Studies Show Eating More Slowly Benefits Your Health and Waistline

 Veggie burger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Mercola

"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things will be yours." ~Swedish Proverb

Many scientific studies have explored the benefits of eating more slowly and chewing food longer. You may hear the distant echoes of your mother's admonishment to "slow down" as you plow through your lunch as quickly as possible—as though eating is an inconvenience, an intrusion into your day that keeps you from getting on with "more important things."

But maybe your mother was right. Perhaps you should slow down. After all, what is more important than nourishment? You can't accomplish anything of much importance without a well-nourished body and mind.

Slow Down Your Eating and You'll Eat Less, Study Shows

The latest study to illustrate the importance of slowing down your eating appeared in the January 2014 issue of Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.1Researchers found that you may consume fewer calories over the course of a meal when you eat slowly.

This study was different in that not only did it compare energy intake with eating speed, but it separated subjects into two groups: "normal weight" and overweight/obese.

Both groups consumed fewer calories during the meal when they ate slowly, but for the normal weight group, the difference was greater. The normal weight group consumed 88 fewer calories during the slow meal, and the overweight group consumed 58 fewer calories.

Researchers are pondering the difference between the two groups, wondering if the overweight participants may have eaten less than usual because they felt "self-conscious" during the study.

The important part, however, is that both groups consumed less simply by slowing down.2 Both groups also drank more water during the slower meals and felt less hungry at the end of those meals.

Another study3 in the November 2013 issue of the same journal had similar findings. Namely, increasing the number of chews before swallowing reduced food consumption in adults of all body sizes. An additional finding was that normal-weight people tend to chew more slowly in general than those who are overweight or obese.

Eating Slowly and Mindfully May Shrink Your Waistline

The research is clear: slowing down your meals does all sorts of good things for your body, including causing you to eat less. Eating slowly creates actualbiochemical changes that make you less inclined to overeat. Even if you aren't a research buff, I think you will appreciate the underlying message that comes through loud and clear from these studies.

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, July 2, 20134	Eating more slowly leads to improved satiety (feeling fuller)
PLOS One, June 5, 20135	Prolonged chewing helps prevent diabetes
Appetite, March 20136	Prolonged chewing at lunch decreases later snack intake
The "Almond Study" (Press Release IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo in Chicago)7, 8	Almonds chewed 40 times were more fully absorbed and utilized by the body because the smaller particle sizes were more bioaccessible; larger particles (10 to 25 chews) resulted in larger particles being expelled from the digestive tract, undigested. The more you chew, the less is lost, including the healthy fats!
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 20119	Longer chewing results in fewer calories being consumed and more favorable levels of appetite-regulating hormones that tell your brain when to stop eating
Journal of the American Dietetic Association, July 200810	Eating more slowly decrease food intake, increased satiety in healthy women
British Medical Journal,October 21, 200811	Eating until full and eating quickly triples your risk of becoming overweight

How Can Eating More Slowly Do ALL of That?

Could reducing overeating really be this simple? Well, when you look at the complete picture, it does make sense. When you eat quickly, your body doesn't have the time to go through its natural signaling process, which involves a variety of hormones and feedback loops between your gut and your brain.

Hormones that tell you when you've had adequate food are produced while you're eating, but it takes a bit of time for this to occur. If you eat too quickly, you can easily overeat before your body has a chance to signal that you've had enough. According to the Harvard Health Blog:12

"Stretch receptors in the stomach are activated as it fills with food or water; these signal the brain directly through the vagus nerve that connects gut and brainstem. Hormonal signals are released as partially digested food enters the small intestine.

One example is cholecystokinin (CCK), released by the intestines in response to food consumed during a meal. Another hormone, leptin, produced by fat cells, is an adiposity signal that communicates with the brain about long-range needs and satiety, based on the body's energy stores.

