One of the best ways to increase your nutrition is to make sure you are actually chewing your food. Nutrition experts say 30 times will liquify each bite. There are numerous reasons for this. 1) This initial digestive process increases the surface area of the food providing more points of digestion. The first enzymatic attack is by salivary amylase, a starch enzyme, so chewing well helps you digest starch. 2) If you are eating meals with lots of fiber (you are, right?) chewing a lot helps breaks the insoluble fibers down so they pass through the gut more freely. This will make your microbiome very happy. 3) Longer duration mastication and slower meals will boost your satiety. We don’t really start to feel psychologically full until after about 20 minutes due to hormonal responses as well as stretch responses from the stomach. 4) Chewing adequately will decrease the size of particles in your mouth thus decreasing your risk of choking, and the action of chewing sends signals to your stomach and intestine that a meal is on the way. (Bonus info: a glass of water before each meal will lower your ghrelin levels – an appetite hormone. More about Ghrelin and Leptin.)
Creating Healthy Lifestyles