How many times have you heard people tell you that it is better for your health to eat more slowly? Easier said than done, and we all know that.
Here is information from an article in the Wall Street Journal on August 12, 2014 called How Many Bites Do You Take a Day? Try 100. I will give you tips from that article that I hope will help you to be able to put this age-old excellent advice into practice. While this article is full of expensive devices to order to help people eat more slowly, it is my pleasure to provide you with the logical and practical guidelines embedded within the article that will guide you to be able to to chew more and then as a result eat slower because of it..
“If you’re eating too fast,” the article explains, “you’re probably not chewing and enjoying your food very well and you’re probably going to be more likely to eat too much. Encouraging people to eat more slowly, take smaller bites and chew each bite more is an important component of weight control and management, experts say.”
“They also believe slowing down while eating benefits digestion, lessens problems like acid reflux and allows for more nutrient absorption. There is very strong evidence pointing to the evidence of chewing. The nerves that feed into the muscles in the jaw connect to satiety areas in the brain.”
From a previous tip on “Parenting in the News” that I posted on Friday November 22, 2013 on Parenting Tips with Dr. Sally titled
Cut Calories! A Fun and Easy Way
we already learned that chewing food well before passing it along down the esophagus lets the food enter the stomach in a better form to be absorbed into the blood stream ready for transport all over the body. That means more nutrients are absorbed from well-chewed food than from food that enters the stomach in bigger pieces. More nutrients, more bang for the buck, so to speak, tells your body to stop seeking more food, another message of satiety.
Because of the variety of content and textures that people eat, there is no one number of recommended chews for food. However, experts agree that “a range from roughly 10 to 20 chews per mouthful” is best for weight loss and improved digestion.”
Here is a great summary sentence: “We have found that the eating speed is much, much more important than what you actually put on the plate.”
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This is a very interesting article.
Thanks for sharing these facts. Worth serous contemplation for us all.
This reminds me of an experience from my past.
When my girls were little, I used to read to them certain books over and over that I thought had very important messages embedded in them. One of the of the books I used to read was about daily health care, and one of the lines from that book was “Chew the food well.” I guess that really did turn out to be a very important message.