Posted on 05/27/2009 2:11:33 AM PDT by Schnucki
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.
Water, however, passes straight through the sphincter to your intestines, so drinking water does not contribute to "filling you up".
When you eat the same meal as a soup, the whole mixture remains in the stomach, because the water and food are blended together. The scientists' scans confirm that the stomach stays fuller for longer, staving off those hunger pangs.
The key to this low-tech weapon against hunger is a hormone called ghrelin. It is one of the major players in the body's appetite system.
Discovered as recently as 1999, ghrelin is released by specialised cells in the stomach wall.
'Cupcake circuit'
These cells produce a constant stream of ghrelin whenever the stomach is empty. The ghrelin travels via the blood stream to the brain's appetite centre, an organ called the
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Mmmm, soup.
Works for me. I’ve been a lunchtime soup gal for years. That is of course when I am not scarfing down toasted plain bagel veg-outs. :-). The pickle is good too. ;-). Almonds are a good tide over later.
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Two birds with one stone - lose weight and low cost. My office mates have started calling me ‘soup man’.
That’s not Soupy Sales. I’m guessing from Seinfeld?
Soup Nazi!
I actually do love soup. This could be useful.
This is very interesting. I’m looking up soup recipes now.
Eating a lot of soup is a quick ride to high blood pressure.
Unfortunately finding low or no-sodium soup is almost impossible, and when you do, it tastes like junk.
Only if you put salt in it.
You can get the same “brightness” by adding fresh lime juice to a fresh serving of soup.
Did I mention fresh herbs and chilis?
Best of all, you don't get a ton of sodium, sugar, MSG, melamine, and God knows what else, in your soup.
I made oxtail soup with vegetables and barley all last winter. Delish. There’s nothing like the flavor of oxtails. I wondered how it could be so filling. This article clears that up.
Your mom never made homemade soup?
Is this some kind of cryptic preparation for soup lines?
Pho Bo?
...just watch the salt. Better to make the soup at home.
Unemployment may be around 20 percent in 2012, with huge soup lines in every urban area, but the MSM will praise Obama for courageously tackling our most urgent crisis, obesity.
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