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The more times you chew each bite, the fewer calories you'll consume, says new study that proves your mother correct.
If you’re trying to lose weight (and aren’t we all?), here’s a study to chew on:
The more your choppers mash up each bite of food, the less food you’re likely to eat at a meal, Chinese researchers reported recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
In other words, Mom was right again, although her advice on this subject might have stemmed more from an exaggerated fear of choking than of having to buy clothes for you in the chubby department. The new study confirms: Don’t wolf down your food. Chew it, then chew it some more.
The latest research involved 16 lean and 14 obese young men. After a 12-hour fast, the volunteers came to the laboratory to eat a typical Chinese breakfast— pork pie, not Cocoa Puffs — while a video camera recorded how frequently they chewed each bite. All of the men were given the same portion and told they could ask for more.
The scientists theorized that the obese men would chew less per bite and, indeed, they were right. And while the size of their bites was similar to that of the lean men, the obese men ended up consuming more calories.
So the researchers, who were from Harbin Medical University, tried another experiment. They brought the men back to the lab and served up pork pie again for breakfast, as much as the men cared to eat. But one day they asked the men to chew each bite 15 times, while another day they asked them to chew 40 times.
Didn’t matter whether the men were obese or lean: They consumed about 12 percent fewer calories when they chewed each bite 40 times than when they chewed 15 times, and they had lower levels of ghrelin, the so-called hunger hormone produced in the stomach.
“Chewing less is a risk factor for obesity,” the scientists conclude, perhaps because increased chewing releases nutrients from food more efficiently. Encouraging people to chew more, they write, could be a valuable tool--along with diet and exercise--for helping people lose weight.
I wondered if that might be biting off more than many people could chew, so I asked Mauro Farella of New Zealand’s University of Otago how hard it would be to get folks to masticate more.
Farella was the senior author on a chewing paper posted Aug. 1 by the Journal of Dental Research. He and his coauthors had theorized that people chew at their own consistent pace, part of their unique “fingerprint of masticatory behavior.” His study didn’t find a link between the pace at which people chewed and how thoroughly they chewed.
“I have no idea about whether it would be possible to teach an individual to slow down or up the chewing pace or to change the duration of chewing before swallowing,” Farella says. In principle, though, he says it might be possible to get people to chew each bite more, because, as Mom knows, we at least have partial control over it.
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Leave a Comment:
So I can have all the mint chocolate chip ice cream I want, as long as I chew it thoroughly?
I'll do some extensive experimenting, and get back to you.....
I think with ice cream you have to hurry or it will melt - that is my excuse...
Good luck chewing ice cream.
Well, if I don't make it to 40 chews on one spoonful of ice cream, I'll just have to try another spoonful. And another. And another.
Research is tough!
No, no, Big Dick, it's 40 chews per bite, not 40 chews per burrito.
Maybe I should quit snorting my Big Macs
I freebase mine. That's still okay, right?
Wait. Are you people telling me that Horace Fletcher was right?
I think the researches copied his ideas. All crap.
I work with several women who have never had kids and appear as thin as they probably always have been, although they talk about their weight and dieting more than the "larger" women in the office, including me. I have had four kids. I am aware that there are women who have had multiple kids and can still wear tiny bikinis. I could probably wear one if I had not had one child by C-section. I can tell you from eating with them every day that they eat a LOT more than I do. One of them eats several lunches and has the next bite on her fork before swallowing the last. She is tiny. My focus us healthy eating and especially adequate exercise, but there is no getting around different body types.
Where is the study that shows how long each 40 bite meal takes? I am into fitness and eating a balanced diet, but I don't get an hour to eat each meal.
Seeing as my mother is one of those OCD people who MUST chew everything until it's dissolved into subatomic particles, it takes a very long time. She'll take an hour to eat a grilled cheese. Whenever my family goes out to eat, we always joke about calling the restaurant to order her food before we leave the house so she can get a head start and be finished when the rest of us are.
