"Chew Your Food 60 Times" And other "Diet Hacks"

“Chew Your Food 60 Times” And other “Diet Hacks”

Find a solution catered to your situation

Posted By: TeamTKN

Food Strategy

How often have you been reading an article online, or even checking the weather, when you come across “one simple hack” that promises to solve all your problems?

Fitness gurus and divas are everywhere offering you tips, tricks and other hacks based on the latest in “science.”

Trick Your Body into Eating Less!

Chew Your Food More!

Drink Water to Stave off Hunger!

Is there a nugget of truth in these recommendations? Sure, but so what?

It’s a nugget of truth divorced from any usefulness.

Does it make any sense to assume that because something is factually true that it is also inherently helpful?

This is one of the current plagues of science:

Academic research moves to clinical science. It then trickles down to working professionals and enthusiasts. By the time it finally reaches the general population, it has often morphed into something Dr. Kashey would refer to as being 99% right and 100% wrong. Mostly accurate, and entirely useless.

Chew Your Food

Let’s pick on “chew your food more.”

What does science say?

There IS quite a bit of evidence suggesting a link between the sensations you feel when eating a food and how satisfying it is. You intrinsically know that food that smells weird, looks gross, or feels strange will have an effect on your enjoyment and satisfaction. If you are craving chips and offer yourself slimy, canned vegetables, you will probably fail at keeping your cravings at bay.

As it relates to “chew your food more,” we must explore how food texture impacts the satiating effects of food. Specifically: how does the physiology of food impact the psychophysiological response of “ok, it’s time to stop eating now?”

It is absolutely true that the number of times you chew your food correlates to the amount of food you eat…in a controlled laboratory setting. HOWEVER, using this correlation to tell people to chew their food more is, you guessed it, 99% right and 100% wrong.

Misery is Unsustainable

Maybe the fitness gurus have actually looked at the research and are trying to offer you an applicable take away. Maybe they are just parroting each other. But when people try to act on this advice, the results they see are more likely from the Hawthorne effect (a change in behavior caused by being observed) than their chew count.

In other words, if you slow down and chew your food more ON PURPOSE in a sad attempt to eat less, well you know exactly how well that works. Unless you are coached on how to do it properly, meals become simultaneously boring AND exhausting. What an accomplishment.

You turn something that should be a pleasurable and satisfying experience into a chore. Much like a cow chewing a cud: you chew and chew and chew. Your mind occupies itself by noticing every surrounding irritation. When the slow and monotonous process of turning your feed into a paste is finally over, you may have succeeded in chewing your food more, but you are far from satisfied.

Why do all of these tips, tricks and hacks seem to be aimed at making the eating experience more miserable? Do the gurus think that misery is the path to lasting change?

To achieve long term control over your eating decisions, your eating experience should be rewarding, enjoyable, and satisfying.

If this is the case, then “chew your food more” is a completely useless take away from the scientific connection between food texture and food satisfaction.

Real science: Ask a question

So let’s go back to science.

Instead of taking a top down approach and trying to solve your problems by recreating a correlation found in the lab, let’s follow Dr. Kashey’s lead, think like a scientist, and ask another question:

Why is everyone eating so fast?

Simply telling someone to focus on chewing their food slower is like telling your spouse to stop being so upset. You can imagine how well that would go over, right?

Even if they somehow agreed to try, AND FULLY INTEND TO COMPLY, they probably won’t get very far. In fact, telling someone to do ANYTHING is generally futile.

There is the difference between the laboratory, the clinic and REAL. FREAKING. LIFE.

Dr. Kashey sees what the scientists are measuring in the lab: mastication rates are directly proportional to energy density per unit of time.

Dr. Kashey sees what the medical community is advising: chew your food into a paste before swallowing.

Dr. Kashey sees what the fitness enthusiasts are parroting: If you want to be thin, eat slower.

Are they offering an answer? sure.

But what you really need is a SOLUTION catered to your situation.

If we can stop and ask ourselves, “why are we eating so dang fast?” we put ourselves in the position to implement a real solution. We figure out how to set ourselves up to win.

So why are YOU eating so fast?

How can you set your life up to create a more satisfying eating experience?

Can you make space for meal times at natural transition points in your day, so you can have the time to sit down and enjoy your meals?
Can you create a peaceful space dedicated to enjoying your meals?
Can you eat at consistent intervals so instead of tricking your body into eating less, you can teach your body to trust that more food is coming?
Can you prepare food that you actually enjoy eating, so you actually savor your food?
Can you prepare your food in bulk so the time you would normally spend cooking each meal could be replaced by time spent enjoying each meal?

What would help YOU foster a more mindful eating environment?

Answer this question for yourself, and you won’t need a guru to give you another hack.

You’ll be able to set yourself up to win.

Misery is unsustainable, set yourself up to win.

Why are you eating so dang fast?

Ask yourself these questions:

So why are YOU eating so fast?
How can you set your life up to create a more satisfying eating experience?
What would help YOU foster a more mindful eating environment?

Having a hard time finding these answers?

Check out more articles or reach out to our support, we’d love to help.

About Jacquelyn Laporte

Jacquelyn LaPorte has had the privilege of working with TKN since 2018. The journey has been a wild one, but it has ushered her into the driver’s seat of her own life. She learned how to ask questions, answer them honestly and act on the answers. She has used this process to become a better parent to her 3 kids, a better wife, a better boss, a better learner, a better human. She believes that no experience is wasted, (not even majoring in a dead language with no career plan😊 or starting a business with 0 entrepreneurial spirit). Each experience gives the gift of new eyes. Perfect choices are not required, and that makes her free to choose.

“There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, and every one of them sufficient.”

-Marilynne Robinson-

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