Chinese researchers from the Harbin Medical University found that spending more time chewing your food may help you to lose weight. Thoroughly chewing each mouthful reduces the overall amount of kilojoules consumed, and also appears to lower the levels of ghrelin (a ‘hunger hormone’) in the digestive system.

In a study of 30 young men (16 were slim, and 14 were obese), it was found that those who chewed their food 40 times consumed 12% less food than those who only chewed their food 15 times. To determine this, the volunteers were first given a pork pie and filmed by a secret camera to determine how many times they chewed each mouthful before swallowing.

It was found that whilst obese men chewed at the same rate as the slimmer men, they swallowed their food much quicker. In a second experiment, both groups of men were given one pie to chew 15 times, and then a second to chew 40 before swallowing.

In the second condition, both groups of men took in nearly 12% less kilojoules when they ate their food slower and blood tests taken 90 minutes later showed that they also had much lower levels of ghrelin. The researchers said that their work “indicated that eating quickly, gorging and binge eating have a substantial effect on being overweight.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Written exclusively for The Life Dept| Live Longer | 1 August 2011 | providers of life insurance, critical illness insurance and income protection