For much of human existence, we didn’t have knives and forks and ways to cut up our food before we could eat it. What happened was that we took time to eat because we had to chop up our food with our teeth before actually chewing it. That took time. But today, we have all kinds of food processors that prepare mashed foods. We have boneless meats and fish and all kinds of aids to eat without chewing. In fact, one can even drink their calories.
Many of us have learned to eat too quickly. But is that good for us?
What happens when we chew, chew, chew
Many things happen when we chew, chew, and chew slowly.
- Salivary enzymes. Proper digestion begins in the mouth. Our mouth has digestive enzymes that are released as we chew the food. E.g. saliva has amylase which begins the digestion of starches in the mouth.
- Mastication. The food is broken down into smaller pieces, increasing the surface area, and making it easy for the stomach and the rest of the gastrointestinal tract to continue the process of digestion.
- Lubrication. Chewing slowly allows the saliva to lubricate the food helping it to form a nice bolus for swallowing but also preparing it for further digestion in the rest of the GI tract.
- Solubilization of dry food. Solubilization is the process whereby something becomes soluble or more soluble. As we chew food and allow it to spend more time in the mouth, we give more time for saliva to be secreted to wet the food and cause it to be more soluble. Why is that important? Well, in order to be tasted, the molecules in food must be solubilized. Food doesn’t get well solubilized if we don’t allow it to spend enough time in the mouth. Chewing slowly allows that to happen.
- We taste and enjoy the food more. We only have taste buds in our mouth. There are no taste buds in our esophagus and our stomach. As such, keeping our food in the mouth is the only way we can get the maximum taste out of every bite.
- Satiety. Because the duration of the taste of a specific type of food contributes to our feeling of satiety, keeping foodThe more time food spends in our mouth, the quicker we will get full. The feeling of fullness occurs as a result of many different sensory inputs from the mouth, stomach (stretch receptors as the stomach enlarges), etc.
- Thirst. As food spends more time on your tongue, the salt in it stimulates thirst. This causes you to drink more water with your meals which increases fullness as well. Water is great for us because 70-80% of our bodies are made up of water!
Chewing food slowly is a crucial part of healthy eating.
How long should you chew food for?
Chew 100 times?
Horace Fletcher (1849-1919), nicknamed “The Great Masticator,” was a well known and influential food and health enthusiast. Fletcher was a talented man. He was a world traveler, millionaire businessman, painter, speaker, and author, and self-taught nutritionist who perfected and fanatically distributed his doctrine of “Fletcherism”. He taught that all food must be deliberately masticated and not swallowed until it turned to liquid.
Fletcher strongly believed that chewing every bite of food 100 times would prevent overeating, cure obesity, lead to better systemic and dental health, helped to reduce food intake, and consequently, conserved money. Doing so helped him lose 40 pounds (18 kilograms). He cautioned people not to eat except when they were “good and hungry,” and to avoid eating when they were angry or worried. They were also told that they could eat any food that they wanted, as long as they chewed it until the “food swallowed itself.”
My response to that question is that It depends on what you are eating. Having said that, I advise my patients and those I coach to chew 20-30 times if possible. Move food from one side of the mouth to the other.
Don’t rush your food down! Enjoy it. Chew, chew, chew! Think about the taste of the food you are eating.
You know, even though science supports the benefits of eating slowly, we don’t even need it. It’s simple wisdom. We all grew up with our parents and grandparents telling us to take time to enjoy our food. It’s intuitive. We have teeth in our mouths for a reason.
Watch the following video for further assistance.
