There you go: chew more and lose weight

StephenW

Nutrition: The best kept secret to losing weight

Felix Cheung

Abstract

Increased mastication might aid weight loss

Original article citationLi, J. et al.                                                                                                 Improvement in chewing activity reduces energy intake in one meal and modulates plasma gut hormone concentrations in obese and lean young Chinese men. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 94, 709–716 (2011).

Introduction© (2011) istockphoto.com

Many factors can increase the risk of obesity. Eating behaviour, for example, is one of them. Shuran Wang and co-workers at Harbin Medical University1 have now found that mastication is also a factor that can influence the risk of obesity.

The researchers invited 16 lean and 14 obese young Chinese men to participate in two experiments. In the first experiment, the participants consumed 300 g of food while a camera recorded their chewing activity. In the second experiment, the participants consumed 2,200 kJ of food and then had blood samples taken for analysis.

The two experiments showed that both sets of participants had a similar bite size and chewing frequency. However, the obese participants ate faster and chewed less than the lean participants. In addition, the glucose and gut hormone levels of participants who chewed around 40 times per mouthful were lower than those who chewed 15 times per mouthful, regardless of their body weight.

The findings show that mastication is a risk factor for obesity. The researchers suggest that chewing more might help aid weight loss.

The authors of this work are from:
Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Reference

• Li, J. et al.  Improvement in chewing activity reduces energy intake in one meal and modulates plasma gut hormone concentrations in obese and lean young Chinese men. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 94, 709–716 (2011).
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