Research suggests that leptin amplifies the CCK signals, to enhance the feeling of fullness. Other research suggests that leptin also interacts with the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain to produce a feeling of pleasure after eating. The theory is that, by eating too quickly, people may not give this intricate hormonal cross-talk system enough time to work."

How long does this process take? Scientists seem to agree that it takes your brain about 20 minutes to tell your body when enough is enough. Ghrelin, the "hunger hormone," is produced mainly by your stomach. Ghrelin appears to act on your brain's pleasure centers, making you reach for that second (or tenth) chocolate chip cookie because you remember how wonderful they taste. Lack of sleep increases ghrelin. Leptin opposes ghrelin by suppressing hunger and helps prevent overeating.

Of course, if you suffer from leptin resistance, you may not be receiving those satiety signals. But if you scarf down your food in five minutes, you will definitely NOT receive those satiety signals until it's too late—which is why you may suddenly find yourself feeling like an overstuffed Thanksgiving turkey. So, how do you optimize the dance of the hungry hormones? Eat more slowly. And the best way to do this is by chewing more. Of course, choosing nutritious whole foods and getting adequate exercise are important as well.

Chew on This

Most people chew and swallow their food without thinking about it—it's almost an unconscious reflex. Inadequate chewing shortchanges your nutrition, because digestion begins in your mouth. The chewing process (mastication) is actually an extremely important step in digestion, making it easier for your intestines to absorb nutrients from food particles as they pass through.

Carbohydrate and fat digestion begin in your mouth. Inadequate chewing causes foods to pass through your GI tract without being properly broken down—so nutrients are simply wasted. As you have already seen, chewing is important in helping you maintain a healthy weight due to its natural "portion control" properties. But chewing has other benefits as well:

• Signaling: Chewing sends vital signals to your body to start preparing for digestion; chewing starts the secretion of hormones, activates taste receptors, prepares your stomach lining for secretion of hydrochloric acid, and prepares your pancreas for secretion of enzymes and bicarbonate13
• Digestion: Your food gets more exposure to your saliva, which contains digestive enzymes necessary for the first phase of digestion; saliva also helps lubricate your food so its passage is easier on your esophagus14
• Pylorus: Chewing relaxes the pylorus, a muscle at the base of your stomach that controls the passage of food into your small intestine; saliva helps the pylorus to operate with ease
• Dental Health: Chewing strengthens your teeth and jaw, and helps prevent plaque buildup and tooth decay
• Bacteria: Chewing discourages food-borne bacteria from entering your gut on plus-sized food particles; overgrowth of detrimental bacteria in your gut may lead to gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramping, and other digestive problems

How Many Chews Is Enough?

As a culture, we chew less now than we used to because we're eating fewer whole foods and raw foods. If you consume a whole foods diet and eliminate processed foods, you naturally have to do more of the processing yourself (e.g., chewing).

In terms of optimal number of chews, recommendations are all over the board. Most studies seem to top out at 40 chews per bite. However, Horace Fletcher, aka "The Great Masticator" and founder of the chewing movement (if you can call it that), preached 100 chews per bite. This may be excessive for most people, but there's something to be said for taking your time, and chewing as long as you're comfortably able. I think it makes sense to not obsess over the number of chews, but simply chew until your food liquefies and loses all texture. Foodie and author A.J. Jacobs attempted to emulate the Great Masticator for just one week, and then documented his experience in a very humorous article entitled "An Overachieving Underchewer."15 Jacobs found that 100 chews "turned out to be insane," and he was (tongue-in-cheek) unsure of how to accomplish it "without asphyxiating."

However, when he cut his chew-number down to 50, although still challenged, he was able to experience the benefits. Initially his jaw hurt, but by the fourth day that had improved. After all, your jaw, just like any other part of your body, may be out of shape. By the end of his experiment, Jacobs claimed that foods tasted better to him, and he consumed smaller meals but was more satisfied. This crystallizes what scientists have been telling us for some time now.

