This expert: Fu Shufang, master of food science and nutrition engineering, China Agricultural University, technician of National Key Laboratory of cardiovascular disease
Reviewed by: Liu Shaowei, associate director and professor of food and drug regulatory research center of East China University of science and technology, Ph.D. in food science of Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D. in Kansas State University
Every day's meal time should be one of the most relaxing moments of our day. As the saying goes, "chew carefully and swallow slowly". But in today's fast-paced society, it's just luxury.
After a day's work and study, a big meal is swept away.
Many people think that being fat and thin depends on how little you eat. It has nothing to do with how fast you eat.
But it's not just about it, it's about it.
Eating fast and slow, not only with weight, but also with many diseases.
What's the harm of eating too fast?
1. Eating too fast causes the most intuitive harm - prone to obesity!
A comprehensive analysis of 23 literature data shows that people who eat fast are 2.15 times more likely to be obese than people who eat slowly.
Studies among children have found that eating too fast not only makes people fatter, but also affects their health in the future.
Recently, a Japanese program conducted an experiment on the effect of eating fast and slow on body weight, and the results were astonishing.
When a subject chews 4 times per mouthful of food on average and finishes the rectification meal in 5 minutes, the blood sugar value rises rapidly from 99 mg / dl, and reaches 199 mg / dL in 60 minutes or so. (blue line)
Japanese variety show video screenshot
Why does eating too fast make people fat?
Professor shihara Chunhong, from the Department of hypertension and endocrinology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, explained that it was related to insulin.
Eating too fast will make the blood sugar in the body rise rapidly, and the body will then secrete a lot of insulin.
Insulin can reduce blood sugar, convert excess sugar into fat and store it in the body. When this part is converted into more fat, people are more likely to get fat.
On the contrary, when the participants chewed 28 times per mouthful and finished eating 30 minutes, the blood glucose value basically rose slowly. (red line)
Japanese variety show video screenshot
After 10 days, the subjects lost 2.1 kg.
In fact, there is another reason why eating too fast is easy to get fat. It takes a certain time for our brain to receive the signal of satiety, generally about 20 minutes. If we eat too fast, it is easy to eat too much unconsciously before we feel satiated.
So, if you eat less than 20 minutes, be sure to pay attention.
2. Eating too fast, the body secretes a lot of insulin, will also increase the burden of the pancreas, increase the risk of diabetes.
3. Eating too fast, due to inadequate chewing, the gastrointestinal needs to secrete more digestive enzymes, increasing the burden on the gastrointestinal. In the long run, it is more likely to suffer from gastritis, gastric ulcer and even gastric cancer and other diseases.
4. In addition, a survey of 7972 adults by Chinese scholars found that eating too fast for a long time will greatly increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, including hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, fatty liver, etc., which will lead to coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis and other chronic diseases.
Eat slowly is to increase chewing times, or slow chewing?
To chew slowly is to increase the number of times to chew each bite of food. It is not advisable to slow down the eating speed only by chewing slowly.
Several studies have found an increase in chewing times during meals:
It can increase the satisfaction and satiety in the process of eating;
The amount of food we eat will also be significantly reduced, which can effectively help us control our weight.
In addition, if you slow down your eating speed, the amount of ghrelin secreted by your stomach after meals will also decrease, which means that you can carry more hunger, and the amount of other foods you eat after meals will decrease. This is a good way for people who want to lose weight to control their appetite.
Is it better to eat slowly?
Some time ago, an actor chewed 121 pieces of spring cake and went on a hot search. Many children like to have their meals in their mouths. It takes an hour or two to eat a meal. Is this necessarily healthy?
In fact, eating is not as slow as possible.
1. A study of 250 children aged 46-71 months found that children who ate with eating habits had a higher proportion of early-onset caries, which may be due to the excessive contact time between teeth and food, which increased the demineralization of teeth.
2. Food needs digestive enzyme to decompose and absorb after entering the stomach. However, the peak of digestive enzyme secretion is only about ten minutes. If eating time is too long, digestive enzyme secretion is insufficient, appetite will be greatly reduced, so the more you eat, the less you want to eat.
3. For high-fat food, bile secreted by the gallbladder is needed for digestion. Similarly, when eating too slowly, bile secretion is insufficient in the later stage. When fat is not fully digested and decomposed, it can only accumulate in the body, leading to obesity.
Therefore, it is recommended to control the breakfast time within 15-20 minutes, the lunch time within 25-30 minutes, and the meal size within 7-8 minutes. That is to say, the stomach is not swollen, but the appetite has declined.
How can we slow down the meal?
1. The easiest way is to increase the number of chews.
The friends who are used to gobbling can consciously pay attention to their chewing times, so that they can chew every meal 20-30 times.
2. Try not to be distracted when eating, so that you can enjoy the delicious food more attentively and greatly increase the satisfaction of eating.
3. If you eat too fast, it also reflects the unreasonable diet structure. If the food is mainly white rice and white flour, which are easy to chew, it is not only easy to eat faster, but also these are foods with high blood glucose index. Eating them alone is not good for your health.
Therefore, one of the feasible measures to slow down the eating speed is to increase the proportion of grains, vegetables and fruits in the food. This kind of food with high fiber, chewability and high nutrient density is not only slow to eat, but also rich in nutrients, which is more conducive to our health.
(Popular Science China)