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Eating Soup Can Help You Lose Weight
Filed Under (Weight Loss) by Dave Tant on 19-06-2010
Most people who have tried to diet will tell you that losing weight is a tough business. The main reason people find it so hard to resist that extra slice of pizza of chocolate cake is because hundreds of thousands of years ago our brains were evolving in a time when food was scarce - our brains evolved to tell us that we needed to eat high calorie food as often as we could. However, the problem now is that we obviously do not live in a world where high calorie food is scarce. In fact, we live in a world where high calorie food is hugely abundant and easily available, and our brains have evolved to tell us to eat as much as possible (because it doesn’t know that the next meal is just around the corner!)
In 1999 a bunch of scientists discovered one of the main causes for us feeling hungry - a hormone called “ghrelin”.
The hormone is released by the cells in the walls of our stomach, it then travels to the brain in our bloodstream, and upon reaching the brain it is detected, and our brain tells us that we need to eat.
The important thing with this cell though is that it is only released when the walls of our stomach are not stretched… i.e. when our stomachs are empty. If you are full (stomach wall stretched) then the hormone is not released.
Right, so far nothing too taxing here - if the wall of the stomach is stretched we are full and the hormone is not released and therefore we don’t feel hungry, and vice versa.
Let’s now look at a situation people find themselves in every day - lunchtime. You sit down and eat a ham sandwich and have a drink of water. This will keep you from feeling hungry for at least a hour or two.
Something funny happens when you blend the water with the food, i.e. you make soup - you end up feeling fuller for longer. How can this be when you have consumed the same amount of food?
The reason for this strange phenomenon is because of the way that your stomach handles water and food. When you drink water, this is passed through the stomach quite quickly, so it won’t fill you up very long. However, food is held back for longer so it can be digested. But, if you mix the water with the food the whole lot is held back - meaning a stretched stomach for longer, meaning no ghrelin is produced and therefore you feel full for longer!
This is a really simply way of tricking your body into thinking it’s eaten more than it actually has. Try eating soup every lunchtime and you will help stop those afternoon cravings!
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