How Can Chewing My Food Help Me Lose Weight?

Chew Your Food 40 Times

What did I just suggest you do?  No Way!  Yes, chew each bite of food 40 times. 

I thought this was crazy the first time an Oriental Medicine weight loss expert told me this was her secret to weight loss.

She also told me we should chew soups and liquids!  Now I absolutely knew she was nuts.  So what do I do now when I eat – I chew each bite of solid and liquid food 40 times.

Pay attention to how many times you chew a bite of food before you swallow it.  Can you even get to five chews?  How often are you swallowing your food almost whole?

Now, before you decide that I’m crazy, read on for the reasoning behind this healthy habit.  It’s much easier to make changes in our eating habits when we understand how it makes a difference in our health and our weight.

You know how we get this fluid in our mouths?  It’s called saliva.  It does more than just moisten our mouth, throat and make us swallow a lot.  We have several saliva glands in the mouth and tongue.

Here are some nifty science facts about salvia, which does several things for us including: 

• lubricate the mouth

• moisten and lubricate food in the mouth

• dissolve chemicals – this gives us our taste sensations

• initiate digestion

The salivary glands secret two kinds of enzymes, and here you just thought enzymes came out of a bottle.

The first one is called salivary amylase.  This enzyme breaks down starches or carbohydrates.

The second enzyme is lingual lipase.  Lipase starts the process of breaking down lipids or fats.

So what does this mean for you?  Well, it means that the actual process of digestion begins as soon as you place your food in your mouth!

You’ve probably seen this happen without even knowing what caused it.

When you eat food out of a carton or a jar and put the rest back into the fridge, the enzymes in your saliva start digesting the food in the container.

By the next day, a good portion of what’s left is partially liquefied.  I recall seeing this with baby food in the little jars, when my own children were little.  That’s why double dipping in the chips and dip is a big No-No.

So now you’re starting to understand why you should chew your foods more than you do now, maybe even a lot more than you currently do.

Starting today, when you site down to your meals or snacks, start chewing each bite up to 40 times.  Make sure to swish liquids around in your mouth so they get well mixed with salvia before you swallow.

What’s more, chewing your food 40 times will aid you in taking longer to eat.  Chewing your food 40 times is the first step to true weight loss.