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| Som Tam (Green Papaya salad). One of my daily staples. |
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| If that's not enough chilli, try adding more.... |
Seeing as I am in Thailand I thought I would go native and try diet prep Thai style. It is a good opportunity to learn the language, although every time I try and communicate something it is usually met with looks of either horror, confusion or hysteria as I have most likely ordered a "cow" instead of rice... the joy of tonal languages. Just as well my dignity got left behind at the age of about 5.
I have however rediscovered an old favourite of mine - Som Tam, which is a VERY spicy green papaya salad. Thai people have a genetic "spicy level" threshold which must be set at about 10 (10 being highest); mine is probably minus 5. Needless to say, the whole process of eating is usually quite a laboured process - I think it must rank about 9/10 on the Borg scale of perceived exertion, but it's a great way to get my water requirement in for the day. I also need a serious rest afterwards, which suggests it is like the equivalent of doing 10 minutes of high intensity training, without actually moving.
This got me thinking about it from a weight loss perspective, because that is the goal for the next 15.5 weeks. Certainly one is going to perspire in the process and lose water, I can attest to about 1kg in 15 minutes, but what about from a fat loss perspective?
The main ingredients are: (altered to taste)
- Green shredded papaya
- Sugar
- Salt
- Lime or Tamarind
- Green Beans
- Garlic
- Chilli peppers
- Fish sauce
- Tomatos
- Peanuts
- Fresh coriander
I'm not a huge fan of nutritional science as I believe a reductionist approach is not the best way to represent how nutrients work 1) within a food and 2) in a human system.
I am however interested in the capsaicin which is found in chilli. It gets a fair amount of attention as a weight loss supplement, but it's not clear exactly how it works - one suggested reason is it suppresses appetite.(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24246368)
I expect it is dose dependent; I also expect Thai style Som Tam contains 10-fold the recommended daily allowance and would probably be illegal in the UK!
I am however interested in the capsaicin which is found in chilli. It gets a fair amount of attention as a weight loss supplement, but it's not clear exactly how it works - one suggested reason is it suppresses appetite.(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24246368)
I expect it is dose dependent; I also expect Thai style Som Tam contains 10-fold the recommended daily allowance and would probably be illegal in the UK!
Fresh lime juice, garlic, coriander all make this a really delicious and very nutritious little meal, if not a slight onslaught to the senses.
It did make me wonder if you can learn to tolerate chilli? Maybe I should implement a chilli "cycle" into my training! The study of epigenetics is an interesting area; it allows us to understand that our environment can control gene function. It is a complicated field and like most things in science, we know more about what we don't know. We do however know that the human body is very good at adapting, but we'll see - I don't think my genetic spicy level threshold is going to budge.
It did make me wonder if you can learn to tolerate chilli? Maybe I should implement a chilli "cycle" into my training! The study of epigenetics is an interesting area; it allows us to understand that our environment can control gene function. It is a complicated field and like most things in science, we know more about what we don't know. We do however know that the human body is very good at adapting, but we'll see - I don't think my genetic spicy level threshold is going to budge.
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