The Effects of Chewing Behavior on Digestion: Separating Fact from Fiction

Do you ever eat in front of the TV or your laptop? Then there is a good chance that you do not consciously chew your food.

Chewing too little would cause flatulence and extra pounds, but is that correct? PhD student Georgia Chatonidi (KU Leuven) specializes in the effects of eating behavior on digestion and examines a number of propositions.

1. Chewing longer is good for digestion

FABLE “Be careful with such general statements,” warns Georgia Chatonidi. She is doing a PhD at KU Leuven and focuses in her research on nutrition and health specifically on the feeling of satiety, the way in which you consume food and metabolic reactions.

“It’s true that by chewing longer you make the work of the enzymes in your saliva easier. Those enzymes break down the large molecules of nutrients into smaller pieces of glucose, which your body can then better absorb. If you chew for a long time, you produce more saliva, so that those pieces quickly become very small and your body absorbs the glucose faster.

During the first half hour of food digestion, chewing thoroughly can slightly increase the amount of glucose and insulin absorbed. But the influence of chewing behavior on the overall glucose regulation after food intake is very small in healthy subjects. The increase in insulin production in the early stages of digestion may be especially helpful for people with pre-diabetes.”

“There is no scientific evidence that there is any effect on your general metabolism three or four hours after chewing. However, enough chewing can contribute to an overall healthy lifestyle as an incidental factor, but completely alone it does not play any role in the digestive system for most people.”

2. If you swallow too quickly, you may gain weight

FACT “Simply explained: you gain weight when you consume more kilocalories than you burn. If you eat very quickly, but exercise enough, you will not gain weight. And by eating slowly, but sitting in your chair all day, you won’t lose weight. But when you eat faster, you do get more calories than when you eat slowly. By taking the time to chew your food well and paying attention to the eating process, you will feel full faster and stop eating sooner.”

“Take fruit, for example. A glass of fruit juice contains the juice of about four oranges and you can drink it in a few seconds. If you peel an orange instead and eat the pieces like this, it will last you longer and probably have enough after just one orange. It will also take longer before you want to eat something again. So you get fewer kilocalories.”

3. Insufficient chewing causes polluted, blocked intestines and a disrupted immune system

FABLE Georgia Chatonidi frowns. “That’s not right at all! Where did you get that? (laughs) It is not harmful to your intestines not to chew for a very long time. Not really. As long as you don’t choke on your food, there is no danger to your health.”

4. Chewing quickly leads to burps or flatulence

FACT and FABLE “Yes and no. Belching and flatulence are the result of gases in the stomach or intestine. Those gases are created when you ingest air with food. This can happen when you take large bites and swallow them quickly, but also when you talk while eating.”

5. It is best to chew ten to twenty times before swallowing food

FABLE “There is no gold standard for how many times or how long you should chew,” the researcher explains. “How long you have to chew depends on two factors. The texture is the first factor. Is the food solid or liquid, hard or soft? You will chew longer on a steak than on a sandwich.”

“In addition, you also have to take into account natural variability between groups and individuals. Older people often have weaker jaws and take longer to chew. Men have larger mouths, take bigger bites and eat faster. But one man will also just eat slower or faster than the other. That’s completely normal. When the texture of the food is fine enough, your natural instinct will make you swallow.”

Eat slower

Do you want to eat slower? Then researcher Georgia Chatonidi advises to choose food that you can chew longer and also to use all your senses when consuming the food. “Look at the food, possibly feel it, smell it and consciously taste it. Experiencing those sensations for longer leads to you feeling full faster and eating less at your next meal.”

“When you watch TV or read emails while you eat, your brain will forget the food faster and there will be less time between that moment and your next meal. Or you will eat more at the next meal. We see this, for example, in people with Alzheimer’s: when they no longer remember what they already ate, they will want to eat again or eat more at the next meal, even if they are not hungry.”

This article was previously published on HLN.be.