Mindful Mastication: Nourishing Your Body and Soul

What about eating as a form of meditation? "Mindful eating" is a rapidly growing movement that not only focuses on slow eating, but turns food into, well... something akin to a "religious experience." The mindful eating trend has made its way into some big-time corporations. For example, the Google compound now schedules one lunch hour per month as a "mindful lunch hour."16

The practice has its roots in Buddhist teachings. Just as there are forms of meditation that involve sitting, standing, or walking in silence, many Buddhist teachers encourage their students to meditate while eating. It's about experiencing food more intensely—especially the pleasure of it. According to the New York Times, mindful eating:

"...Involves becoming aware of that reflexive urge to plow through your meal like Cookie Monster on a shortbread bender. Resist it. Leave the fork on the table. Chew slowly. Stop talking. Tune in to the texture of the pasta, the flavor of the cheese, the bright color of the sauce in the bowl, the aroma of the rising steam."

Dr. Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food, says, "I think the fundamental problem is that we go unconscious when we eat." The remedy is simply "to eat, as opposed to eating and talking, eating and watching TV, or eating and watching TV and gossiping on the phone while Tweeting and updating one's Facebook status."

What's on your mind while you're eating may be as important as WHAT you're eating. Do you ponder the origins of your food, the farmers who brought it to you, the chicken that gave its humble life for your nourishment? It's a lot about gratitude.

Mindful eater converts report that it's harder than it sounds... putting down your fork and tuning inward isn't always easy. Of course,mindfulness can be applied to anything you're doing—eating is just one daily activity that may benefit from this approach. It is at least food for thought. The bottom line is, slow down, chew more... talk less. Savoring your food and everything it brings will undoubtedly benefit your mind, body, and spirit!

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Why Widespread Nutritional Deficiencies Are a Reality

Vitamin Line-Up (Photo credit: Earthworm)

By Dr. Mercola

There’s been much controversy surrounding the question of whether or not you need to take supplements. Critics claim that vitamin supplements are a waste of money, as you can get all the nutrients you need from your diet. They also claim that most people are not, in fact, nutritionally deficient, thanks to all the fortified foods on the market.

Alas, there are a number of problems with such assertions. First of all, I believe we have to acknowledge that there is a problem with our food supply—it’s simply NOT providing you with the same nutrition as it did in generations past.

This is largely related to industrial based modern methods, which include reliance on synthetic fertilizers that radically decreases nutrient density, including valuable micronutrients that have long ago largely vanished from most of these soils.

Furthermore, toxic agricultural chemicals, used in ever-increasing amounts, end up on and in your food. I believe a strong case can be made that many people—especially if you do not eat a diet of unprocessed, organically-raised foods—aresuffering from nutritional deficiencies of varying kinds and to varying degrees.

To suggest the general population of Americans consume a nutrient dense diet is complete nonsense and shows extreme ignorance of the facts.

General Population Does Not Eat Enough Fruits or Veggies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,1 dated September 10, 2010, highlights one of the core problems encountered by most Americans, and that is lack of access, availability, and affordability of fresh, whole fruits and vegetables. According to the CDC:

“A diet high in fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk for many leading causes of death and can play an important role in weight management.

Healthy People 2010 objectives for fruits and vegetables include targets of increasing to 75 percent the proportion of persons aged ≥2 years who consume two or more servings of fruit daily and to 50 percent those who consume three or more servings of vegetables daily.”

Americans fall far short of such targets. According to the CDC’s report, a mere 32.5 percent of adults consumed fruit two or more times per day in 2009, and just over 26 percent ate vegetables three or more times per day. Overall, no significant changes in vegetable consumption were noted from 2000 to 2009, while fruit consumption actually fell a couple of percentage points... According to the report:

“These findings underscore the need for interventions at national, state, and community levels, across multiple settings (e.g., worksites, community venues, and restaurants) to improve fruit and vegetable access, availability, and affordability...”

