Take Smaller Bites and Enjoy Them Longer to Lose Weight?
In July, 2008, I wrote that eating slowly can increase meal satisfaction and reduce caloric intake (in normal-weight women, anyway).
Monica Reinagel in her Nutrition Data Blog brought to my attention a recent scientific article examining the effect of bite size and “oral processing time” on food intake. ”Oral processing time” must refer to how long food is in your mouth.
Twenty-two healthy people were given chocolate custard in various amounts: small bite size (5 gram), large bite size (15 gram), or ad lib (subject’s choice). They were directed how long to keep it in their mouths - three or nine seconds - before swallowing.
The researchers found that using smaller bite size and keeping food in the mouth longer lead to significantly less custard intake. Nine to 18% less.
I don’t think we’ll ever have a good study testing these ideas as weight-control measures in overweight people over three months. How do you force people to take smaller bites and chew more or longer before swallowing? How would you monitor compliance?
But every overweight person could easily conduct the experiment on himself. Why not give it a try?
Reference: Zijlstra, Nicolein, et al. Effect of bit size and oral processing time of a semisolid food on satiation. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 90 (2009): 269-275.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Interesting study.
I know the portion size is absolutely true, and I think this above study might have something to do with the fact that rather than the length of time in the mouth being a factor, it might simply be due to the amount of time between swallows, which allows your brain time to recognize that your stomach has something in it, thus shutting down the “I’m hungry” sensors that tell you to keep shoving stuff in.
A big problem most Americans/Westerners have is this “fast-food” mentality, not just in the sense of greasy fast-food, but in the sense that everything has to be rushed. Back in the States I can’t think of a time we spent more than an hour, or hour and a half, in a restaurant. In fact, I’ve actually been asked to leave Olive Garden and Outback restaurants over the years because “there are paying customers who need a table”, and we were “taking too long” to enjoy our time out of the house.
As a result, most people have this mentality that they have to eat fast, which means your body isn’t given enough time to register that you are actually full. Instead, you cram as much in as you can in a short amount of time because you are on a limited time.
Here, for example, you can’t go to a restaurant for less than three hours. I’ve noticed a significant change in my diet as a direct result. When you go out to eat you start with a salad, and that salad takes you an hour to eat, and you stay full from it because your brain has time to register that your stomach has food in it. If we go out to restaurants anymore I rarely eat more than a salad and some cheese with a few glasses of wine because by the time the main course gets to us, I’m already full from the smaller portions I’ve been nibbling on up until that point.
Personally, I think this study has less to do with the time it takes to chew your food, and more to do with the fact that by eating slowly you are giving your stomach and brain time to realize that you actually just ate something, and gives your body time to switch off those sensors which tell you to “cram it all in” within a certain amount of time.
People need to slow down, eat smaller portions, and give their body time to realize that it’s been fed, rather than just cramming a 1500 calorie meal down their throats before their body has a chance to realize that it didn’t need much more than a few mouthfuls to be satiated.