Chew More, Eat Less – How Chewing Can Help to Maintain Satiety

Comment: Parents often tell their children to chew their food more but this new study shows that we should all be telling ourselves to chew more as it can help lower our hunger levels helping us all to maintain satiety and a healthier diet. 

Research:

We were often told as children to chew our food properly, with warnings about what could happen if you ate too fast and did not chew properly. But now new research has given us another good reason to tell our children, and ourselves to chew our food more, satiety. 

The study aimed to look at how chewing and satiety were linked. The study used 21 men eating a set amount of pizza but they were told to chew their food either 15 or 40 times before swallowing it. A set time after the pizza was eaten the participants were asked to complete a survey to determine appetite and had blood taken so satiety hormones could be measured. 

The results of the study show that those participants who were asked to chew their pizza 40 times registered lower levels of hunger, thoughts of food and desire to eat compared with those who chewed just 15 times. The study also found that those who chewed 40 times had much lower levels of ghrelin which is a peptide that stimulates hunger. 

Original research can be found here: http://www.nutrition-communications.co.uk/news_detail.php?news_id=355