From childhood we are always said to eat slowly and to chew the food properly before swallowing. Chewing the food properly and eating slowly provides us several health benefits like eliminate constipation, avoid cc, assist in weight loss, avoids bloating and gastric problems. Do you know digestion and nutrient absorption starts simply by chewing the food and hence slow down your eating for better health. Here are few health benefits of eating slowly and chewing down the food
Superior digestion– When you eat slowly and chew your food completely it helps to improve your digestion. When you keep the food in mouth for chewing, your body releases more saliva which contains digestive enzymes. Your food properly gets mixed with saliva and digestive enzymes in your mouth and help in digestion. These digestive enzymes help in digestion and to absorb the nutrients present in the food you eat. By chewing for longer time, the food is broken down into small particles and most of the digestion process starts in the mouth itself. This process of digestion helps to control pressure on stomach and small intestine. When we chew our food and eat slowly signals are sent to our brain about the food type you are eating and this helps our body to secrete digestive juices which soothe digestive system.
Enjoy the food– In the process of chewing the food, you keep the food in your mouth for longer times than usual. This helps you to relish the taste of the food and feel satisfied. When you eat the food quickly you may fail to enjoy the food.
Weight loss– This is the most important benefit of eating slowly by chewing the food properly. Chewing the food for longer time gives you a feeling of fullness. This feeling of fullness sends a signal to the brain that you ate enough amount of food and this makes you eat less. Eating low quantity food indeed helps you to lose some extra weight. Take smaller bites and chew it longer to break the food into small particles and to lose some weight. When people eat in a rush they tend eat more which makes them to gain weight. People who try to lose weight are suggested to eat slowly by chewing the food properly.
Controls stress– when people sit and eat slowly, they tend to get relief from stress. The process of eating and chewing the food are treated as mind exercises. When you feel full your brain gets the signal of satiety and this helps to control stress. When you eat in a rush thinking about what to do next, it increases stress and makes you low.
Most importantly along with the above benefits, people who eat slowly by chewing and enjoying the taste of the food, actually avoid eating junk and fast foods. When they enjoy the taste of their food, they feel that the junk foods are full of oil and salt and may not wish to eat them.
What are the ways to Eat slower
Following few slow eating tips helps you to eat slowly by enjoying the food thoroughly. Here are few health tips for slow eating
- Do not eat when you are working, driving or doing other works.
- Sit separately in a calm environment and enjoy your food.
- Put down your spoon or utensils down after having every bite, this helps you eat slowly
- Chew properly , you can also fix number of times you want to chew one bite
- Use smaller plates or boxes for your food, this helps in consuming less quantity of food
- You can also find a friend with a habit of eating slowly by chewing for longer periods and eat together.
- Fix certain amount of time only for eating like 20 to 30 minutes.
How the body get effected with fast eating
Eating quickly adversely affects your health and leads to several health problems. Here are few fast eating problems
- Eating quickly increases your risk of weight gain, as you tend to eat more when you are in a rush.
- People who eat fastly face indigestion problems as they chew very less and just gobble the food without enjoying. They also face other digestion problems.
- People eat more in a hurry and feel uncomfortable after eating
- Burping is a common problem seen in people who eat quickly and heavily. It makes the uncomfortable in their work place and other gatherings.
- Eating in hurry increase your risk of acid reflux, in severe cases acid reflux can also lead to GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).
- You experience burning feel in your chest which is also called as heart burn.
- People who tend to eat more in a rush also experience bloating problems.
- By eating fastly you tend to consume more food and this increase your risk of overweight and obesity problems.
- It also increases the risk of high cholesterol and leads to several health problems like heart problems.
- It also increases your risk of developing chronic problems like diabetes.
- Chewing less and eating quickly increase the risk of metabolic syndrome.
Benefits of Slow Eating
As we discussed above slow eating has several health benefits and also improves your overall health physically and mentally. Here are few more benefits of slow eating and proper chewing
- It reduces the risk of bacteria in colon. When you don’t chew the food properly, it can lead to bacterial overgrowth in the colon and you can avoid this by chewing the food for longer.
- When you chew the food into smaller particles, it gets mixed with saliva and makes it easy to move through your digestive tract.
- It reduces pressure on small intestine.
- You will absorb more nutrients from the food
- Keeps you energetic and light even after your meals as you tend to eat less
- Helps to eliminate digestive problems and also reduce the risk of several health problems by controlling weight.