Soup Up Your Waistline

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Soup Up Your Waistline

 

 

by Robert A. Barnett

Want a hot weight loss tip?

 

Have a bowl of soup.

 

" Soup makes the perfect diet food, " says Barbara

Kafka, author of Soup: A Way of Life. " It has a lot of

flavor without a lot of fat. When I don't want to eat

too heavily, I choose soup. "

 

Why Soup Helps You Lose Weight

 

Research shows that when you start a meal with a

broth-based soup, especially one swimming with

vegetables, you'll likely consume about 100 fewer

calories at that meal - and you won't make up the

calories at the next.

 

" Several studies show that soup eaters end up weighing

less than non-soup eaters, " says Penn State nutrition

professor Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., co-author of

Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories.

 

" Incorporating soups into a weight-management plan as

a first course at lunch or dinner can really help save

calories, " she notes. She also likes it as a snack:

" When you get the munchies, it's much better to have

some soup than to go to the candy machine. "

 

Soup + Walking = 20 Fewer Pounds

 

" Small changes make a big difference, " says John

Foreyt, Ph.D., director of the nutrition research

clinic at Baylor University's College of Medicine in

Houston, who has studied soup's role in weight loss.

" For many people, small changes over time are more

sensible and more effective than big changes.

 

" I like the 100/100 rule, " he says. " Eat 100 calories

less tomorrow, and expend an extra 100 calories in

physical activity, such as 20 minutes of walking. " In

the course of a year, he notes, such a change may make

a difference of 20 pounds.

 

Soup Studies

 

The soup effect has been demonstrated again and again

over the past 20 years:

 

In an early-1980s University of Pennsylvania study,

500 people in a weight-loss program noted each meal

they ate for 10 weeks. Some were told to eat soup at

least four times a week. The soup eaters ate fewer

calories - on average, 100 less per day - and lost the

most weight.

 

 

In a Baylor University College of Medicine study, Dr.

Foreyt asked a group of overweight men and women on a

low-cal diet to eat soup every day. They liked it -

and were better able to maintain their weight loss

than non-soup-eaters.

 

 

At Penn State, Dr. Rolls' group gave women a

270-calorie first course before lunch. Some got

chicken-rice casserole, others the casserole plus 10

ounces of water. A third group received chicken-rice

soup made from the casserole ingredients plus the

water. Soup eaters took in about 100 calories fewer at

the meal - and they didn't eat more at dinner.

 

 

In her latest studies, Rolls and colleagues find that

the hunger-suppressing benefits of soup lasts a full

two hours.

 

 

In Paris, researchers at the " Laboratory of the

Neurobiology of Nutrition " confirm that water with a

meal doesn't affect how full people feel - but having

the same ingredients as soup does.

 

 

The Paris scoop: Soup better satisfies hunger if it is

chunky.

Why Soup Works

 

Broth-based, low-fat soup is filling, yet low in

calories. It's as simple as that.

 

Emerging research finds that a food's bulk and weight

is key to satisfying hunger. If a food fills you up

with fewer calories, you'll eat fewer calories.

 

" If you eat foods with fewer calories in a portion,

you'll get more satisfaction calorie for calorie, "

says Dr. Rolls. " You'll control hunger better. "

 

That's why calorie-laden cream- or butter-based soup

won't help. Even bean soup made with lots of olive oil

can be very caloric. It's calories that count.

 

Soup is also different from drinking water. Soup,

especially one with chunky vegetables, is digested

slowly. It is food. Water or soda quenches thirst, but

it doesn't satisfy hunger.

 

" Hunger and thirst are controlled through two

completely separate mechanisms in the body, " says

Rolls. " Soft drinks and fruit drinks trigger thirst

mechanisms - those calories actually tend to add on to

food calories. But when you get into soups, they're

going to trigger hunger mechanisms. "

 

Beyond Soup: Eating Strategies

 

Is soup unique? Not at all.

 

Eat any filling, low-calorie food as an appetizer or

first course, and you'll likely make it easier to

consume fewer calories at that meal:

Eat an apple on the way to lunch.

Order melon as a first course.

Start with a salad with just a little low-cal

dressing.

When you go to the salad bar, fill up your plate with

" big " foods like greens and vegetables, before going

back for more calorically dense choices.

It's a kind of preemptive eating strategy. Make

substitutions you like, ones that can become part of

your life. If you like soup, start there. It's a

strategy that many traditional cultures - which by

necessity had to satisfy hunger with few caloric

resources - have adopted. In Mexico, nearly every meal

has a soup. In China, rice soup (congee) is breakfast.

 

 

In the peasant cultures of southern Europe, a family

may have a large pot of soup continually simmering on

a stove - providing both lunch and dinner -

accompanied by bread, perhaps a small piece of cheese

or meat, and usually a salad.

 

In Ecuador, notes Soup author Kafka, when you meet a

friend, you don't ask, " Have you eaten? " but " Have you

had soup? "

 

Robert A. Barnett is the co-author of Volumetrics.

 

 

 

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Language is an expression of thought. Everytime you speak, your mind is on

Parade Exodus 20:8-11 & Hebrews 4:9

 

 

 

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