Overeating is associated with eating quickly

A new study that will be published in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) reports that eating fast can restrain the hormones that induce the feeling of being full. The decrease of these hormones can trigger overeating.

Lead author of this study, Alexander Kokkinos, MD, PhD, says that most people are aware that eating quickly can lead to overconsumption of food and to obesity. The study possibly explains the relationship between eating speed and overeating by showing how the hormones that signal the brain to stop eating can be impaired, adds Kokkinos, who is a doctor in Laiko General Hospital in Athens.

Past research has shown that after a meal gut hormones such as peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) act on the brain to induce satiety and to stop eating. But not until this study have these hormones been tested to see how they act according to different rates of eating.

Subjects participating in the study were given a meal of ice cream and ate is at different rates. Blood samples were taken from each subject before the meal to measure glucose, insulin, plasma lipids and gut hormones. The samples were also taken at 30-minute intervals after the participants stared eating until 210 minutes later at the end of the session.

The researchers found that the subjects that took the full 30 minutes to eat the ice cream had higher levels of PYY and GLP-1 and felt fuller.

These findings give insight into today's tendency to overeat due to demanding schedules and living conditions. People eat faster and in greater amounts than they did in the past, says Kokkinos. "The warning we were given as children that 'wolfing down your food will make you fat,' may in fact have a physiological explanation." He adds.

The research group led by Kokkinos is based in the Athens University Medical School in Greece, with additional team members from Imperial College in London, United Kingdom.