Drinking water may help you curb appetite

London: Looking for ways to shed those extra kilos
around your waistline? Worry not, according to a study, drinking water along
with a meal can fill the stomach and signal the brain to stop eating.

The findings showed that the brain
listens to the stomach during eating.Drinking more water can alter messages
from the stomach which can be interpreted as fullness by the brain.

Further, intake of water along with a
meal can increase stomach distension, curb appetite in the short term as well
as increase the regional brain activity.

This means anyone who is looking to
lose weight or cut down on eating would benefit from a large drink with their
meals.

For the study, the team collected data
from 19 participants during two separate sessions with different consumption
procedures.

In the experiment, participants drank
a milk-shake on an empty stomach, which was followed by a small (50 mL) or
large glass of water (350 mL).

The large glass of water doubled the
content in the stomach compared to the small glass. Those who drank the large
glass also felt less hungry and felt fuller.

The real time data of the brain, the
stomach, and people’s feelings of satiety was measured simultaneously during
the meal.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
images were used to see how the different amounts of water affected stretching
of the stomach -- the large glass of water doubled the stomach content compared
to the small glass.

“Combining these types of
measurements is difficult, because MRI scanners are usually set-up to perform
only one type of scan,” said lead author Guido Camps from Wageningen
University in the Netherlands.

We’ve been able to very quickly switch
the scanner from one functionality to another to do this type of
research,” Camps added.

This new research approach can be used
to investigate the interplay between satiety feelings, volume of the stomach
and activity in the brain, the researchers suggested.

The findings were presented at the
annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, held in
Portugal.

-IANS