Many Do Not Get Sufficient Amounts of Heart-Healthy Omega-3 from Their Diet

Similarly, a recent article in Scientific American2 underscores the nutritional deficiencies caused by declining fish consumption. Recent research published inThe Annals of Internal Medicine3 suggests that eating oily fish, such as wild Alaskan salmon, once or twice a week can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease and arrhythmia and helps decrease all-cause mortality. 

Most Americans are not getting the nutrition they need from their diet. According toScientific American:

“Approximately 69 percent of U.S. individuals were found to be usual fish consumers – meaning they had eaten fish once in the month before being surveyed – according to a review article4 published in 2013. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans5 (DGA) estimate that the average American eats 3.5 ounces of seafood per week, which is around half a fillet of cooked salmon.”

Meanwhile, DGA recommendations call for eating twice this amount, or two 4-ounce servings of fish per week. In light of the well-known health benefits of nutrients such as omega-3 fats, it’s foolhardy in the extreme to assert that eating processed foods and fortified junk foods is enough to maintain your health. Yet, this is exactly what the food industry wants you to believe!

This is NOT a good use of multivitamins, but that’s what the food industry is doing—they’re adding synthetic vitamins and nutrients back into all manner of highly processed foods in order to “ensure” their processed and hence sorely denatured junk does not cause you to be nutrient deficient...

What they’re ignoring is the fact that synthetic vitamins and minerals are not identical to natural ones, and typically cannot be properly or efficiently utilized by your body.

Between processed denatured food being fortified with junk vitamins, and whole food being grown in nutritionally deficient soils, and most people simply not eating enough whole foods to begin with , there’s little doubt that many if not most people are lacking in vital nutrition...

The food and chemical ag industries’ vehement opposition to vitamin supplements probably hinges on the fact that to admit people need supplements is to admit that there’s something really fundamentally wrong with the way they conduct their business. They are great at producing high volume relatively cheap crops, but they fail miserably in producing nutrient-dense, environmentally sustainable foods.

‘The Battlefront for Better Nutrition’

“Yes, there is a battle going on between those who are trying to promote better nutrition, and the food manufacturers who insist on making products ‘worse so that they can be sold for less,’ thereby eliminating the competition of more honest and self-respecting producers who would prefer to apply in business the Golden Rule.”

So begins an article titled “The Battlefront for Better Nutrition,”6 written in 1950. It clearly shows that these problems are not new, because although it was penned more than 60 years ago, the information is as applicable today as it was back then. In fact, besides changes in names of the key characters, the storyline is one we’re all too familiar with. Consider this excerpt:

“These commercial interests have the United States Government on their side, ever since they ousted Dr. Harvey W. Wiley from his job as head of the Food & Drug Administration in 1912. The present head of the Food & Drug Division of Nutrition, Dr. Elmer M. Nelson in a special Constitutional Court in Washington... testified that: ‘It is wholly unscientific to state that a well fed body is more able to resist disease than a less well-fed body. My overall opinion is that there hasn't been enough experimentation to prove dietary deficiencies make one more susceptible to disease.’ (Washington Post, October 26, 1949.)

This is nothing new for Dr. Nelson. Ten years ago he, with his group of experts, testified in a similar court, that neither degenerative disease, infectious disease, nor functional disease could result from any nutritional deficiency.

For all these years, he has battled for the maker of devitalized foods, tried to stem the tide of public opinion against the use of white flour, refined sugar, pasteurized milk and imitation butter by vigorous prosecution of any maker of any dietary supplement designed to abate the consequences of using such devitalized food, basing his arguments on the thesis that there were no such things as deficiency diseases.

Truly, as Dr. Wiley sadly remarked in his book The History of a Crime Against the Pure Food Law (1930), the makers of unfit foods have taken possession of Food & Drug enforcement, and have reversed the effect of the law, protecting the criminals that adulterate foods, instead of protecting the public health.”

