How many chewing movements should a person make. Why you need to chew your food thoroughly. What is the danger of poorly chewed food

The process of eating should be beneficial and enjoyable. Therefore, it is important not only what you eat, but also how you do it. A hurried lunch often causes problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, it is worth considering whether it is necessary to chew food thoroughly and how to do it correctly.

Do I need to chew my food thoroughly?

Why food should be chewed thoroughly, what is the use of it

Research scientists have proven that long and thorough chewing of food can have a positive effect on the body. Among the main advantages are the following:

1. The process of digestion is easier and faster. When food is finely ground and moistened with plenty of saliva, it is much easier for it to move through the alimentary tract. Therefore, the process of its digestion proceeds faster.

2. Weight loss. If you chew each bite well, then the body will be saturated much faster. So you eat much less. This is due to the fact that in the process of chewing, special substances are released in the brain that control appetite. You just don't want to eat too much.

3. Gums become stronger. Chewing is a kind of gymnastics for the gums. It improves blood flow, resulting in healthier and stronger gums.

4. The harmful effects of acids on tooth enamel are neutralized. Saliva, which is produced in the process of chewing food, significantly softens the aggressive effects of acids. A long lunch will help maintain the beauty and health of your teeth.

Eating small, well-chewed portions of food allows you to improve the whole body as a whole. In addition, you will have time to relax a little and relax at lunch.

How to properly chew food?

If you decide to start chewing food correctly, then you should listen to the following recommendations.

Thorough chewing is also necessary for the body to absorb food, as well as minerals, amino acids or vitamins. We have known about this since childhood, but often we are in a hurry and do not follow this rule. But in vain! The benefits of slow food intake are scientifically proven and are the basis of the health of the gastrointestinal tract in particular and the whole organism as a whole.

Numerous studies by doctors and scientists have repeatedly confirmed that some health problems arise only because of the bad habit of eating on the go or distractedly, for example, in front of the TV.

Why is it necessary to chew food a lot and for a long time before swallowing it?

Reason #1. Digestive system.

The digestive system is a complex and well-oiled mechanism, hardy, but fragile. It is easy to spoil it, but it will take a lot of time and effort to bring it back to normal. Poorly chewed rough food, such as crackers or nuts, can injure the walls of the esophagus.

Food well moistened with saliva, previously chewed in the most thorough way, quickly passes through the digestive tract, is completely digested and better absorbed.

Another important point that almost no one remembers is the heating of food in the oral cavity. We all know that raw food soup cools the body. After all, we do not heat it, and vegetables are always colder than our body temperature. When chewing, food is heated to the optimum degree, and this makes it easier for the mucous membranes of the esophagus and stomach, as well as the kidneys, which do not waste their resources on warming up cold food.

The smaller the food, the more nutrients will be released from it and absorbed by the body. Agree, it is easier to digest food crushed and fermented by saliva than a large piece, in the center of which proteins, vitamins and trace elements will remain. Moreover, these undigested substances will be excreted into the intestines, where the fermentation process will begin.

When we start eating and put the first piece of food in our mouth, the brain sends a signal to the pancreas and stomach to produce digestive enzymes and digestive acids. When you chew food for a long time, the brain sends signals stronger, therefore, the maximum amount of gastric juice is produced. This contributes to the rapid and high-quality absorption of food.

Well-chewed food is disinfected by hydrochloric acid in the stomach. This reduces the risk of reproduction of harmful microorganisms and bacteria, because gastric juice does not penetrate into large pieces of food, and bacteria can remain unharmed. So they will be in the intestines, where they can multiply, which leads to dysbacteriosis or intestinal infections.

Reason number 2. Careful chewing and body work.

Eating food in a calm environment, without distractions, significantly improves the functioning of our body.

Strengthening the gums during chewing occurs due to the flow of blood to the tissues. Chewing muscles expose the teeth and gums to a load equal to 20-120 kilograms.

As it became known recently, they also live around the gums. With careful chewing of greens, vegetables or fruits, active B12 coenzymes are absorbed by diffusion from the mucous membranes.

If you quickly chew and swallow food, then the heartbeat increases by 15-25 beats per minute. In addition, the stomach filled with large pieces of food puts pressure on the diaphragm, which negatively affects the heart.

With careful chewing, the ability to concentrate increases, nervous tension is relieved, negative emotions are annulled, which generally contributes to an increase in mental activity.

Substance lysocin, present in saliva destroys bacteria, so that carefully processed food with saliva reduces the risk of poisoning many times over.

