Water as a slimming Food

I recently noticed an article in the Scientific American suggesting that drinking water before meals helps one to lose weight. Strictly speaking we should say 'lose mass'; some weight could be lost by living on top of a mountain and all of it could be lost by living in orbit, so I'll use 'mass' hereafter.

The recommended consumption is half a litre of water before each meal, which would be a lot for me; usually I drink about a sixth of a litre in the course of a meal, so I'm trying to drink another sixth of a litre before each meal, and shall report the results, if any, in due course. So far I've found I seem to eat slightly less, not in the main course, but in the oddments I eat afterwards.

Several years ago I replaced puddings by an apple, a pear, a banana and an orange. For the last two days I've omitted the banana, and I've also reduced my cheese intake and have eaten the cheese on its own instead of with biscuits.

From a homoeopathic standpoint, water should make one gain mass, because water without additives is a homoeopathic solution of nothing. As eating nothing would produce mass reduction, it's homoeopathic effect should be the opposite.