Fascinating, isn’t it, how this corrupted system was already well-recognized 60 years ago, yet has been allowed to continue to flourish and grow through the decades! Already, in 1950, they had nailed the problem. Keep in mind that the food industry works hand in hand with the pharmaceutical industry, at least if you consider how the two industries support each other. One destroys your health while proclaiming to feed you, while the other sells you expensive remedies that never cure the ailment—they  can’t really, because that’s what food is for! I highly recommend reading through this old gem of an article. It’s quite an eye-opening experience.

Most Clinical Studies on Vitamins Use Flawed Methodology

More recently, an analysis published in the journal Nutrients,7, 8 asserts that most large, clinical studies of vitamin supplements that have reached negative conclusions use flawed methodology that “renders them largely useless in determining the real value of these micronutrients.” The problem, they say, is that researchers are studying the effects of nutrients in the same way you’d evaluate the effects of a powerful prescription drug.

Another problem is that most large studies on vitamins have been carried out on well-educated and more affluent people, such as doctors and nurses, who typically tend to have among the best dietary habits simply because they’re better informed and can afford better food. As stated by Balz Frei, professor and director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University and co-author of the analysis:

"It's fine to tell people to eat better, but it's foolish to suggest that a multivitamin which costs a nickel a day is a bad idea."

According to the authors, these methodological flaws leads to conclusions that have little scientific meaning, let alone bearing on reality. And, in fact, many such trials defy both other available evidence and common sense. For example, as I wrote about last October, one analysis concluded that making better use of supplements could save the American healthcare system BILLIONS of dollars each year. It stands to reason that a nutritional supplement would benefit you more if you have a nutritionally deficient diet or suffer from a particular vitamin deficiency. But most clinical studies do not identify baseline nutritional inadequacies, or whether supplementation actually remedies a deficiency, and what the subsequent health effects of such remediation might be. Without this data, any clinical conclusion becomes more or less meaningless.

As reported by Medical News Today:9

“These flawed findings will persist until the approach to studying micronutrients is changed... Such changes are needed to provide better, more scientifically valid information to consumers around the world who often have poor diets, do not meet intake recommendations for many vitamins and minerals, and might greatly benefit from something as simple as a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement. Needed are new methodologies that accurately measure baseline nutrient levels, provide supplements or dietary changes only to subjects who clearly are inadequate or deficient, and then study the resulting changes in their health.”

The Threat of Worldwide Famine Is Quite Real

We also cannot discuss the state of our nutrition without addressing the now very clear fact that declining soil quality is having a major impact on the nutritional status of our food. Worse yet, mismanagement of soils, worldwide, courtesy of modern farming methods, could lead to massive food shortages. In a November 2013 article, The Telegraph10 discussed the growing threat of worldwide hunger caused by decades of flawed agricultural land management:

“American scientists have made an unsettling discovery. Crop farming across the Prairies since the late 19th Century has caused a collapse of the soil microbia that holds the ecosystem together... Entitled ‘Dust to Dust,’ the paper argues that the erosion of soil fertility has been masked by a ‘soup of nutrients’ poured over crop lands, giving us a false sense of security... Chemicals can keep crop yields high for a while but the complex ecology beneath is being abused further... The paper calls for a complete change of course as the ‘only viable route to feeding the world and keeping it habitable.’"

The article goes on to discuss examples of how governments make matters worse by “sacrificing their future to stop their people from starving today.” While many of the examples revolve around deforestation and destruction of fertile lands in third-world countries, the same argument can be made for the Western world. Here, corporate-dictated malfeasance at our federal agencies has resulted in food and agriculture systems that are knowingly killing people and the earth we live on.

Corporations Are Not Capable of Creating Policy That Protects and Benefits Citizens

Pesticide producers and junk food manufacturers have been allowed to create terrifyingly ignorant policies for health, in exchange for a rather lucrative business model that benefits their own bottom lines. This has been going on for decades, and once a lie begins, it must be defended. Reputations (not to mention continued profits) are at stake.