The longer we chew, the more saliva is produced, which neutralizes the effects of acids, therefore, protects tooth enamel from damage. Calcium, sodium and iron contained in saliva strengthen the enamel, as it has the ability to absorb trace elements.

Reason number 3. Chew and lose weight!

The longer we chew, the less food we eat - this is an indisputable fact. Excess fat also appears from overeating. In an effort to get full faster, swallowing food without chewing thoroughly, we eat much more food than required.

When chewed, it is produced histamine A hormone that signals the brain to be full. It will take at least 20 minutes for histamine to reach the brain. During this time, you can either eat a little, as we chew thoroughly, or a lot and get extra calories. In addition to this function, the hormone histamine affects the metabolism for the better, which accelerates the burning of calories.

A leisurely meal prolongs the feeling of satiety. The Chinese conducted a study in which a group of men participated. One part chewed food exactly 20 times before swallowing, the second - 50 times. Two hours later, a blood test showed that those who chewed thoroughly 50 times had almost no hunger hormone in their blood - herelin, unlike those who chewed 20 times.

Of course, chewing food thoroughly contributes to weight loss also because it prevents the formation of toxins, toxins and fecal stones. This also greatly affects the maintenance of the body in shape.

How much to chew food?

You are probably wondering: “How many times to chew this or that food?”. There is no single answer, it all depends on the food. For example, solid food should be chewed at least 40-50 times, while liquid food or puree will need 15 times. Chew food until you can no longer taste it.

You need to “chew” even liquid foods - juices, smoothies, tea, and so on. This implies that before swallowing, you need to hold the juice in your mouth for at least 10 seconds, then swallow in small portions.

As Eastern wisdom says: “He who chews 50 times is not sick with anything, whoever chews 100 times lives a long time, whoever chews 200 times is immortal.”

While eating, concentrate only on it, do not think about anything other than food.

Breathe into your belly, slowly and deeply.

Don't turn on the TV, don't look at the newspapers.

Try to cook for yourself, your energy is more suitable for you.

Dare! Give up the habit of eating in a hurry and on the go. Pay attention to how you eat and what your mind is doing during this process.

For health, you need absolutely nothing, just attention to yourself.

Surely, every person in childhood was taught to eat slowly, chewing food thoroughly. Kids, as a rule, do not pay much attention to such comments. And the habit of chewing slowly is not inculcated. But this is not just a tribute to etiquette, it is, first of all, necessary for health.

Reasons why you need to chew your food thoroughly

There are several main reasons why you should eat carefully, not on the run.

Reason #1 – Digestive Benefits

From thorough and prolonged chewing, the entire digestive system benefits.. The process of absorption of food, its digestion consists of many stages. How this process begins will depend on its further course. And it starts with chewing.

As soon as a person is going to, or begins to eat, saliva is produced in him. Food, getting into the oral cavity, is wetted by saliva, which means it is subjected to light chemical treatment. But food needs to be crushed - this is the primary task assigned to the oral cavity, crushing the lump of food so that it can move freely further into the esophagus.

It is important, but with slow chewing, pieces of food acquire the necessary temperature, and this ensures the comfortable operation of other digestive organs. Bacteria and harmful microorganisms can multiply in unchewed pieces of food.

Once in the stomach, the food is treated with hydrochloric acid for disinfection, if the food is not crushed well enough, the juice will not penetrate into the piece. And this is a “great” opportunity for bacteria to multiply, which leads to infections and poisoning.

Based on medical observations, it is safe to say that insufficient chewing of food leads to such diseases:

But this is not only inconvenience and pain. Ailments lead to depression, bring suffering. Any disease negatively affects the metabolism and the state of the whole organism as a whole. People with such diseases should not only monitor the contents of their diet, but also its process.

Reason #2 – Benefits for the Whole Body

Eating food slowly, a person saturates his body, and brings him significant help and benefits. And this applies not only to the digestive organs, but also to other systems and organs.

According to scientists, with slow and thorough chewing, the following happens:

Reason #3 – Benefits for Weight Loss

Someone will not believe such a statement, someone will laugh, but what a leisurely meal helps in the fight against excess weight is a scientifically proven fact. Careful chewing can provide not only easy, but also pleasant weight loss.

Fat deposits are most often accumulated from overeating, and this is the result of rapid consumption. food and hastily swallowing it.

Having eaten a pie on the run for two "bites", a person dooms himself to the fact that soon the feeling of hunger will again remind of itself with tripled force. As a result, much more food is consumed than the body needs.

