“Tapsy-Cola”

At last, an appetite-control agent that requires no prescription, has no common side effects, and costs almost nothing!

“Tapsy-Cola” - yes that’s right, plain water straight from the tap... although in reality most Malaysians have to filter and boil the water first.

Scientists led by Dr Brenda Davy, associate professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia recently announced the results of their clinical trial confirming that just two 8-ounce (240ml) glasses of the stuff, taken before meals, enables people to shed pounds.

This something that folklore and everyday experience long have suggested but there has been surprisingly little scientific information on the topic.

The "gold-standard" randomized, controlled clinical trial involved 48 adults aged 55-75 years, divided into two groups.

One group drank 2 cups of water (just under 500ml) prior to their meals and the other did not. All of the subjects ate a low-calorie diet during the study.

Over the course of 12 weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost an average of 15.5 pounds (7 kg) while the non-water drinkers lost 11 pounds (5 kg).

“Water may be so effective simply because it fills up the stomach with a substance that has zero calories. People feel fuller as a result, and eat less calorie-containing food during the meal. Increased water consumption may also help people lose weight if they drink it in place of sweetened calorie-containing beverages” said Davy.

Official bodies like the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, an agency that advises the Federal Government, say healthy people should let natural thirst guide them on how much water to drink, but they generally recommend this should result in about 9 cups of fluids a day, including water, for women and 13 cups for men.

However, drinking too much water can be dangerous and results in a rare but serious condition called water intoxication, warned Davy.

Their study was presented recently at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) that is taking place in Boston 22 to 26 August.

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Here’s what the US National Heart Lung and Blood Institute has to say about Maintaining a Healthy Weight

Changing the way you approach weight loss can help you be more successful at weight management.
Most people who are trying to lose weight focus on just the goal of weight loss. However, setting the right goals and focusing on lifestyle changes such as following a healthy eating plan, watching portion sizes, being physically active, and reducing sedentary time are much more effective.