How soup can help you lose weight (BBC)

By Jack Challoner


In the battle to lose weight, hunger is the dieter's worst enemy. But research has revealed a simple aid to taming the appetite: soup. It's dieting's best kept secret says one science writer.

Imagine a typical lunchtime meal - say, chicken and vegetables with a glass of water.

If you eat the food and drink the water, you will feel full for a couple of hours before hunger kicks in. But if you blend the food with the water - to make soup - you will stay hunger-free for much longer, and less likely to snack through the afternoon.

How can blending the food into soup make such a difference? The answer lies in the stomach. Scientists have used ultrasound and MRI scans of people's stomachs to investigate what happens after eating solid-food-plus-water meals compared with the same food made into soup.

After you eat a meal, the pyloric sphincter valve at the bottom of your stomach holds food back so that the digestive juices can get to work.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8068733.stm




"Everyone knows" that soup makes you feel fuller, but it turns out that it really does leave your stomach fuller!

it makes you retain water and puff up like a balloon.

i haven't even really tried beyond making chicken stock.