Ten things about weight loss: Part 5

Here's an interesting thing you never knew about weight loss. In fact, the programme called it "one of the best kept secrets of dieting". It's particularly interesting for us bandits because it goes completely against the grain of everything we have been told about avoiding slider foods.....

6. Soup keeps you feeling fuller for longer

The programme conducted an experiment with two groups of army recruits. They were each given an identical meal, consisting of chicken, rice, vegetables and a glass of water. The calorific value of the meals was absolutely identical, as was the portion size. However, there was one very big difference. While one group ate their meal served in the conventional way - i.e. on a plate, the other group had the entire contents of their meal (and the water) blended in a liquidiser!! So, in effect, the second group ate a large bowl of soup.

The two groups then spent the afternoon undertaking various physical activities. Two hours after eating, each man underwent an ultrasound investigation of his stomach - the ultrasound showed up how much food was still left in the stomach. At this stage, the second group's stomachs were still quite full and distended, while the first group were beginning to get early signals from the brain that they were hungry again. The same experiment was repeated four hours after lunch. On this occasion, the first group's stomachs were completely empty and the men were definitely feeling very hungry again. The stomachs of the second group were, by this time, mainly empty and the men were starting to experience hunger.

So, the experiment showed that soup keeps you feeling full for longeer. But why is this the case? Well, when you have a meal and a glass of water, the liquid temporarily expands the stomach making it feel very full. However, the liquid drains away quite quickly leaving only solid food behind, and the stomach then shrinks back to a fairly small size - so it isn't very full. This means that hunger is felt quite soon after eating. However, when water is blended with food, the total volume of food is much greater. The liquid, in this case, does not drain away very quickly because it is competely mixed in with the solid food and is much thicker. This means the stomach is expanded for quite some time leaving you feeling full for longer.

As I said, this completely goes against the grain of everything we are taught as bandits. For us, the aim is for the small upper stomach - or 'pouch' to remain full for as long as posible, keeping us feeling full. Liquids, even thick soup, drain away fairly quickly into the main stomach whereas dry, solid foods stay in there. However, when we do eat soups or slider foods - they don't just disappear! They pass from our pouches into our main stomach and perform the same function as they would for a non-bandit. Certainly I have experienced an extended full feeling quite some time after eating soup - despite having a band. So I am encouraged by this lesson. As long as our soups are fairly low calorie and not too fatty, then they have the potential to contribute very positively to our weight loss efforts. I very often snack on a low calorie Weight Watcher's mushroom soup when I get home from work and find it staves off hunger competely until I get around to cooking later in the evening. So - soup it up!!