Chewing your food thoroughly is the cheapest way to lose weight. How much to chew food? How to chew food or therapeutic chewing Consequences of poor chewing of food

One of the consequences of improperly chewing food is the risk of choking or choking. Sometimes such a stupid oversight can lead to serious health problems. The stomach perceives chewed food well, but processing whole pieces of food is a big problem for it. If you swallow food whole very often, then the rebellion of the stomach can manifest itself in the formation of gastritis or even an ulcer.

Consuming unchewed food, the body will not be able to get enough. Therefore, the feeling of hunger will haunt a person anyway. Hence, there are problems with the intestines in the form of constipation. In addition, a person with such a meal appears fatty deposits.

Reasons why food should be chewed thoroughly

From an early age, parents teach their children to chew food properly and thoroughly, to eat slowly. Few people followed these recommendations in childhood, because then the parents did not explain that food should be chewed thoroughly. In fact, eating food in small pieces and chewing thoroughly has a beneficial effect on human health. Here are some for proper chewing of food:

The process of digestion begins when food enters the mouth. Chewing works give the body a signal to start eating, as a result of which it begins to produce saliva to break down pieces of food. Thanks to this signal, the stomach also begins its preparation for eating. Long chewing of food allows the body to produce as much saliva as possible. This is the first useful detail of chewing food.

The work of the digestive system should not wear out. Experts advise people when they feel hungry to eat the usual amount of food, but at the same time increasing the time frame. The work of the digestive system will be much easier and simpler if you carefully chew every small piece of food. Also, this way of eating will have a beneficial effect on bowel function. In this way, you can avoid feeling bloated after lunch or dinner. It is very difficult for the gastrointestinal tract to carry huge pieces of food along their paths.

Try to get the maximum amount of nutrients from each meal. The process of chewing, as close to the ideal as possible, allows the body to start working better and easier. Small pieces of food are digested very quickly in the digestive system. When eating small pieces of food, a very small part of the body with degrading enzymes is used to digest food. It follows from this that the less time it takes to digest food, the more nutrients the body will receive.

You shouldn't overeat. The signal to satisfy hunger enters the brain only 20 minutes after eating. This fact must be taken into account. Therefore, many experts advise leaving the table with a feeling of slight hunger.

Since childhood, many of us have been taught various things by our parents and one of the most annoying advice, for sure, was the advice to be more attentive to how you eat.

People eat food quickly, not having time to enjoy either its taste or the very process of satisfying hunger, because they are always late for something. However, the habit of chewing food thoroughly hides a lot of useful things, and everyone should know about it.

Eating fast and on the go is a bad habit!

Thorough chewing of food hides a really large number of advantages, which, unfortunately, not everyone knows about.

Thorough chewing of food has a positive effect on the functioning of the digestive system. Well-chopped food is digested faster, the body receives more nutrients from it, and it is also cleansed of various harmful microorganisms that enter the body with food.

Thorough chewing as a way to lose weight

Thorough chewing as a method of losing weight

In many cases, weight problems happen due to frequent overeating. People who work long hours and come home pounce on food and consume much more of it than the body needs.

Slow eating, chewing it thoroughly allow you to leave the place of the meal with a slight feeling of hunger, avoiding overeating - this allows you to forget about problems with being overweight.

Constant overeating leads to an increase in the volume of the stomach, which is constantly stretched due to the excessive amount of food entering it. Chinese researchers conducted an interesting experiment among people of different weight categories.

Thirty young men took part in it. One half of the subjects chewed the food they received 15 times, the other - 40. After some time, they took a blood test in order to check the amount of the hunger hormone in it. It turned out that people who chewed more carefully had less of this hormone - ghrelin.

Yogis, known for their long lifespan, say: "Eat liquid food, drink solid food." It should be understood as follows: even relatively liquid food still needs to be chewed first so that it mixes with saliva, and only then swallowed.

Solid food needs to be chewed for a long time until it becomes liquid. Various scientific studies have found that people who chew their food for a long time feel full faster than people who chew less.

