A 2016 scientific paper proposed mixing Teflon powder into food, about three parts food to one part plastic by volume, so meals would fill the stomach without adding calories. The idea won the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
A less-noticed detail is where its key evidence came from. The weight-loss signal traced back to 1960s DuPont rat studies designed to show that nonstick cookware coatings were safe, not to help anyone slim down. Today, the same material can no longer be sold in new nonstick pans in Minnesota and several other states.
