Studies Show Eating More Slowly Benefits Your Health and Waistline
Story at-a-glance
A new scientific study shows that eating more slowly can
decrease your food consumption and prevent overeating
Prior studies have found that eating more slowly and
chewing your food more completely lead to decreased
intake, better absorption of nutrients, better appetite
regulation, and improved satiety
When you eat too quickly, your body doesn’t have time to
go through its natural appetite signaling process or
proper digestion
Most people do not chew their food sufficiently; you
should chew each bite until it liquefies, or loses all
of its texture, before swallowing
Consciously chewing food longer and eating mindfully are
ways to slow down your eating, enrich your food
experience, and improve your overall health and
nutrition
By Dr. Mercola
"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less,
breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more;
and all good things will be yours." ~Swedish Proverb
Many scientific studies have explored the benefits of eating
more slowly and chewing food longer. You may hear the distant
echoes of your mother's admonishment to "slow down" as you plow
through your lunch as quickly as possible—as though eating is an
inconvenience, an intrusion into your day that keeps
you from getting on with "more important things."
But maybe your mother was right. Perhaps you should slow
down. After all, what is more important than nourishment?
You can't accomplish anything of much import without a
well-nourished body and mind.
Slow Down Your Eating and You'll Eat Less, Study Shows
The latest study to illustrate the importance of slowing down
your eating appeared in the January 2014 issue of Journal of
the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.1
Researchers found that you may consume fewer calories over the
course of a meal when you eat slowly.
This study was different in that not only did it compare
energy intake with eating speed, but it separated subjects into
two groups: "normal weight" and overweight/obese.
Both groups consumed fewer calories during the meal when they
ate slowly, but for the normal weight group, the difference was
greater. The normal weight group consumed 88 fewer calories
during the slow meal, and the overweight group consumed 58 fewer
calories.
Researchers are pondering the difference between the two
groups, wondering if the overweight participants may have eaten
less than usual because they felt "self-conscious" during the
study.
The important part, however, is that both groups consumed
less simply by slowing down.2
Both groups also drank more water during the slower meals and
felt less hungry at the end of those meals.
Another study3
in the November 2013 issue of the same journal had similar
findings. Namely, increasing the number of chews before
swallowing reduced food consumption in adults of all body sizes.
An additional finding was that normal-weight people tend to chew
more slowly in general than those who are overweight or obese.
Eating Slowly and Mindfully May Shrink Your Waistline
The research is clear: slowing down your meals does all sorts
of good things for your body, including causing you to eat less.
Eating slowly creates actualbiochemical
changes that make you less inclined to overeat. Even if you
aren't a research buff, I think you will appreciate the
underlying message that comes through loud and clear from these
studies.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism,
July 2, 20134
Eating more slowly leads to improved satiety (feeling
fuller)
Prolonged chewing at lunch decreases later snack intake
The "Almond Study" (Press Release IFT Annual Meeting
& Food Expo in Chicago)7,
8
Almonds chewed 40 times were more fully absorbed and
utilized by the body because the smaller particle sizes
were more bioaccessible; larger particles (10 to 25
chews) resulted in larger particles being expelled from
the digestive tract, undigested. The more you
chew, the less is lost, including the healthy fats!
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
August 20119
Longer chewing results in fewer calories being consumed
and more favorable levels of
appetite-regulating hormonesthat tell your brain when to stop eating
Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
July 200810
Eating more slowly decrease food intake, increased
satiety in healthy women
Eating until full and eating quickly triples your
risk of becoming overweight
How Can Eating More Slowly Do ALL of That?
Could reducing overeating really be this simple? Well, when
you look at the complete picture, it does make sense. When you
eat quickly, your body doesn't have the time to go through its
natural signaling process, which involves a variety of hormones
and feedback loops between your gut and your brain.
Hormones that tell you when you've had adequate food are
produced while you're eating, but it takes a bit of time for
this to occur. If you eat too quickly, you can easily overeat
before your body has a chance to signal that you've had enough.
According to the Harvard Health Blog:12
"Stretch receptors in the stomach are activated as it
fills with food or water; these signal the brain directly
through the vagus nerve that connects gut and brainstem.
Hormonal signals are released as partially digested food
enters the small intestine.
One example is cholecystokinin (CCK), released by the
intestines in response to food consumed during a meal.
Another hormone, leptin, produced by fat cells, is an
adiposity signal that communicates with the brain about
long-range needs and satiety, based on the body's energy
stores.
Research suggests that leptin amplifies the CCK
signals, to enhance the feeling of fullness. Other research
suggests that leptin also interacts with the
neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain to produce a feeling
of pleasure after eating. The theory is that, by eating too
quickly, people may not give this intricate hormonal
cross-talk system enough time to work."
How long does this process take? Scientists seem to agree
that it takes your brain about 20 minutes to tell your body when
enough is enough.
Ghrelin, the "hunger hormone," is produced mainly by your
stomach. Ghrelin appears to act on your brain's pleasure
centers, making you reach for that second (or tenth) chocolate
chip cookie because you remember how wonderful they taste. Lack
of sleep increases ghrelin.
Leptin opposes ghrelin by suppressing hunger and helps
prevent overeating.
