Well, yes and no. While it’s true that hunger and satiety are affected when drinking 2 glasses of water with a meal, research and testing has ironically proven that this does not necessarily translate into eating less.
But get this: water inside a food DOES reduce food intake but NOT water alongside food. This does appear confusing, as we assume what goes into our mouths ends up in the same place.
But according to PubMed.gov’s “A tale of gastric layering and sieving: Gastric emptying of a liquid meal with water blended in or consumed separately“, when water is outside the food, the stomach simply siphons it off from the solid chunks and strains it right out, which lead to a rapid drop in stomach volume.
But when water is part of a food, it all forms a homogenous mass that more slowly empties from your stomach over time – resulting in a fuller feeling and less calorie intake. Interesting, eh?
So, in order for water to help you lose weight more effectively, the best policy seems to point to ingesting water-rich foods – like citrus fruits, greens, vegetables like bell peppers, asparagus, cucumbers, etc. And we get the added benefit of all that beneficial fiber that can help cleanse our digestive tract and thousands of other positive effects we are just beginning to understand.