Any foodie worth her weight in salt knows that to enjoy a meal, you have to slow down and savor it. As it turns out, eating slowly is also a smart strategy for gourmands trying to keep an eye on their weight.
A new study from Laiko General Hospital in Athens found that wolfing down food actually curbs the body’s release of certain gut hormones that make you feel full. And when you have less of these hormones, it’s a lot easier to overeat.
In the study, researchers gave two groups of study subjects bowls of ice cream, but asked one group eat it quickly and the other finish it over the course of half an hour. Afterwards, they tested both groups and found that the slow eaters had higher concentrations of satiety hormones in their blood, and that they reported feeling fuller, too.
This isn’t the first study to prove the “slow food, smaller portions” theory: in 2006, researchers from the University of Rhode Island found that women who ate a pasta meal over the course of half an hour consumed 67 fewer calories than women who consumed the same meal, but in just nine minutes (which is about how long most people take to eat a meal). That may not seem like a lot, but 67 calories at breakfast, lunch and dinner adds up to 201 calories a day, or 1,407 calories a week.
Sadly, this means your mother was right: you really should slow down and chew your food.
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Camille
