makes hot peppers hot, may have an ability to help your liver to clear insulin from the bloodstream after a meal.

The bad news The researchers used so much capsaicin that it is probably unsafe for you to try to duplicate the results of the study at home.

The good news If you love Tabasco sauce and can handle a lot of it, you may get some of the weight-loss benefits that were observed in the study.

The low-carb option I love hot peppers but I cannot eat them with every meal. If the goal is to keep your insulin levels low, I think a low-carb diet is more practical than eating hot peppers all day.