Two widely believed diet tips — drink more water to eat less, and spicy food will curb your appetite — may not hold up, according to new research from Cornell University.
In a study led by Paige Cunningham at Cornell in collaboration with John Hayes at Penn State, researchers found that drinking water alongside meals was associated with eating more food, not less. For every 100 grams of water consumed with a meal, participants ate roughly 39 to 49 additional grams of food. The researchers suspect the effect may stem from how switching between bites and sips interrupts “sensory-specific satiety” — the phenomenon where the pleasure of eating a particular food fades the more of it is consumed. Each switch between food and water in the study was associated with about 4.4 grams more food eaten. Whether drinking water more quickly reduces the amount eaten remains an open question the researchers hope to explore further. The main study, involving 86 adults eating a chili or tikka masala lunch, is published in the journal Appetite.
A second, separate study pointed to a different effect for spice. Cayenne-laced salsa cut snack intake by 28 percent compared with a milder version, as participants eating the spicy salsa ate about 30 percent more slowly — giving the body more time to register fullness before overeating. That study, which involved 49 adults eating chips and salsa, was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference in April 2026.
Journal: Appetite
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2026.108698
Publication Date: July 16, 2026
Source: EurekAlert