The Effects of Eating Fast - Research

Two factors were identified as strong predictors of weight gain in a study (1). The first was expected - how much people ate. But the second was more of a surprise - how fast they ate. Fast eaters who guzzled until they felt full were three times more likely to be overweight than those who ate at a leisurely pace

An association between eating speed and obesity was confirmed in a 2018 study. Fast eaters are more likely to be obese, with raised BMI and waist circumference. (2)

All the research in Grow Youthful confirms that over-eating is the one thing that you can do to age your body fast. Fast eaters consistently consume more calories

It takes at least 20 minutes for the hormones that tell your brain that you are full to kick in. If you are a fast eater, you are going to over-consume before you even feel full. It gets worse. The food that you bolt down will not be properly digested. Some of the nutrients in the food will be lost, passing straight through you. Being nutrient-deficient, you will feel inappropriately hungry. Welcome to the over-eating cycle

Here are some tips on how to slow down and improve your digestion:

• Twenty minutes before the meal, start with an appetizer to get your digestion going.
• Chew each mouthful thoroughly. This is one of the most important things you can do. Digestion starts in your mouth. Your saliva must mix with the food whilst still in your mouth, particularly with carbohydrates. If you swallow (carbohydrate) food before it is properly chewed and mixed with saliva, it is more likely to create gas and indigestion, and feed candida.
• NEVER overeat. The feeling of being stuffed is so harmful. Leave the table with a little space in your tummy to spare.
• Serve small portions on your plate. If you are still hungry later, you can come back for more. Stay away from buffets, which make it easy to over-eat.
• Take time out to focus on your food when you are eating. Be aware of what you are eating, tune into each bite.
• Drink before you eat. This is a good way of preparing the digestive system.
• Get sufficient unrefined sea salt (NOT processed, refined salt). Sometimes the cause of food cravings, particularly salty foods, is a deficiency of the minerals that come in unrefined sea salt.

References

1. The joint impact on being overweight of self reported behaviours of eating quickly and eating until full: cross sectional survey. Maruyama, K. et al., BMJ 2008 Oct 21;337:a2002.

2. Yumi Hurst, Haruhisa Fukuda. Effects of changes in eating speed on obesity in patients with diabetes: a secondary analysis of longitudinal health check-up data. BMJ Open 2018;8:e019589. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019589. Published online 12 February 2018.