Of course, if you suffer from
leptin resistance, you may not be receiving those satiety
signals. But if you scarf down your food in five minutes, you
will definitely NOT receive those satiety signals until it's too
late—which is why you may suddenly find yourself feeling like an
overstuffed Thanksgiving turkey. So, how do you optimize the
dance of the hungry hormones? Eat more slowly. And the best way
to do this is by chewing more.Of course, choosing nutritious
whole foods and getting adequate
exercise are important as well.
Chew on This
Most people chew and swallow their food without thinking
about it—it's almost an unconscious reflex. Inadequate chewing
shortchanges your nutrition, because digestion begins in your
mouth. The
chewing process (mastication) is actually an extremely
important step in digestion, making it easier for your
intestines to absorb nutrients from food particles as they pass
through.
Carbohydrate and fat digestion begin in your mouth.
Inadequate chewing causes foods to pass through your GI tract
without being properly broken down—so nutrients are simply
wasted. As you have already seen, chewing is important in
helping you maintain a healthy weight due to its natural
"portion control" properties. But chewing has other benefits as
well:
Signaling: Chewing sends vital signals
to your body to start preparing for digestion; chewing
starts the secretion of hormones, activates taste receptors,
prepares your stomach lining for secretion of hydrochloric
acid, and prepares your pancreas for secretion of enzymes
and bicarbonate13
Digestion: Your food gets more exposure
to your saliva, which contains digestive enzymes necessary
for the first phase of digestion; saliva also helps
lubricate your food so its passage is easier on your
esophagus14
Pylorus: Chewing relaxes the pylorus, a
muscle at the base of your stomach that controls the passage
of food into your small intestine; saliva helps the pylorus
to operate with ease
Dental Health: Chewing strengthens your
teeth and jaw, and helps prevent plaque buildup and tooth
decay
Bacteria: Chewing discourages
food-borne bacteria from entering your gut on plus-sized
food particles; overgrowth of detrimental bacteria in your
gut may lead to gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea,
cramping, and other digestive problems
How Many Chews Is Enough?
As a culture, we chew less now than we used to because we're
eating fewer whole foods and raw foods. If you consume a whole
foods diet and eliminate processed foods, you naturally have to
do more of the processing yourself (e.g., chewing).
In terms of optimal number of chews, recommendations are all
over the board. Most studies seem to top out at 40 chews per
bite. However, Horace Fletcher, aka "The Great Masticator" and
founder of the chewing movement (if you can call it that),
preached 100 chews per bite. This may be excessive for most
people, but there's something to be said for taking your time,
and chewing as long as you're comfortably able. I think it makes
sense to not obsess over the number of chews, but simply chew
until your food liquefies and loses all texture. Foodie and
author A.J. Jacobs attempted to emulate the Great Masticator for
just one week, and then documented his experience in a very
humorous article entitled "An Overachieving Underchewer."15
Jacobs found that 100 chews "turned out to be insane," and he
was (tongue-in-cheek) unsure of how to accomplish it "without
asphyxiating."
However, when he cut his chew-number down to 50, although
still challenged, he was able to experience the benefits.
Initially his jaw hurt, but by the fourth day that had improved.
After all, your jaw, just like any other part of your body, may
be out of shape. By the end of his experiment, Jacobs claimed
that foods tasted better to him, and he consumed smaller meals
but was more satisfied. This crystallizes what scientists have
been telling us for some time now.
Mindful Mastication: Nourishing Your Body and Soul
What about eating as a form of
meditation? "Mindful eating" is a rapidly growing movement
that not only focuses on slow eating, but turns food into,
well... something akin to a "religious experience." The mindful
eating trend has made its way into some big-time corporations.
For example, the Google compound now schedules one lunch hour
per month as a "mindful lunch hour."16
The practice has its roots in Buddhist teachings. Just as
there are forms of meditation that involve sitting, standing, or
walking in silence, many Buddhist teachers encourage their
students to meditate while eating. It's about experiencing food
more intensely—especially the pleasure of it. According to the
New York Times, mindful eating:
"...Involves becoming aware of that reflexive urge to
plow through your meal like Cookie Monster on a shortbread
bender. Resist it. Leave the fork on the table. Chew slowly.
Stop talking. Tune in to the texture of the pasta, the
flavor of the cheese, the bright color of the sauce in the
bowl, the aroma of the rising steam."
Dr. Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating: A Guide to
Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food,
says, "I think the fundamental problem is that we go unconscious
when we eat." The remedy is simply "to eat, as opposed to eating
and talking, eating and watching TV, or eating and watching TV
and gossiping on the phone while Tweeting and updating one's
Facebook status."
What's on your mind while you're eating may be as important
as WHAT you're eating. Do you ponder the origins of your food,
the farmers who brought it to you, the chicken that gave its
humble life for your nourishment? It's a lot about gratitude.
Mindful eater converts report that it's harder than it
sounds... putting down your fork and tuning inward isn't always
easy. Of course,
mindfulness can be applied to anything you're doing—eating
is just one daily activity that may benefit from this approach.
It is at least food for thought. The bottom line is, slow down,
chew more... talk less. Savoring your food and everything it
brings will undoubtedly benefit your mind, body, and spirit!