"Let's get a quick bite."
This may very well be one of the most spoken phrases in the English language. After all, who doesn't love eating, yet who has copious amounts of time to savor an eight-course meal (well except for the judges on cooking shows).
Getting a "quick bite," usually means throwing food down your throat in under five minutes. Do you even know what you ate? Did you even chew?
You may think that this is an okay habit because you do feel better after you eat, but not slowing down to chew your food certainly has its consequences.
When food is not well chewed and the food fragments are too big to be properly broken down, incomplete digestion occurs. Not only do nutrients not get extracted from the food but undigested food becomes fodder for bacteria in the colon which can lead to bacterial overgrowth, flatulence and other symptoms of indigestion. -- WHFoods.org
If you constantly have stomachaches, pains or experience gas, you very well may be scarfing your food far too quickly.
Another negative side effect to eating way too quickly? Choking. The diameter of your esophagus is extremely narrow (think the size of a quarter) so trying to suck down a foot-long Subway sandwich in one bite is not going to have positive side effects. Yes, this side effect may sound obvious but when people are hungry, they tend forget that their likelihood of choking increases tremendously.
Try taking at least 10 minutes per meal to enjoy your food today. Ideally you should saver your meal over 20 minutes, but that isn't practical, especially during the workweek. Chew your food or cut it up into very small pieces and then focus on the flavor and texture; you may even find that you don't like the food you have been noshing on for all this time.
Comments