Jelly in da belly

[Phaedrus49er]

Or "Yummy in da tummy." You decide. Nothing like a little silicone implant for breakfast, eh?

(Quick side note: is it just me, or has traffic in this subforum skyrocketed lately? Maybe I'm finally just paying attention Anyway, cool, onward...)

Jelly in the Belly: A Diet Pill That Expands So You Don't
Nicole Martinelli
06.08.07 | 2:00 AM

MILAN -- Italian scientists are testing a new diet pill that turns into a clear, gelatinous blob the size of a tennis ball that may help shrink waistlines by giving dieters a sense of satiety.

The pill, currently undergoing clinical trials at Rome's Policlinico Gemelli hospital, would be downed with two glasses of water at the first sign of a stomach rumble.

"The effect is like eating a nice plate of pasta," said Luigi Ambrosio, lead researcher on the project at the National Research Council's Institute for Composite and Biomedical Materials in Naples. "If you sit down for a meal with a stomach that already feels full, you'll end up eating less."

The unnamed pill is made from a cellulose compound of hydrogel, a material that's powdery when dry but plumps up to a cousin of Jell-O when wet. The gel can soak up to 1,000 times its weight. A gram in capsule form quickly balloons from the size of a spit wad to a ball that holds nearly a liter of liquid.

Growing waistlines are an increasingly hefty issue. The World Health Organization calls obesity (.pdf) "one of today's most blatantly visible -- yet most neglected -- public health problems." The WHO estimates that 1 billion adults worldwide are overweight, 300 million of them obese. Attendant illnesses include type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke and certain forms of cancer.

Ambrosio and fellow researcher Luigi Nicolais, now minister for reform and innovation, noticed the burgeoning girth of Americans during a trip to the United States in the '90s.

The pair had been working with a team to develop super-absorbent materials for Swedish paper-product company Sca and wondered whether a hydrogel could produce an effect similar to gastric banding -- without the surgery.

Along the way, they discovered the spongelike material could be used to treat edemas, and are currently experimenting with it as a way to slow-water plants. The versions of the material for use in the diet pill is biocompatible, so the body just flushes it out, the scientist say.

But in a market glutted with miracle cures and trendy diets, some folks don't gel with the concept.

Lona Sandon, a dietitian at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, sighed slightly before commenting.

"I don't think we'll find the answer to obesity in a pill," said Sandon, who is also a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "The only long-term solution is cutting back calories and getting exercise."

Though it may not be a magic bullet, some experts think it could help those whose girth has already grown out of control.

"A pill like that one could be a valid aid when you've already got a serious problem," said professor Antonino De Lorenzo of Rome's Tor Vergata University, who has conducted extensive research on benefits of the classic Mediterranean diet. "The real challenge is teaching people to eat properly before they need it."

If trials are successful, researchers hope to put the gel pill within easy reach of calorie counters on both the EU and North American markets in about a year.

"Obesity is such an enormous problem," said Ambrosio. "If we managed to reduce it by even 10 percent with this pill, it would be a huge accomplishment."

[UpNorth]

This is a "what is this world coming to" kind of story although it sounds like a better option than bariatric surgery. Also, it is just me or can you not read "Luigi" and "pasta" in the same sentence without mentally affecting an Italian accent.

...I think the 61 day challenge has brought some fresh posts here. Good stuff!

[Frank.S]

Stuff like this makes no sense.. its not causing any weight loss, its just causing people to eat less. Same with lap band operations (im pretty sure..).. you are more or less paying someone for willpower.

[Blackjack]

Do you remember those little tiny animals that you got out of a gumball machine and when you added water to them, they grew to like 10-times their size? Sound familiar?

[Sign]

Originally Posted by Blackjack

Do you remember those little tiny animals that you got out of a gumball machine and when you added water to them, they grew to like 10-times their size? Sound familiar?

Are you saying people should save their money and just eat those little foam dinosaurs? :p

[Frank.S]

Those dinosaurs where disapointing.. at best

[Lost Dog]

What if people tried this first? Before the Lap Band. They'd see how it was, pretty much.

Or, this could be like the nicotine patch, where you use smaller and smaller dose, over time. Wean yourself off of them, slowly as you get used to what a healthy meal size is.

[RobLL]

I suspect this could have some fairly spectacular bathroom consequences I did construction during summers in high school and college, and when working on sewer lines the big laugh, we were temporarily shutting houses down, guy went in to help, and five minutes later a condom flushed into the ditch. HaHa. Wonder what a softball sized glob will do to the side lines?

[Espi]

Casein does the same and is more nutritious. If you are hell-bent on dieting with shakes-only, the casein based shakes are the way to go. Curd/quark/cottage cheese is good too.