In the case of high-quality grinding of pieces of food, it becomes possible to satisfy hunger with a small portion of food, and therefore prevent overeating.

As soon as food enters the mouth, a person begins to produce histamine, the task of which is to enter the brain and signal a feeling of fullness. This takes approximately half an hour. Eating slowly, during this time a person uses less food, and get enough of a small amount of calories. With fast food intake, you can eat a lot in 30 minutes.

Slow processing of food in the mouth contributes to weight loss also because it ensures the quality of the digestive organs, thereby preventing the formation of unnecessary deposits.

The more careless the chewing process, the more likely the risk of gaining weight.

Scientists from China and Japan conducted an interesting experiment on the benefits of thorough chewing, devoting several years to this study. Having recruited a group of 5 thousand volunteers, they divided them into several subgroups, each of which must chew the food received with different intensity: some faster, others slower. There were 5 such subgroups: “normal chewing pace”, “fast chewing pace”, “very fast”, “slow” and “very slow chewing pace”. After some time, the subjects took blood for analysis. He showed that the part that chewed more slowly had significantly less hunger hormone than the part that ate food quickly.

Bottom line: On average, a participant in the "fast pace" group gained several kilograms more weight than a participant in the "slow pace" group.

How much to chew?

Many times, hearing the phrase “chew thoroughly”, you involuntarily think, ? It is difficult to name a specific number, because it depends on the type of dish, the method of its preparation, and the type of ingredients.

There are many opinions about the exact number of chewing movements.

Experts believe that on average, it takes 30 to 40 movements to salivate hard pieces of food.
Crackers, nuts, lightly fried meat should be chewed even more thoroughly, at least 50 times.
For soft food (porridge, soup, mashed potatoes), 10 times is enough.
The sages of the East have their own theory, it says that a person who chews 50 times will be healthy, one who does it 100 times will be a long-liver, and one who is not lazy and makes 150 movements will be immortal.

Yoga practitioners are known to live long lives following their recommendations, even chewing fluids. No matter how paradoxical it may sound, but this fact has a scientific justification: a liquid saturated with saliva is better absorbed without stress on the stomach.

Chewing tea or milk may not be necessary, but you can hold the liquid in your mouth for a while and then swallow it little by little.

According to nutritionists, you need to chew pieces of food until the taste of it ceases to be felt. Food should become a liquid and homogeneous slurry in consistency.

Quick snacks cause not only some diseases, but also a loss of taste sensations.

The slower the food is chewed, the more desirable and tasty it becomes. Eating slowly, carefully chewing seemingly familiar food, there is a chance to discover new taste sensations.

How to learn the right and healthy pace of the meal?

It is enough to follow simple rules:

You need to plan the time for eating, try to eat according to the regimen.
Eat calmly and enjoy.
It is better to get up early in the morning so that there is time for breakfast.
It is better to have a meal in a specially designated place for this.
While eating, focus only on it, not being distracted by conversations, TV, reading.
Put food in your mouth in small pieces.
While eating, take the correct posture: sit without slouching, breathe deeply.
Make as many chewing movements until the piece becomes a homogeneous liquid slurry, and the taste is not felt.
Choose delicious food whenever possible. For prolonged chewing, a large amount of saliva is needed, if the food is tasteless, then the chewing process will become unpleasant and irritating, salivation will stop.
Try to think about the fact that every little piece is beneficial to the whole body. Positive emotions carry a beneficial charge, help to improve mood.

Why does a person grind food poorly during a meal?

There are a number of circumstances for this. Having understood the reasons, you can find a solution how to avoid them:

The process of digestion cannot proceed by itself. A person controls it, and is often to blame for the fact that failures occur in the body. Paying close attention to how he eats, everyone can try to save their health.

Why you need to chew your food thoroughly - it brings obvious benefits, it has been scientifically proven. Various scientists from countries around the world conducted special studies and were able to prove that if you chew food for a short time and then swallow it quickly, you can earn a lot of health problems.

In total, there are five reasons why you need to chew your food completely, and do it slowly.

Reason one: fast weight loss

No matter how trite it may sound, but thoroughly chewing food really contributes to fairly rapid weight loss. Gaining excess weight, as a rule, occurs at times when a person overeats. This is also facilitated by the fact that with a strong feeling of hunger, we eat quickly, with little or no attention to how well we chew food. Trying to get enough as soon as possible, a person sends food into the stomach poorly chopped, and this inevitably leads to the fact that he eats many times more than his body actually needs.