This is due to the fact that when food enters the mouth, the body starts a special hormone responsible for saturation. It enters the brain twenty minutes after the start of a meal, so eating slowly makes it possible to saturate with less food than eating it quickly.

In addition to being responsible for satiety, histamine also improves metabolism, which leads to the burning of excess fat in the body.

Thorough chewing allows a person to eat the amount of food that he needs and avoid overeating. Overeating is a well-known cause of overweight problems, because as a result of the rapid absorption of food, an amount of food enters the stomach that exceeds its volume and therefore the organ stretches, becoming larger and larger over time, forcing a person to eat more and more.

Correct eating habits

40 times - how much you need to chew food

There are many tips on how long to chew each serving of food. In practice, any person can independently determine the time that he spends on chewing one piece of food, simply chewing it until it is impossible to determine what kind of food got into the mouth before.

It is quite optimal to experience food from 30 to 40 times per serving that enters the mouth.

Liquid foods, such as fruit or food, should be chewed at least ten times. Although it seems like a somewhat pointless exercise: why chew something that is already in a liquid state, this process is really important, because it allows you to wet the food consumed with saliva. Food that is well moistened with saliva is better digested, regardless of the consistency of the food consumed.

A few tips for learning to chew your food more thoroughly:

1. use chopsticks if necessary
2. in the process of eating food, sit upright, make sure that your breathing is even and deep
3. do not be distracted, be fully concentrated on the process of eating
4. eat in a designated area
5. try cooking yourself - it will make you appreciate every bite of food you eat

It is recommended to chew food thirty to forty times. It is during this time that it becomes sufficiently crushed and moistened with saliva, and this contributes to good digestion. In order to learn to chew slowly, there are some practical tips.

Thorough chewing of food is a good habit, a necessity that has a really good effect on the body. It allows you not to overeat, get full faster with less food, and makes it more effective.

But what not to do immediately after eating, the thematic video will tell:

How well do you chew food? The answer to this question is important, because the process of chewing has several pleasant bonuses at once. You may have heard of food systems that suggest you chew every piece you put in your mouth at least 32 times (in other variations - about 100 times), but are such claims true?

In fact, chewing thoroughly does help nutrients to be better absorbed - but that's not all. We tell why at breakfast, lunch and dinner it is really better to chew than to talk.

Disease protection

Portal Medicaldaily.com refers to a study in which scientists were able to prove that chewing food thoroughly can protect our body from viruses by strengthening the immune system. How does this happen? The fact is that when we chew, the body stimulates the production of a certain type of immune cells called Th17. University of Manchester lead researcher Joan Konkel notes that this is possible due to the fact that chewing triggers natural immune processes in the gums.

Digestion of food

Chewing also increases the secretion of saliva, which coats food with enzymes called amylases and lipases. According to Mindbodygreen, it is these enzymes that start the process of digesting fats and starches, which minimizes the risk of digestive problems (including bloating, heartburn, pain and cramps in the stomach), and at the same time speeds up metabolic processes, which is extremely important for those who are trying to lose weight. .

"Capture" of nutrients

Even if you try to eat healthy, the problem may be that not all the nutrients from fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats that are present in your diet on a regular basis are fully absorbed by the body. “When food is divided into smaller pieces, it is easier for your intestines to absorb the beneficial elements that it contains,” osteopathic physician Joseph Mercola writes on his website. In addition, chewing thoroughly minimizes the risk of the by-products of improperly digested food entering the bloodstream, which also affects overall health indicators for the worse.

Teeth strengthening

It sounds unusual, but nevertheless: teeth, consisting of enamel, dentin and cement and designed for the primary processing of food entering the body, in the process of intensive chewing of favorite or not very dishes, receive a kind of training. Such a "workout" helps to make the teeth strong, and at the same time develops the jaw bones, allowing in the future to avoid diseases associated with impaired mobility.

Each person is given teeth to grind food. By chewing, we create a food bolus, make it more passable through the digestive tract, and also start digestion. Yes, yes, food begins to “cook” not somewhere in the bowels of the stomach, but already in our mouth.

