A study has found that people who chew their food slower end up losing more weight. Just making sure to chew each mouthful of food for 30 seconds can lead to 5 pounds of weight loss over 6 months. A control group who ate normally gained around 8 pounds. No exercise or major diet change in diet was involved.1✅ JOURNAL REFERENCE
DOI: 10.1111/ijpo.12091
The slower approach to eating gives you more time for the feeling of fullness to get from your stomach to your brain. According to the researchers, you can use this slow eating approach for the rest of your life. Once you’ve learned it, you can teach it to your children and they can teach their children too.
For the study, 54 children aged 6- to 17-years-old were asked to chew each mouthful for 30 seconds, with a small hourglass provided to help them keep track of time. The hourglass made it more like a game, and the children would remind each other when they forgot.
The only other thing mentioned in the study was not to have any snacks in between meals and drink a glass of water before a meal.
The results showed that the group of children who ate slowly for a year lost between 3% and 5% of their body weight. Children in the control group gained 7%-8%.
Slow eating allows your stomach to tell the brain that you are full. The “satiety reflex” signal takes around 15 minutes to reach the brain, but many people eat an entire meal before this happens.
Prevention is a lot more effective than treatment, which is why the method focuses on preventing weight gain. It’s inexpensive and simple to follow!
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