If you eat slowly and thoughtfully, you can lose a few pounds.

If each portion of food in the mouth is chewed thoroughly, grinding it to a mushy state, then you can completely fill up with a small amount of food and prevent overeating (which just leads to weight gain). At the same time, the body will begin to produce a special hormone called histamine, due to the presence of which the brain receives a kind of signal that the feeling of fullness has already come. Its maximum concentration is reached approximately 20 minutes after the start of a meal.

If during all this time you eat slowly and chew food thoroughly, then after the production of histamine it turns out that not so much was eaten, but the feeling of fullness has come. But if you eat quickly and chew food poorly, then during this period of time you can eat a lot.

Histamine, by the way, also improves metabolism, which greatly speeds up the process of burning calories.

Examples of studies and tests

One of the most striking examples is a study in which scientists divided a group of people into two parts. The first was offered a meal and the condition was set that they should chew each portion of food 15 times, and the second - 40 times. At the end of the meal, a blood test was taken from all. He showed that those who chewed more had much less ghrelin, the hunger hormone, in their blood. As a result of this, they were able to prove that the supporters of a calm meal have a feeling of fullness much longer than those who eat quickly.

High-quality chewing of food leads to weight loss, and because it stabilizes and improves the functioning of all gastrointestinal systems, it also minimizes the amount of harmful deposits - toxins, stones, toxins and everything else.

Reason #2: Digestion starts in the mouth

A lot of people believe that the digestive processes in their body are initiated only when the food is in the stomach, where it begins to break down. However, it is not. The key moment of digestion begins from the moment when food enters the mouth. The fact is that the beginning of chewing is perceived by the salivary glands as a signal to start the production of saliva. It is also a “go-ahead” to the stomach that food will soon enter it. So the longer a person chews food, the more saliva will mix with it.

Saliva contains enzymes, so it is important to “saturate” the food you eat with it.

Our saliva is 98% water, despite this, it contains many useful enzymes with antibacterial properties. They initiate chemical processes that affect the breakdown of food. The longer a person chews, the less work is left for the stomach and intestines, as these enzymes begin to break down starch and carbohydrates into simpler sugars. Along with this, teeth also play an important role - thanks to them, food is broken down into tiny particles, making it much easier for the digestive system to cope with it.

Reason three: do not overload the digestive system

This reason follows smoothly from the previous one. Thorough chewing of food contributes not only to easier digestion, but is also an excellent preventive measure for indigestion. The smaller the pieces of food that enter the digestive system, the less gas will be formed in the body. It will also help to get rid of the feeling of bloating after eating at lunch or dinner.

The gastrointestinal tract receives the greatest benefit from quality chewing of food. Large pieces of food can injure the mucous membrane of the esophagus, which will eventually lead to the formation of ulcers and the development of many ailments of the digestive system. But thoroughly chewed food, which is also fully moistened with saliva, passes through the digestive tract very easily, is digested without any problems and then quickly excreted. Even when a person chews food for a long time, its temperature becomes close to body temperature, which facilitates the work of the mucous membrane of the stomach and esophagus. Large pieces get stuck in the intestines, sometimes for a long time (until they are completely digested).

Poorly ground food can cause severe abdominal pain

Full chewing of food is also useful because smaller meals can be absorbed by the body faster, as a result of which the circulatory system will receive more useful enzymes and substances. Lumps of food are not digested as normal, so a person receives much less trace elements, proteins, vitamins and other essential substances.

When poorly chewed food enters the digestive system, bacteria and various microorganisms begin to actively multiply in the body. Properly ground food is treated with hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach, and it cannot completely get into large particles. This means that the bacteria lurking in food remain safe and sound, in the same form they enter the intestines. Already inside it, they begin to multiply, provoking the development of various intestinal infections and dysbacteriosis.

Reason Four: Beneficial effect on all body systems

Thoughtful and high-quality chewing of food has a positive effect not only on the digestive system and the process of processing food, but also on the whole body as a whole:

Since saliva contains lysozyme, a substance that has an antimicrobial effect. It helps to destroy various bacteria even before the food enters the stomach. That is why it is better to saturate the food with your own saliva, and then swallow it.

Reason Five: Evaluate each serving of food to improve taste

If a person begins to spend more time chewing food, then he will be able to discover for himself all the richness of the taste and aroma of food. This is because, as mentioned earlier, saliva contains enzymes that break down food into simple sugars. After that, the taste buds located on the tongue will respond much better to processed food and, accordingly, send more powerful impulses to the part of the brain responsible for pleasure.

