To Cut Calories, Eat Slowly

at 3:45 PM

Duh! We knew that, right?

Mothers have admonished their children to eat slowly and chew their food. Well, apparently they are onto something... (I read this in the science section of the New York Times last week). Keep reading.

Researchers, over the years, have found evidence that when people wolf down their food they end up consuming more calories. In a study published last month, a group of subjects were given an identical serving of ice cream on different occasions. They released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes instead of 5.

The scientists measured two hormones that cause feelings of satiety, fullness, glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY. These two peptides were more pronounced in the blood in the slow condition of the experiment which leads to eating less. In another study published in the British Medical Journal, those who reported eating quickly and eating to fullness had triple the risk of being over weight compared with others.

So listen to you mother, and eat more slowly at the dinner table. And here is a question for you to think about... can you look at a plate of food and know in advance whether it's going to make you feel just right, full or stuffed?