But modern man lives in turmoil. To speed up the absorption of food, he drinks solid food with drinks and ... chews very little. And often has problems with the digestive system, teeth and excess weight. But that's not all.

He can unsuccessfully fight gluttony - overeating, food addictions, attachment to sweet, fatty - and at the same time experiences a breakdown from a lack of energy. It's just amazing! Most people overeat, and just as many people feel exhausted. One of the important reasons for all these sad states is the inability to properly chew food.

“There are other types of gluttony ... hasty eating - a person tries to quickly fill the womb and swallows food without chewing, like a turkey ...”

What happens when a person chews food a little

Chew a little - how much? In order for a person to have digestion in principle, it is necessary to chew each piece at least 32 times. Accordingly, less than this is not enough.

1. It is in the mouth that the analysis of the quality of food takes place. When we chew food a little, then the receptors of the oral cavity “do not understand” why everything flies by so quickly and imperceptibly, the signal to the brain about saturation comes very late. From here we get the desire to eat more in order to get enough of the taste.
2. The grinding of food is very meager, so the digestive organs are under extreme stress in order to somehow process what is swallowed.
3. Carbohydrate foods (bread, cereals, vegetables and fruits) do not have time to be processed by saliva, and therefore by the enzymes that digest these types of food - amylase and maltase. Yes, there is also amylase in the pancreatic juice, but it is secondary compared to that produced by the salivary glands. But it's not just the enzymes. Saliva is also rich in other chemicals that create the ideal pH environment for digestion to begin. This is an alkaline environment, which is supported by bicarbonates, phosphates of saliva. Saliva chlorides activate the production of enzymes. Thus, already in the mouth there is a chemical processing of food, with a lack of which digestion goes "at random".
4. Nutrients are absorbed in small quantities, the body receives less energy. Quick chewing deprives the body of vitamins and minerals, which are rich in quality food.
5. The stomach, full of large pieces, presses on the diaphragm, resulting in an increased load on the heart.
6. Fermentation processes are launched, as a result of which bloating, flatulence and other disorders appear. Insufficient chewing is fertile ground for the development of gastritis, gastroduodenitis, enteritis, colitis, enterocolitis.
7. When a person quickly absorbs food, forgetting to chew for a long time, he needs more food to achieve a feeling of fullness.
8. Heaviness in the stomach reduces performance.
9. Improper digestion worsens the condition of the skin.
10. Appears overweight.
11. Without loading your “chewing apparatus” properly, a person loses the health of gums and teeth - blood circulation is insufficient, salivation, which regulates mineral metabolism in the oral cavity, is also lacking. This can be seen especially clearly in children. The problem is relevant today when a child receives grated food after 8 months of life, even up to 3 years. Often all the teeth of such children are subject to extraction. If the child simply chews a little, orthodontic problems may await him in the future.

From bookBishop Barnabas (Belyaev)
Fundamentals of the art of holiness. Volume II

Many digestive disorders depend on the wrong way of eating: insufficient chewing of food, insufficient wetting of food with saliva, too hasty swallowing - all this, unfortunately, happens at every step. “Well chewed is half cooked,” says a well-known proverb. Insufficient chewing not only puts double work on the stomach, but also makes it extremely difficult for food to be dissolved by gastric juice.

Rough pieces strongly irritate the walls of the stomach. Many people who have lost their teeth and are deprived of the ability to chew the remains of teeth, began to chew well only after inserting artificial teeth into themselves, and in this way got rid of the stomach pains that they had previously complained about.

Saliva is abundantly secreted when food is chewed and mixed with it, which is the first step towards turning food into material suitable for assimilation by the body. So, for example, the starch of bread is converted by saliva into sugar and dextrin. Without an admixture of saliva, food enters the stomach unprepared for digestion and is an unnecessary burden for the stomach. Thereby soups, cereals and generally soft foods are often hard to digest since they are usually swallowed immediately, without mixing with saliva. In view of this, when eating liquid or mushy food, one must also chew bread at the same time; it is still better to stick to such foods, which, by their consistency, require chewing and mixing with saliva in order to get into the stomach without causing upset in it.

