Why soup is so good for losing weight

Anyone trying to lose weight will tell you how difficult it is. In a way, it's hard to blame people who cannot lose weight. The reason losing weight is difficult is because over the hundreds of thousands of years that we as humans have evolved our brains tell us to eat high calories food. This is because your brain still thinks we live in a cave where food is scarce. In our modern world however, the opposite is true. We live in a world of cheap, high calorie food, and our bodies have evolved to tell us to eat it!

Scientists tell us that a recently discovered hormone is one of the main reasons why people feel hungry. It's a hormone called "ghrelin" and was only discovered in 1999.

This hormone is released by cells in the walls of our stomach. It then travels through in our blood to the brain, where the part of the brain monitoring hunger detects it. Once detected, it tells our body that we must eat.

But, the hormone is only released when your stomach is empty (and the body knows this because the stomach wall is not stretched). If your stomach is stretched, then the hormone isn't released, so you're not hungry.

Pretty straightforward so far isn't it - a stretched stomach wall means you don't feel hungry. Not too taxing...

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.

However, if you blend the water with the food - i.e. make soup - you will feel fuller for longer! Why? You've not eaten or drunk any less.

The reason is that if you drink the water and eat the food separately the stomach allows the water through quickly, but holds the food back so it can digest it. But, if you blend the water with the food, the whole lot is kept back, therefore keeping your stomach walls stretched further for longer, therefore no ghrelin is released and therefore your brain isn't telling you to find food!

Very simple. Very effective. Eating soup at lunchtimes will help you lose weight because it will hold off those mid afternoon cravings!