You know, she may have an undiagnosed jaw disorder (tmj). Google it. People who cannot move their jaw normally eat a lot slower!1
Thanks for the info, LA Deb. My mom chews her food like that because she was told as a child that she would be unhealthy if she didn't. Old habits die hard, I guess.
Struggling with my weight, I found a very simple and
convenient way to count calories and track my food intake using a new method
called the "Categories Method" by CountEat :a very useful iPhone app.
ENJOY
Unless you have some medical reason for being overweight you can lose weight. You have a choice of what you put in your body. To lose weight it takes commitment and self control. I am an example of this. My normal weight should be around 170lbs. I didn't eat right by shoveling in Cheetos, potato chips and 14oz porterhouses and before i knew it i was 221lbs. 6 weeks ago i went to the Dr. My blood pressure was way up 145/90, sugar was up, cholesterol was terrible ETC... Since i am a "show me the numbers guy"something clicked. I got a meal plan from my Dr, bought a bike, weights, and a few other items. I changed almost my entire diet to fruits and veggies (with chicken,tuns, and occasional 5oz steak or chop)). Limited the red meat and bad snacks. The best thing was to get some recipes to make my meals more interesting as dieting can get boring. I am down to 198lbs in 6 weeks, i exercise 45min 4 times a week. Do i still eat some junk occasionally? Sure! But in limited quantities. I also cook and make my own meals from scratch, never eat out, and avoid most pre-made processed food. Another bonus! My food bill dropped.So i saved $. I have more energy. less chemicals in my body, and overall feel healthier. My blood pressure is now 117/79.
If your employer has a wellness plan take advantage of it. Many people think these plans are just pests which is what i though at first. But after working with them they do have some great advice. Because i am in my employers wellness program they give me discounts on my insurance premiums saving me $547.Be healthy and get paid for it? Sure!
Sure you lost weight. Anybody can lose weight. Still, unfortunately for you, you're very likely to put it all back on. Right now you're "On A Mission" and you're losing weight.
Write back in two years.
wolffchad
Good on you! You have a great attitude, and it sounds like you're seeing solid results. I did something similar and I lost 65 lbs between November 2010 and May of this year. When you realize how much better you feel eating real natural foods, it becomes almost easy.
City-Data Forum
What a productive comment.
This defeatist attitude is the hallmark of a person who will never self-improve.
When I was growing up, my mother told me and my siblings to chew our food 32 times to the bite. None of us are fast eaters or fat. Back in those days, men used the standard big dinner plate, and women used a smaller sized plate. The size was between the big dinner plate and a salad plate. American women should start that in their homes asap.
I have a colleague who eats like its her last meal and I'm so embarrassed, I can't stand to watch her eat, as are the others in the room. And guess what, she is obese and a diabetic on insulin.
Since the ecomomy seems to be out of our control we could control our intake; save money by eating smarter and slower!
My mother is absolutely obsessive about chewing everything 32 times, and she's the fattest person in our family. This study makes no sense to me. Solid food takes up more space in the stomach than liquid (or food chewed until it is liquid), so you'd think that obsessive chewers would be more overweight.
All these studies are complete BS. I have been thin all my life and I have eaten fast food and tons of other stuff some of you people and the gov't claim obesity. I am healthy for the most part of then psoriasis and arthritis (which is hereditary). I work 10 hours a day and have a huge breakfast, light lunch and then a large dinner. It is not what we eat but our activity levels.
Americans today have become lazy and that inactivity leads to fat building up in their bodies. I am only behind my computer for only an hour total every day. Other then that I am up playing with my kids, outdoors mowing and taking care of my house, at the gym or at work.
They key to getting healthier and thinner is to get off your lazy butts and get more active.
You make a good point but it's only one part of the equation. Weight loss(gain) = calories burned - calories consumed. To lose weight you either have to increase your activity level (calories burned) or decrease how much you eat (calories consumed). Most people could probably stand to do both.
