Forget the bread and start your meal with soup instead. Bread baskets make us consume more calories, but soup makes us eat less.
Diving into a loaf of French bread before dinner is a definite no-no. Devoid of fiber, protein or nutrients, bread charges through our bloodstream, stimulating the appetite. The result: We eat more during dinner than if we had no bread at all. No wonder so many establishments give out free bread! Soup, on the other hand, can make us feel fuller. A study published in the journal Appetite found that people who started their meal with soup ate 20 percent fewer calories during dinner than those who had no appetizer. Water-packed foods like soup are generally high in volume and low in calories. Because they’re bulky, they fill us up faster and help us consume fewer calories. Even drinking a large glass of water before the main course will make us eat less.
