Now, a food supplement that will fill you up for half a day

London, June 4 (ANI): If you've given up on your desire to fit into a size 6 dress, then here's something that will bring back the spark in you: a food supplement that makes people feel full for up to half a day has been developed.

Scientists found that a simple mixture of olive oil and water can be altered to affect how they react in contact with stomach acids.

In order to make the discovery, researchers created two types of the mixture and added stabilisers already commonly used in the food industry.

One is called Tween 60 and is widely used in cakes and pastries, the other is called Span 80. Although, they are chemically very similar, Tween keeps the oil and water stable in the stomach, while Span allows it to separate into a layer of water and a layer of oil.

When the fat remains stable in the stomach, it stays in the stomach longer and increases the feeling of being full, reports The Daily Express.

To analyse the drinks' effects, the mixture was given to 11 volunteers as a coffee-flavoured milk shake and their stomachs were scanned every hour to see how much remained.

After an hour, twice as much volume was left in the stomachs of people who had drunk the stable mixture.

Dr Martin Wickham of the Institute of Food Research said: "This formulation could be used as an ingredient in new foods to make them more filling, which in turn could help reduce overconsumption of calories."

The research has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition and funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Wickham added: "It is important to control obesity and keep weight down, and this is a more acceptable way of doing it than restricting your food intake on a diet.

"You wouldn't want to eat, rather than starving yourself." (ANI)