Chew your Food

Do you want to get more vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from the food that you eat? Want to reduce bloating and poor digestion? Want to experience more enjoyment from your food? How about feeling more full from eating less food?

What if there was one really easy way to achieve all this?

Well then I’ve got good news for you.

There is one easy way:

Chew your food.

Yes, chew your food.

Okay, I’m being a bit sensationalist. But I have good reason to be. It seems too obvious and too good to be true. But it really isn’t. And yet so many of us don’t do a good job of this.

We wolf down our food without really bothering to chew it.

We mindlessly eat while working at our computers, or scrolling through our iPhones, or while zoning out and watching TV.

Chewing is the first step of digestion. In chewing you break down food into smaller pieces so that your digestive enzymes can have lots of surface area to work on to digest the food and then absorb it. There are also digestive enzymes in your saliva that starts breaking food down.

With less chewing there’s less surface area for your enzymes to work on. Which leads to fewer vitamins, minerals and other nutrients being freed to be absorbed by your body.

With less chewing there is more undigested food moving through your intestines.  The result is that your gut bacteria have more food to ferment, creating gas.

When you don’t take the time to chew your food, you eat more food before your body can register the sensation of being satisfied. As a result, you over-eat.

Because you don’t take the time to chew your food you eat an entire bag of potato chips, or an entire tub of ice cream, without even noticing. Your “treat” provided you with almost no pleasure.  Now that really is a waste of calories.

Here’s how to disrupt your bad habit of not chewing your food well:

1. Turn off the screens while eating. Yes, that includes your phone

2. No more eating in the car or while walking. Sit at an actual table when you eat.

3. Put your fork (or other utensil) down in between bites. When your utensil isn’t in your hand you can’t be shoveling food into your mouth.

4. Tune in to your food. Notice the texture, flavour, colour smell.

I encourage you to actually take the time to chew your food. It’s so simple and the benefits are huge.

Kristen Yarker, MSc, RD
www.KristenYarker.com
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