Meals serve much more than a nutritional purpose; they are also intricate biological processes through which digestion, metabolism, and overall health occur. In an age of speedy food and busy lifestyles, millions of people are eating their meals in record time and are totally unaware of the ramifications on their health.
Most discussions involving health and nutrition concentrate on what you eat—amount of calories, grams of fat, grams of sugar, grams of protein, etc.—yet do not emphasize the speed at which you eat.
Recent scientific studies have increasingly shown that eating speed influences your body weight, how efficiently your digestive system functions, and your long-term metabolic health.
As lifestyles become increasingly time-constrained, many households have learned to prioritize work deadlines, screen time, and multitasking over eating, and have created a culture of eating quickly.
The most immediate effect of speeding up your meals is eating more food than your body requires. Your brain typically takes about 20 minutes to receive signals from your stomach about "fullness".
Because you consume your meals quickly, your body does not have an opportunity to turn on chemical signals indicating that you are "full", and therefore you consume more than you should.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than one billion individuals worldwide are classified as being obese, and numbers continue to increase. Additional studies show that people who eat quickly have between 20 and 40 percent higher chances of becoming obese when compared to individuals who eat slowly.
Additionally, one of the results of consuming meals rapidly is that your digestive system becomes stressed. When you chew, you help to begin the digestion process by breaking your food into smaller pieces while mixing it with the saliva in your mouth and other digestive enzymes.
If you swallow your food too quickly, your stomach has to do the work of breaking your food into smaller pieces, and that often causes bloody, acidic indigestion and/or acid reflux.
Research has shown that people who eat quickly are significantly more likely to develop gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and further develop other types of gastrointestinal disease.
Eating too quickly also affects your metabolism. Eating too quickly is correlated with developing metabolic syndrome, which is an excessively large waist circumference (excess abdominal fat), hypertension, elevated glucose levels, and elevated cholesterol levels.
Having these risk factors increases the chances of developing Type II Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or suffering a stroke. In a large Japanese cancer research conducted on 59000 adults, there have been strong connections between eating speed and metabolic health challenges.
Conversely, when you eat slowly, all the benefits are realized. When you eat at a slower pace, it is easier to manage your portion control and thus maximize nutrient absorption while controlling blood glucose levels when finished eating your meal.
Additionally, when you eat slowly, you encourage yourself to be mindful of your eating habits, which can minimize stress-related emotional eating. Finally, when you chew your food more consistently, you produce more saliva, which aids in better oral hygiene and keeps your teeth from decaying.
In addition to the above-mentioned benefits of eating slowly, it will improve the quality of your sleep because of increased nighttime discomfort resulting from overeating.
In a culture where speed is King; Eating at a slower pace should be viewed very seriously, as eating slowly has the greatest potential to positively transform one’s health.
Good health cannot simply be attributed to what is on your plate; but also the pace in which it is consumed. Find opportunities to pause, chew and to intentionally consume your food; and that will lead to a healthier existence.
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