It’s a common perception that digestion starts in the stomach which is not at all true. The process of food digestion starts in your mouth. You need to break down your food into tiny pieces for better absorption of the nutrients.
Some people prefer gobbling their food way before it started trending on social media platforms, but it’s a horrible skill to adapt.
While you must watch what you are eating, you should also watch how you are eating. If you skip chewing your food, you are ruining your digestive system and skipping all those vital nutrients of the foods.
Swallowing your food without chewing it can lead to weight gain and bloating. So, if you are wondering why you are not losing weight despite restricting your diet, it’s time to check your chewing habit.
Proper diet is not only limited to meeting macros or eating quality food. You also need to train your body for better hormonal response towards food.
Chewing Your Food: How It Works?
When you take small bites and chew them, your teeth, tongue, and the salivary glands play a vital function. The teeth help in grinding the food into bits, and then the salivary glands secrete various enzymes that aid in the absorption of nutrients from the food, while your tongue manipulates the bigger pieces and pushes them toward the teeth for chewing.
Though chewing seems to be a simple task, the mechanism behind it is imposing.
Here are the 7 health benefits of chewing your food that you should know.
#1 Better and Easy Digestion:
When food is chewed properly, it is broken down into tiny pieces and mixed with multiple enzymes which helps in better and easy digestion of the food. Without these enzymes, your body will fail to absorb all the vital nutrients from the foods.
#2 Aids in Weight Loss:
Most people are unaware of how chewing your food can help you with your weight loss. The proper way to chew your food is to chew it 32 times. Yes, there is a number and has numerous scientific evidences to support the statement.
When you chew your food 32 times, you are giving enough time for your brain to determine how much you have eaten and when it is time to stop eating. When you gobble your food, your brain fails to register the capacity amount because your stomach didn’t get enough time to send signals to the brain which often leads to overeating eventually resulting in weight gain.
Moreover, in-depth research also suggests that people who thoroughly chew their food tend to burn more calories.
#3 Reduces the Burden on the Stomach:
When we globble food without properly chewing them, large chunks of food enter our stomach which eventually builds pressure on the digestive system. Most of the time, our digestive system cannot process all those big chunks which eventually leads to flushing down all those vital nutrients down the toilet.
#4 Reduces Frequent Cravings:
Proper chewing leads to better absorption of nutrients. If your body fails to get the appropriate amount of nutrients, it will crave for more food eventually leading to the temptation of eating junk food.
#5 Food Tastes Better:
The more you chew, the more you will be able to experience all the tastes and texture of the food. When you chew your food 32 times, your food will taste better and you will feel more satisfied.
#6 Improves Oral Health:
Chewing your food properly leads to the secretion of saliva in your mouth and saliva has antimicrobial properties that helps in washing away the harmful bacterias and remnants from the meals. Accumulation of food in the deepest corners of your teeth can lead to cavity and other oral health ailments.
#7 Reduces Chances of Choking:
Last but not the least, it drastically reduces the chances of choking. Even if you are in a restaurant and need to call the waiter, but there’s still food in your mouth, you can use a wireless waiter calling system while you chew your food for 32 times or 30 seconds. That’s how long it will take for the waiter to reach your table.
Takeaway Points
Thoroughly chewing your food is a great and easy way to improve your oral health, boost weight loss, and better absorption of nutrients. So, make sure you chew your food 32 times or for 30 seconds to reach your weight loss goal.
