Will chewing food less slow its energy release?

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TerryMyfitbitsnbobs
TerryMyfitbitsnbobs Posts: 238 Member
edited March 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
Some say chewing each mouthful a hundred times helps you eat less. Maybe because the second mouthful will be cold and the last stale. I have a theory that chewing less will slow the bodies ability to break into the calories and so slow down the rate that the energy is released into the blood stream. A bit like fruit is ok if you are diabetic, but fruit juice is a huge no no.
Am I right, or wrong?
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Replies

  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,135 Member
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    In my non-expert opinion, no.

    Why would you think barely chewing your food will slow down your body's ability to get nutrients/energy from said food?

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  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    Nope: If anything chewing will increase energy absorption speed*. For example, the sugars in blended fruit drinks are released faster because the blending breaks up the fiber chains, making the drink a mix of shorter length fiber chains (complex carb chains reduce absorption speeds of simple sugars).

    * note that the total energy released will be the same - it's just the speed of absorption.

    The concept of chewing more to eat less is, I believe, related to the fact that slower eaters tend to eat less because their "I'm full" signalling (Ghrelin suppression?) kicks in before they have crammed the whole meal down their pie hole.
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
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    It's takes 20 minutes for your stomach to register you've eaten from chewing and swelling so I effect you will fill full if you chew slower as you'll eat less if your chewing slow
    Say you normally eat a large dinner in 10 minutes down size that dinner and chew slowly make it last 25 minutes see if there's a difference ?
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    Some say chewing each mouthful a hundred times helps you eat less. Maybe because the second mouthful will be cold and the last stale. I have a theory that chewing less will slow the bodies ability to break into the calories and so slow down the rate that the energy is released into the blood stream. A bit like fruit is ok if you are diabetic, but fruit juice is a huge no no.
    Am I right, or wrong?

    The idea behind chewing so much is to slow down so your body has time to register fullness and you do not take more food than you need. I don't think you have to chew 100 times each bite but just try to eat slower if you tend to overdo it... 20 minutes instead of 5 minutes to eat a meal perhaps. You might slow down by drinking a full glass of water, more conversation at the table or a timer instead of chewing more.
    The speed at which you take in calories probably doesn't matter if you ultimately stick to your calorie goal. It might change how you feel but not change the number of calories you take in that day.


  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
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    Some say chewing each mouthful a hundred times helps you eat less. Maybe because the second mouthful will be cold and the last stale. I have a theory that chewing less will slow the bodies ability to break into the calories and so slow down the rate that the energy is released into the blood stream. A bit like fruit is ok if you are diabetic, but fruit juice is a huge no no.
    Am I right, or wrong?

    Chewing only breaks food down so it is easier to swallow. The stomach grinds food in to small particles so digestion and nutrient extraction will occur in the small intestine. The calories are absorbed no matter if you chew them or blend them and drink them. The reason fruit is good and juice is not is because fruit contains fiber which is not just beneficial to the digestive track, but also helps with satiety. Juice is essentially flavored water from the fruit/vegetable it was extracted from with minimal nutritional benefit.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    It takes less time to digest food that is chewed completely and there are some foods that may pass through your system without being completely digested if you don't chew them. But I doubt it is worth considering because some foods will digest completely whether you chew them or not and it requires calories to chew your food. It is probably just a case of trading calories one place for calories in another.
  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
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    Given your stomach acids can dissolve concrete and metal I don't believe it would do anything.
  • tmoneyag99
    tmoneyag99 Posts: 480 Member
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    this sounds like a fun experiment. How about for the next week, you eat nothing but snickers bars chopped up in swallowable pill sizes without chewing. Make sure you are at least 1000 calories over your daily limit and then report back.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    ???
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
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    Since your stomach acid could probably digest bones with the same ease, i think chewing your food less should probably not be part of your weight loss plan.
  • Larissa_NY
    Larissa_NY Posts: 495 Member
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    Have you ever watched an obese person eat? The ones who are like the obese people in my family, at any rate, inhale food like they just want it to sort of wave at their taste buds in passing. Chew once or twice, bam, down the hatch to make room for the next bite. My mother and grandmother could clean their plates and go back for refills while my aunt was still halfway through and my cousins and I were still working on the meatloaf. In order of degree of obesity, we ranked (grandmother & mother) > (aunt) > (me and my cousins).

    If your theory were correct, fat people who eat like my mother should be as thin as rails. I can't imagine chewing my food a hundred times, because ew, but I'm pretty sure that eating like a fat person is not the way to get thin.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
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    If you swallow a porterhouse whole, it will likely have to sit in your stomach a little while longer than fruit juice. But chewing that steak is highly enjoyable and you'll probably feel a lot better having chewed it.

  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited March 2017
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    GauchoMark wrote: »
    I eat my food whole... like a snake. That's why snakes are so skinny.

    Seriously, there is a diet like this. Snake diet. Just saw a post about it. Unfrikkenbelieveable.

    the human race is doomed

    EDIT - although we are still probably doomed, the "Snake Diet" that I saw at least has you chew. It is more about eating one big meal a day. I guess just a marketing name for intermittent fasting. Is there another one? Maybe we could try to convince them to swallow a watermelon.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    GauchoMark wrote: »
    GauchoMark wrote: »
    I eat my food whole... like a snake. That's why snakes are so skinny.

    Seriously, there is a diet like this. Snake diet. Just saw a post about it. Unfrikkenbelieveable.

    the human race is doomed

    EDIT - although we are still probably doomed, the "Snake Diet" that I saw at least has you chew. It is more about eating one big meal a day. I guess just a marketing name for intermittent fasting. Is there another one? Maybe we could try to convince them to swallow a watermelon.

    I see this more as Darwinism at work. We pass seat belt laws to protect the stupid - nature responds accordingly with the Snake Diet and Hydroxycut.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
    edited March 2017
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    GauchoMark wrote: »
    GauchoMark wrote: »
    I eat my food whole... like a snake. That's why snakes are so skinny.

    Seriously, there is a diet like this. Snake diet. Just saw a post about it. Unfrikkenbelieveable.

    the human race is doomed

    EDIT - although we are still probably doomed, the "Snake Diet" that I saw at least has you chew. It is more about eating one big meal a day. I guess just a marketing name for intermittent fasting. Is there another one? Maybe we could try to convince them to swallow a watermelon.

    Snake diet sounds a little more like how it would come out the next day.