What happens when a person chews food for a long time?

By long chewing, we conditionally call the normal chewing of the contents of a tablespoon in the amount of 32 times. Although it's not as long as it seems.

Eastern sages, for example, advised chewing food up to 150 times, frivolously promising those who eat like this eternal life. Famous American healthy lifestyle promoter Horatio Fletcher practiced chewing each bite about 100 times. Fletcher, who suffered from obesity, lost 29 kilograms and began to consume food 3 times less than before. He created his own system of therapeutic chewing, which was named after his last name - Fletcherism. In his experiments, Horatio started chewing food at 32 times, but then moved on to 100. In his old age, he was fond of daily competitions with physical education students, and as the media describe, he always won, saying: "Nature punishes those who chew little."

By chewing food for a long time, we improve the functioning of our body:

1. When a person chews each piece of a serving for a long time, carbohydrates finally begin to be digested in the mouth.
2. Thorough physical grinding of food during long chewing facilitates the digestion of fats and proteins.
3. By chewing food for a long time, a person eats up faster, he needs several times less food.
4. Receptors begin to feel the true taste of products: cloying confectionery, excessive fat content, oversalting, the presence of vegetable fats and the taste of chemical additives. By the way, the combination of flavors in fast food is just aimed at quick chewing - a person instantly feels the brightest taste. If you hold a piece in your mouth longer and chew it well, the taste of such dishes deteriorates many times over. But the taste of natural high-quality products without amplifiers and other hazards, on the contrary, is revealed with long chewing.
5. In most cases, with long chewing, a person completely gets rid of problems with the gastrointestinal tract - gastritis, heaviness in the stomach, inflammation in the intestines, flatulence, constipation, fecal plugs.
6. Eating with long chewing steadily and fairly quickly reduces weight.
7. Long-term and high-quality work of the masticatory muscles has an amazing effect on the functioning of the nervous system - concentration increases, emotional overstrain is relieved.
8. Teeth and gums get the proper load, their blood supply improves. In addition, the roots of the teeth are reflexively connected with the internal organs - by affecting the blood circulation in the oral cavity, we heal the entire body. With long chewing, more saliva is produced, which means more lysozyme, which protects teeth from caries.
9. Excessive load on the heart from overeating falls, a feeling of lightness appears.
10. The body gets more energy from food without spending a huge amount of energy trying to digest huge pieces. Nutrients are better absorbed, working capacity increases.
11. Metabolism improves, general immunity increases.
12. The liver stops working for wear and tear, coping with toxins from underdigested food.
13. The condition of the skin improves.

How to learn to chew food for a long time?

If a person used to chew each part of a serving 5-7 times, then an increase in chewing movements to 20 will already give lightness to the stomach, which a person will begin to feel after the first such meal. Then gradually it is necessary to increase the number of chewing movements up to 32.

There are some rules and tips "experienced" in the art of healthy and even healing long chewing.

1. Do not drink food with water. This does not mean that you have to eat a sandwich without tea if you are not used to it. First, carefully chew and swallow, and only then pull your hand to the mug.
2. We use the count up to 32. Yes, you have to count the first time. It's much easier to do it the next day. If you remember the goal - to make solid food liquid - then for a while you can free yourself from counting. Rush and liquid food - cereals, soups, juicy foods - usually knocks out of the rut. In this case:
   1. we start counting if we catch ourselves in quick chewing
   2. add bread (even better - hard bread)
   3. learning to taste liquid food from tasters
   4. don't let food "run away" until it's been in the mouth enough
3. We load the spoon well and use a 30-second hourglass to chew the contents of the spoon.
4. Chew and don't worry. There is no need to be sad if on some vain day it was not possible to follow the goal of chewing food well at the meal. This does not mean that everything is gone. You can return to the practice of therapeutic chewing at any time, even remembering it on the last spoonful of garnish.