Chewing slowly, you can fully enjoy the taste of food

How long do you need to chew food

This question cannot be answered unambiguously, because it all depends on what products this or that dish is prepared from and what type it generally belongs to. Soups and mashed potatoes, for example, are not advisable to chew for a long time, since the former contain a lot of liquid, while the latter already in their consistency resemble the mass into which food turns in the stomach. Although it is still worth saturating them with saliva.

In general, the recommendations may look like this - for proper processing of solid products, it is desirable to make 30-35 movements with the jaw, and for everything else, 10-15 chews are enough. Many experts in the field of nutrition believe that you need to chew food to such an extent that it turns into a homogeneous slurry and all its taste is revealed.

Modern man is sorely lacking time, he needs to have time to do everything and go everywhere. Everyone knows that you need to chew your food thoroughly, but not everyone does it. Some are accustomed to fast swallowing, others to snacking on the go, and others simply have nothing to chew on due to lack of teeth and lack of time for prosthetics. Meanwhile, not only our health, but also the harmony of the figure depends on the amount of chewing food.

Rapid ingestion of food causes the development caries, gastritis, stomach ulcers and obesity. The longer we chew food, the less we eat, which means we lose weight faster. As studies by scientists have shown, if a person chews food 40 times instead of 12 times, then the calorie content of his diet is reduced by 12%. This reduction in calories by chewing food thoroughly is the cheapest way to lose weight. After all, in this way the average person can achieve the loss of extra 10 kg per year. However, in this way, those who prefer to follow a diet consisting of foods that do not need to be chewed will not be able to lose weight. For example, those who eat exclusively yogurt, puree soup, juices and liquid cereals.

During the experiments, scientists found that who is longer chews, he eats up faster. In the hypothalamus of our brain there are neurons that need the hormone histamine, which begins to be produced only after a person begins to chew. Histamine sends satiety signals to neurons in the brain. But these signals reach the hypothalamus only after 20 minutes from the beginning of the meal, so until this time the person continues to eat. And if he swallows food quickly and in large chunks, then before the signal of saturation is transmitted, he already manages to gain extra calories.

In case of careful chewing food, we do not give the body the opportunity to overeat. Histamine not only serves to signal satiety, but also improves metabolism. Therefore, paying attention to chewing, a person not only begins to eat less, but also helps to accelerate the process of burning extra calories.

To lose weight, you need to eat slowly and chew thoroughly food, and stop eating should leave some free space in the stomach. As the Japanese advise, eat until you have eight parts of the stomach full out of ten. When a person constantly overeats, his stomach stretches, and more food is needed to fill it. So there is a vicious, harmful to the harmony of the figure and health vicious circle. Avoid distractions while eating, such as reading or watching TV. In this case, it is very difficult for the body to determine when to stop eating.

Thorough chewing of food favors more fast digestion and absorption of food. After all, digestion does not begin in the stomach, but in. The better you chew food, the more it interacts with saliva. Saliva contains a protein - amylase, which promotes the breakdown of complex carbohydrates into simple ones already in the mouth. In addition, saliva is rich in various enzymes, hormones, vitamins and biologically active substances that contribute to better chewing of food and its rapid movement through the digestive tract.

Prolonged chewing of food releases large amount of saliva, which favorably affects not only digestion, but also improves the condition of the teeth. The components of saliva form a protective film on the teeth and strengthen the enamel of the teeth. Chewing for teeth and gums is a kind of muscle training in the gym. When chewing solid food, strong pressure is exerted on the teeth, which increases the blood supply to the gums and teeth, which is the prevention of periodontal disease. To load the gums and teeth with work, try to include more apples, carrots, cabbage, nuts, barley porridge and other foods that require long chewing in the diet. Chew food, evenly loading all the teeth, alternately with the left, then with the right side of the jaw. Do not drink milk, tea, juice, drinks, water, or other liquids with food. By swallowing food along with liquid, you do not chew it and thereby deprive it of the possibility of interacting with saliva.

Based observing the life of a cow, we can safely say that you can chew non-stop around the clock. Such a thorough chewing of food for people, of course, is not acceptable. How many times do you need to chew food to achieve better weight loss? Someone advises - 100-150 times, and some - 50-70 times. It really depends on what you're chewing. If it is difficult to grind a carrot for 50 times, then a minced meat cutlet can be done for 40 times. Yes, and the condition of everyone’s teeth is different. So chew until your teeth turn the food into a homogeneous liquid mass!

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