Wrong again. You're thin because your dad and mom were thin. Fat people aren't fat because they don't go to the gym and thin people aren't thin because they do. People aren't thin because the run, the run because they are thin. Ever notice people at the gym don't change much? Even though they work out every day? Same fat guy, same thin guy. They stay the same.
Actually that equation is incomplete. Calories in = Calories burned + calories stored + calories wasted. That's why two people, one fat and one thin, can eat exactly the same and exercise exactly the same but one stays fat and one stays thin? Why? Because one wastes more than the other and one stores more than the other.
Maybe chewing so much caused their jaws to get tired and they just didn't want to chew anymore?
Maybe fat people are too lazy to chew.
Maybe morons are too insensitive to be productive.
That's your problem fatso. You have been molly coddled too long. Stop feeding your fat face, get educated on dieting and exercise, and lose some weight.
City-Data Forum,
Your a troll. You are exactly the people i ignore. I absolutely could care less what your opinion is. If you can't contribute anything productive then go back in your box.
Geez Louise just reading this makes my jaws ache. I have temporomandibular joint dysfunction and am not supposed to over-chew anything (no gum allowed.)
Glad to see that someone remembered Fletcher. As I recall, it was Henry Ford or one of the Rockefellers that was an adherent of "Fletcherism". Good advice either way.
A bunch of bs here. Just quit eating out and drinking a gallon of soda a day. That will do wonders for your weight and overall health.
Darn, you're pretty smart. I wonder why no one else thought of that.
Help me understand this. I am currently eating lunch (Subway). I take a bite, and after 18 to 19 chews, the portion in my mouth is completely liquefied. I can suck it through my teeth. How can anyone chew anything for 40 bites? As an experiment, I just tried to chew 40 times with nothing in my mouth and couldn't get past 25 without automatically swallowing. Yes, I am HWP.
Lucky you! If I chew something more than 5-10 times on average, it makes me gag! Now that would probably be a wonderful 'diet' plan, in that I'd never actually eat anything and starve myself into oblivion.
It's much easier and more productive for me to eat like a hummingbird: little tiny meals throughout the day, so that I'm never truly hungry, nor ever too full.
My guess is it helps only because after the 5th bite of 40 chews each you'd be completely exhausted and bored out of your mind and forfeit the meal. But I suppose I'll give it a go. "I wanna lose 3 lbs."
Yes! I call it my Cut/Chew diet: Eat what you want but cut your portions in half. Chew each bite into slime before swallowing. Does two things. Turns your victuals into the best possible way for your body to optimally utilize your food. Gives you time while you're chewing to let your mind catch up to your stomach. Eureka! You wind up eating much less. The Cut/Chew diet doesn't work for most Americans, though, for three reasons: 1) Instant gratification--I want it NOW. 2) Boring--we need to be entertained every second, or we're GONE. 3) No time--too much waiting for us to do, not a second to spare. But there's something else sure to work for you: a vomitorium. You can build one cheap. A million ancient Romans and Greeks swore by them.
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hey u all are so slow...u only found that out now?...islam tought this 1400 years ago......
Was this another American tax funded Chinese study?
This is DISGUSTING. What better way then to mush up your food, and feel the NASTY soggy texture of it.
Absolutely nauseating.
I think I'll stick to my healthy foods and elliptical excercise.
It certainly can lead to obsessive/compulsive behavior. Hell, chew 40 times and spit out the food, that even works better.
of course you'd loose weight. 44 chews per bite of food would take you a whole day to eat one meal.
my momma told me I'd go blind if I masticated.
I've never been heavy and I can only tell you that when I was a kid my two older sisters used to always tell me I was "so slow" at eating...."why are you so slow"????? they would nag. "She's always last" to finish....One of them is now 250 lbs. I guess karma is a bitch!!!
I can't imagine ground up tasteless food in my mouth for 40 chews. I think that 40 chews per bite would aid in weight loss, because I would throw up each course. So if achieving weight loss through purging is the goal then I'm in for 40 chews. Yuck!
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