Slow it down

    In America we eat very quickly. The American habit of eating fast is not unique. I use to eat standing up, or while walking or driving, just cramming the food down on my way to do something else, back in my country too. 

    In many Asian and European countries this is considered a shocking way to eat, bordering on barbaric. In Japan, eating while walking is considered extremely bad manners. The meal is a ceremony, a time to enjoy not just a food, but anticipation of the food, and the good company. To give the food and drink proper attention is to repay the effort of the people who are serving you.

    There are many disadvantages to eating quickly. Some of our satisfaction in eating comes from chewing. Our mouth enjoys different textures and when we chew well, flavors of food continue to be released. A disadvantage of eating quickly is that we barely taste the food, have only a vague experience of what we’ve eaten, and are very likely to want more.

    In addition to knowing when our stomach is hungry, we need to know when our stomach is satisfied. It takes about twenty minutes for this important biological feedback loop to be completed. If we eat slowly we allow food time to reach the small intestine and trigger the “ OK, I’m full” signal before we’ve eaten too much. If we eat too quickly, we’ve already packed in too much food in before the signal can arrive. Then we don’t stop eating until we are physically uncomfortable, which is after we’ve consumed more calories than body needs.

    The hungrier we are, the more important it is to eat slowly and with attention. When we feel that we are “Starving”, we tend to cram food in quickly, taking in too much before the twenty minute satiety signal alerts us to stop. The more we like food the faster we chew and swallow it.

   In the next posts about food we will discover together what mindful eating is.  

 (based on “Mindful eating” by Jan Chozen Bays, MD)