Just look at the history of trans fats, which we’ve long known to be a primary cause of heart disease killing millions of Americans. It took some 60 years before action was finally taken, this past November, by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove this harmful substance from the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list.

The Big Tobacco model also parallels the current food and agricultural model—Kill people slowly and there’s no liability... Sad but true, private corporations dictate food, environmental, and health policy in the US and in many other areas of the world, and this is in large part how we got into our current mess.

All in all, we seem to have a problem understanding and appreciating the importance of diversity when it interferes with a business model, which is why we always end up with an industrialized monoculture-type model that decimates the environment and ultimately threatens the very future of mankind. For example, in 2013 alone, some 1.6 million acres of land (an area equal to the state of Delaware) was removed from the American federal Conservation Reserve Program,11 which pays farmers to keep their land swathed in native grasses and/or trees. This precious land is now being turned into more corn and wheat fields. As reported by NPR:12

“There’s a growing demand for more food and biofuel... and farmers are responding to that demand. Most of them also want to protect soil, streams and wildlife... Yet it can be difficult to do both.”

Revolving Doors Between Industry and Government Must Be Sealed Shut

As stated by Veerle Vanderweerde, the environment chief of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD):13 "They can't just come in, take the resources, and then walk away. The big companies need to change their behavior and they won't do it unless they are made to.”

The problem is, there’s no one telling these companies they have to be better stewards—of sea, air, land, soil, and yes, even microbes—as the same companies doing and reaping immediate profits from the harm are in essence running policy from withinour government agencies... The revolving doors between industry and government bodies charged with their oversight must be addressed, and shut. As stated by The Telegraph:14

“We are becoming complacent again. The blunt truth is that the world cannot afford to lose one hectare of land a year, let alone 12m hectares. The added discovery that we doing even more damage than feared to the soil microbia should bring us to our senses... The global land crisis is almost entirely our own doing. It is closing in on us right now. It can be reversed if world leaders choose to reverse it.”

Improve Your Nutrition by Updating Your Shopping Habits

A strong case can be made that most people are struggling with getting enough high quality, bioavailable nutrients from their diet. I would go so far as to say it may be virtually impossible to do so if your diet consists primarily of processed foods and no fresh vegetables.

I’m quite prudent in my recommendations of nutritional supplements, urging people to get their nutritional needs met by the foods they eat. But the bottom line is that you have a problem with your food supply, and most likely simply not getting enough high-quality whole foods. Certain nutrients also tend to be scarce overall, even in organic foods. In such cases, taking a high-quality nutritional supplement is most likely going to do far more good than harm.

One of the best options you can implement is to grow your own food. You can put your toe in the water by growing sunflower sprouts  as you don’t need much space and can even do this in a studio apartment or college dorm room. The next step is to grow the vegetables you like in optimized soil, highly amended with Biochar and rock dust powder like basalt and Azomite, which are phenomenal sources of trace minerals. Greenhouses can be added to radically extend your growing season. Remember that prior to World War 2, 40 percent of the vegetables grown in America were grown by urban farmers in their front or backyard.

Buying your food from a local organic source is another way to ensure that it’s both fresh and high-quality. I strongly advise you to avoid wilted vegetables of any kind, because when vegetables wilt, they lose much of their nutritional value. In fact, wilted organic vegetables may actually be less healthful than fresh conventionally farmed vegetables. (For tips on cleaning your fruits and veggies, please see my previous article: “7 Tips for Cleaning Fruits, Vegetables.”) Regardless of whether you’re shopping at a supermarket or a farmer’s market, here are the signs of a high-quality, healthy food:

Grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)	Not genetically modified
Contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs	Does not contain any artificial ingredients, including chemical preservatives
Fresh (keep in mind that if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may be the better option)	Did not come from a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO)
Grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free access to the outdoors)	Grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

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