How soup can help you lose weight.

Darryl Shaw · 05-27-2009, 05:17 AM

Quote:

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.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8068733.stm

Garrett Smith · 05-27-2009, 06:28 AM

The Volumetrics diet is based on this principle, it has been around for a good while.

Duke McCall · 05-28-2009, 06:40 AM

I am not familiar with the referenced study and am not a Volumetrics diet devotee, but can state from my own personal experience that this works. Eating soup every day for lunch is one of the tricks that I used to lose about 30 pounds a couple of years ago. And I still find that a bowl of soup is one of the best option for me on days that I am famished.

Brandon Enos · 07-30-2009, 10:24 PM

Coming in kinda late, but have a question. Does it matter if that soup was made in one giant pot and then put into tupperware to take for lunch and reheated or if you just through chicken and veggies in a bowl and then pour some water in?

I wouldnt think it would, but just wondering.

Darryl Shaw · 07-31-2009, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon Enos

Coming in kinda late, but have a question. Does it matter if that soup was made in one giant pot and then put into tupperware to take for lunch and reheated or if you just through chicken and veggies in a bowl and then pour some water in?

I wouldnt think it would, but just wondering.

According to the study you need to blend the soup for best reults so it's probably going to be easier to make a large batch and freeze individual portions.

There was something of a cautionary tale in news a couple of days ago which you should keep in mind if you're going to follow this or any other kind of low-carb/low-energy diet -

Quote:

Death after soup and water diet.

A woman died after living on a diet of soup and water, an inquest has heard.

Helen Anderson, 26, weighed 9st 2lb when she was found dead by her mother at her home in Shelley Avenue, Cleadon Park, South Shields, in April.

She had lost almost six stone after dieting to lose weight she put on as a side effect of medication.

South Tyneside coroner Terence Carney recorded a verdict of accidental death and said he was certain she had no intention to cause herself harm.

The inquest in South Shields heard Miss Anderson's body was so starved of sugar it began to eat into its own fat reserves.

It caused a metabolic chemical reaction called ketoacidosis, which eventually killed her.

'Intensive diet'

Mr Carney said: "This phenomenon - this poison if you like - which developed within her body was made by her body itself.

"It arises as a result of the body reacting to a lack of sugar within itself and that was in part a consequence of the intensive diet with which Helen was attempting to balance her weight.

"The sad truth of the matter is there has been a development within her body, a natural phenomena, which has set up this poisoning of her body's system and has led to her death.

"It is a problem which can develop very rapidly and without the individual appreciating the consequences."

Miss Anderson, who was 5ft 9ins, had been 15st but weighed 9st 2lb when she died and was at the lower end of the Body Mass Index scale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8171281.stm

Scott Kustes · 07-31-2009, 11:14 AM

Ketoacidosis != ketosis. The former is a condition that affects diabetics, the latter a perfectly normal function of a normally functioning body. Given that she weighed 210lbs (15 stone * 14 pounds/stone), it's likely she was rocking some nice insulin resistance, coupled with low caloric intake. It actually has nothing to do with low-carb, but that's never stopped you before.

Darryl Shaw · 08-01-2009, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Kustes

Ketoacidosis != ketosis. The former is a condition that affects diabetics, the latter a perfectly normal function of a normally functioning body. Given that she weighed 210lbs (15 stone * 14 pounds/stone), it's likely she was rocking some nice insulin resistance, coupled with low caloric intake. It actually has nothing to do with low-carb, but that's never stopped you before.

The coroner having studied all the evidence concluded that she was killed by ketoacidosis rusulting from her low-calorie/low-carb diet therefore that's what killed her.

Scott Kustes · 08-01-2009, 07:18 AM

Once again, ketoacidosis is not the same as ketosis. You're barking up the wrong tree. You can starve yourself to death on any low-calorie diet, low-carb or not. I'd be willing to bet that soup had more carbs than fat. Just a hunch.