Do You Chew Your Food?

Yes, you read that correctly? Do you chew your food? 

You might be thinking, ‘what is Marlie talking about? I obviously chew my food every time I eat.’ But stop and think about this for a second. Do you really chew your food?

Up until last year, I did not.

I remember vividly listening to my first lecture at nutrition school. I was sitting at my kitchen table, eating a giant salad and was told to try and chew my food 20 times before I swallowed.

Mind. Blown.

It was the hardest, most tedious and annoying task anyone has ever asked me to do. Okay fine, I’m being dramatic, but whoa, it felt strange…and long. Are you eating right now? Try it.

The entire philosophy behind the nutrition school I went to is not so much about what we are eating, but how and why. It’s all about the mindfulness surrounding eating and how it affects our bodies. And chewing is a huge part of this.

Counting how many times you chew your food means paying attention. And how often are we really paying attention to how we’re eating?

I eat a lot in my car, or even worse, sitting on my couch, in front of the turned-on TV, with my computer on my lap and phone in my hand. All of a sudden my lunch is gone and I’m still hungry. Sound familiar?

Would you call that paying attention? Definitely not.

A really good way to start eating mindfully is to pay attention to how many times you chew your food per bite. It might not be realistic to sit alone, at a proper table with no electronics around and count each bite. But it is doable to pay more attention, even in social settings. While I worked at an office, I would still be able to participate in conversations in the lunch room, while slowly eating and being mindful of chewing.

And while chewing has many benefits in helping you eat more mindfully, it also has several physical advantages for your body, including weight loss.

Have you ever eaten a meal so fast that you get so bloated and feel like you can’t digest it?

Well consider this, chewing is actually the first step in the digestion process. When we chew our food, we secrete saliva. The saliva coats our food with digestive enzymes which starts the breakdown process before it reaches our stomachs. 

When we chew our food, we are also absorbing the nutrients from the food. So if you are eating all these nutritious fruits and veggies but forgetting to chew, you are missing out on so many of the benefits. 

Chewing also causes you to eat slower, allowing your body to receive signals that you are full, which can help you eat less if portion control is a problem for you.  

Studies have shown that we should chew our food on average of 10-30 times depending on the texture and how quickly the food in our mouths breaks down. 

Consider all these facts the next time you (hopefully) sit down to eat and pay attention to how it makes you feel.

Comment below if actually chewing makes a difference to you!