People who chew food for two and a half times longer than usual can absorb up to 12 percent. fewer calories, which protects them more against overweight and obesity – writes the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Jie Li from the medical university in Harbin, China, who observed 14 obese people and 16 others with normal body weight during breakfast, proves this. The Chinese scientist also studied how their organisms react depending on the way they eat.
It turned out that people who chewed their food for a longer time secreted less ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates the appetite in the stomach. Instead, they produced more CCK hormone, which has the opposite effect – it increases the feeling of fullness.
Food chewing had no effect on blood glucose and insulin levels.
Adam Drewnowski, dir. The University of Washington Center for Obesity Research in Seattle says that longer chewing alone causes satiety to develop more quickly, which can reduce the number of calories you eat. But he also admits that more research is needed (PAP)