Long chewing is indispensable during fasting when the quality of food changes. It allows you to feel full faster and eat less food. Getting used to chewing thoroughly, we understand that the process of eating food is a lot of work that requires attention, concentration, and a minimum of talking at the table. And if we are in a hurry somewhere and we need to eat very quickly, here the jaws need training to move quickly.

Those who learn about the science of chewing often think that a lot of time is spent on it. Answer: no. The number of conversations, watched programs at the table, as well as the number of products consumed are reduced. The result is almost the same time period for a meal as with quick chewing. If a person again returns to swallowing food in a piece, practically without chewing, he feels “bricks” in the stomach after eating, he lacks a feeling of lightness. This allows you to practice the art of chewing again and move towards health, victory over overeating and ideal weight. But this, perhaps, is not the main thing. Long chewing allows you to have a different attitude, even to what is given to us today.

Even in ancient times, Indian yogis and Tibetan lamas recommended: chew liquid food, and drink solid food.

Adhering to this motto, food should be chewed for a long time, even milk, juices, compotes should be chewed at least 30 times, and solid food - at least 70-100 times. Chew solid food until it becomes liquid.

In the case of a hasty meal, the saturation center does not have time to get involved in the process. This takes 25-30 minutes. No matter how much you eat during this time, the feeling of fullness will come later. The longer the food is chewed, the less of it is needed to achieve a feeling of fullness.

Active long-term chewing of food improves blood circulation in the brain, heals the nasopharynx and gums, protects teeth from caries (saliva neutralizes acids and sugar in food). And most importantly, the first stage of digestion is sufficiently carried out in the oral cavity: saliva envelops small particles of food, and under the action of its enzyme ptyalin, polysaccharides break down into disaccharides. Disaccharides in the small intestine easily break down into monosaccharides (glucose, fructose).

Well-chewed protein and fat particles of food will be more efficiently broken down in the digestive tract by the action of enzymes into amino acids and fatty acids. At the same time, all the components of food are better absorbed by the body, and less waste goes to waste.

The method of long-term chewing of food was promoted by the American physiologist H. Fletcher at the beginning of the last century. At the age of 44, he had a number of diseases: overweight, heart and vascular diseases, and a stomach ache.

He switched to the method of long-term chewing of food. When he chewed food more than 100 times, he noticed that it, as saturated as possible with saliva, imperceptibly disappeared from the oral cavity. He was surprised that he had 3 times less food than before. For some time, his body weight returned to normal, diseases disappeared. He began to exercise daily and, as in his youth, became athletic.

H. Fletcher at the American Military Academy led a convincing experiment in which 2 groups of people took part: obese officers and thin soldiers. The diet for all was the same. H. Fletcher made sure that they chewed food for a long time. Only thanks to long-term chewing of food, the officers lost weight, and the soldiers got better.

The follower of this method was the American millionaire John D. Rockefeller, who lived to be 98 years old.

In recent years, clubs of long-term chewing of food have appeared in England, as reported in the media.

Experts say: chew food 50 times, and the stomach will not hurt, and chew 100 times, you will live 100 years.

Of course, in addition to a balanced diet and proper chewing of food, physical exercises are also needed for health, in particular, they contribute to better digestion and improve the function of internal organs. In particular, 2 exercises are recommended that can be performed in the summer immediately after sleeping on an empty stomach:

1. Lying on your back, massage your stomach with your palms: 42 circles clockwise and 42 against. Having reached the upper part of the abdomen with the palms, place them with an edge and press the insides down, and having reached the lower part with the palms, press the insides up to the top. This exercise helps to get rid of constipation, colitis, internal organs are massaged, as a result of which blood circulation in them and their functions improve.

2. Lying on your back, inhale through your nose and at the same time inflate your stomach as much as possible. Then exhale twice as long through the mouth (lips are folded into a tube) with the sound fu, fu, fu ... At the same time, the front wall of the abdomen is drawn in towards the spine.

Take 22 or 42 such breaths.

Performing this exercise, in addition to improving the activity of internal organs, helps in the treatment of bronchitis, asthma, and angina pectoris. Obese people, performing this exercise daily, become emaciated.