Longevity Briefs: Chewing Food More Thoroughly May Help You Eat Less, and Lose Weight

Longevity briefs provides a short summary of a novel research, medicine, or technology that caught the attention of our researchers in Oxford, due to its potential to improve our health, wellbeing, and longevity.

Why is this research important: Due to the high rates of obesity in many parts of the world novel weight management techniques are surfacing almost everyday. Studies have shown that the manner in which we chew our food can have a big impact on whether we overindulge ourselves.

What did the researchers do: Researchers based at the Iowa state university, USA, gathered 21 men to observe whether how thoroughly they chewed their food had an impact on satiety, i.e how full you feel after a meal, and their bodies glycemic response.

The participants were randomly assorted into two groups. One group were instructed to chew on each and every bite of a pizza fifteen times, whilst the other group had to chew forty times. Following the pizza, the men underwent blood tests, questionnaires and were allowed to eat as much as they wanted to reach full satiety. The researchers recorded the amount eaten by each participant.

Key takeaway(s) from this research: Domino’s (ba dum tshhh).

Whilst there was no difference in the amount of food consumed in the following meal between the two groups, the subjective appetite of those that chewed the each bite forty times was significantly lower than those who only chewed fifteen times. The blood tests revealed that those that chewed more also experienced greater glucose absorption. Although the evidence is unclear as to what degree chewing more thoroughly may benefit weight management, it may just be worth a try.

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