Hate to tell you this, but there is actually some science behind this.

A moderate amount of actual sugar (i.e. a couple of candies) eaten 1/2 hour to 2 hours prior to a meal results in the diner eating less in a large portion of study subjects.

This effect was not the same with other types of sweetener.

Of course, the devil is always in the details, and moderation is always the problem - not the sugar itself.

Sugar as a seasoning for soup? EW.

I think they confused it with salt there.

Fine print:
9 out of 10 Hummingbirds agree! Sugar > Splenda!

@BadHairLife: Hate to tell you this, but that's not true for some people. Sugar causes me to go on binges. I cannot stop eating after having something with it in it. Even in minute amounts. Caused me to have a huge weight problem through most of my life, and could never figure out why I could not keep the weight off. Once I cut out all sugar and other sweeteners, the weight has come off and stayed off.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Sugar and/or HFCS is in just about everything we eat, including meats, mainly deli meats.

Magic I say!

I usually have some Snapple next to me when I'm taking a test. Being the idiot I am, I don't eat breakfast. So when I'm hungry I take a swig of Snapple, and it calms my stomach for about 20 minutes a swig.

That was what held me up for the first half of the day for midterms. Woo.

Not exactly weight loss.....but same concept?

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Older concentrated soups sometimes had much less sugar because of the processing, have you ever eaten sugarless tomato?*Shivers*

Makes sense to me. HFCS and artificial sweeteners don't give you the same "I'm full" feeling.

Yeah I think this is the theory in the Shangri-La Diet...
[www.amazon.com]

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): There's at least a tablespoon of sugar in most(maybe) decent soup recipes. Tomato's have a good deal of acid, for instance. They are sweet already but a little added sugar makes it less tangy and bitter, not that you'd notice it getting any sweeter though.

@carolynkline: There's always some variance of individual reaction in broad studies like this, but that doesn't make the final findings incorrect in general.

You have an intolerance for sugar so it doesn't apply, but for most people, that lollipop really will spoil our dinner.

@carolynkline: You mean that what's true for part of the population doesn't apply to every single living individual? Well, damn! Who knew.

@carolynkline: Hence the inclusion of: "in a large portion of study subjects."

@liquidnumb: I'm just waiting for someone to berate me for letting a 'postrophe slip in where an 'e' should go.

@theangeltyreal: The tenth one died of an heart attack.

There's no point in being on a diet that you can't stick to, so if you eat some sugar every now and then in moderation you're probably more likely to feel satisfied than if you cut out all of the foods you enjoy. It's just common sense.

@carolynkline: I work in a deli, and of the 50 or so deli meats that we sell, none have HFCS in them and the only one with sugar is the brown sugar ham or honey ham.

This is actually true if it's not super-concentrated and hidden and especially if it's not HFCS. Of course our baked goods and sodas today are all three.

I really like that hummingbird test. I've thought about how processed food that doesn't go bad until 2012 implies bugs don't want to eat it. Considering that bugs will eat most anything, you'd think that'd say something about whether or not it properly qualifies as "food".

@liquidnumb: I make a lot of soup and I can't think of any with sugar in them.

@baquwards: Bologna!

@Michael Belisle: That's an interesting proposition. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): it could be worse than regular sugar! i took this just for you, just now:

This is actually the basis for a dieting product I saw recently. It's a sweetener you put on desserts so they taste more filling. Of course it's a low-calorie sweetener, not a real one. There's a savoury equivalent too. I'm not convinced they work, given the difficulty in blinding a trial, but I guess there's nothing new under the sun.

@catastrophegirl - just add kittens: Ew. Now I'm glad I don't eat tomato soup.

@JulesNoctambule: Absolutly, and if it doesn't apply to every single adult, but say, only 999 out of 1000 people, then we simply should not talk about it.

@baquwards: Sell Bologna, Olive loaf, or head cheese?

I can guarantee you there is sugar or HFCS in that. Its part of the posses of making and preserving them.

@Jim Topoleski:

I love bologna. I don't care WHAT'S in it. :)

@Michael Belisle: The humingbird test reminded me of an article I read way back (in the New Yorker, which doesn't seem to have it in its archives, unfortunately) on taste-testing artificial sweeteners. They said that animals can't taste most of them, so without human tasters, it's hard to know what is sweet, too sweet, terribly sweet, or not at all sweet. Different genes resulting in different receptors, and only people (and maybe red pandas) can taste artificial sweeteners.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I realized after submit that 'most' was the wrong word to use. 'Plenty' was what I was looking for.