Eating too much fast food is bad for your health. So is eating food too fast.
Most people are missing one of life’s simple pleasures – eating. Our lives today are so busy, and the pace so fast, that when we even bother to sit down for a meal we’re done in under five minutes.
Eating Habits
Wolfing down food is a bad habit. The teeth are the first element of the digestive system. They, along with saliva, are designed to pulverize food before it goes to the stomach to continue the digestive process.
When large chunks of food reach the stomach the rest of the system has to work harder to break it down into nutrients; and not all the food’s benefit is absorbed before it is passed though the process.
Try the twenty chew rule. It will be hard at first. You will notice it might take you twenty or thirty minutes to eat a meal. The trick is to slow down. Relax your mind while your feed your body.
Enjoy your meal. Eat slowly. You will notice that the more you chew your food the more flavor it releases.
Try to make mealtime a real break time, and when you give your teeth enough time to do their job you are also giving your digestive system a break. Well chewed food is easier to digest and provides more nutrients to the body.
Please try to take thirty minutes to chew each bite twenty times. Think of mealtime as a real rest time and not as just a necessity. You will be surprised at the results.
Kathy B., RDH
