Chewing is the first step in the digestive process, prepping food before it enters the stomach but it is a step that is easily skipped.
Thorough chewing means your food is physically broken down—decreasing size of bits and increasing surface area so maximising exposure to its contents/nutrients.
Chewing also means the food is mixed with a lot of saliva which contains digestive enzymes to start the processing of food pre-stomach.
Catch yourself when you go to swallow a mouthful of food—how liquefied is it?
Better chewing = better digestion = better.
Satiety ~ the stomach telling the brain it’s full - 20 min is the touted time for that process. Chewing properly slows eating speed so satiety is reached with less food consumed. Stopping eating when your body signals ‘that’s enough’ will prevent excess consumption.
I’m with you on the satiety thing. The chewing bit is the one I’m skeptical of. I don’t currently chew this way. If I did, what life outcomes would be better for me? (you say “better digestion = better”, but why? and why do you believe it?)
you say “better digestion = better”, but why? and why do you believe it?
We are one unit of many parts—complex and interconnected.
Simply put, improvements in digestion = better absorption of nutrients = benefit of the whole.
I believe it because of:
observation that I feel better after eating when I’ve fully chewed my foods.
my knowledge of basic human physiology.
I don’t know what your knowledge base is but if you don’t believe that the thorough chewing of food is a good idea, it’ll be more productive for you to do a search for “benefits of chewing” and work from there rather than me trying to explain the digestive (and related) processes from mouth to rectum.
I’m with you on the satiety thing.
Why? What is this belief based on?
If you are happy with the concept of stopping eating when the body says “full” then more chewing = longer time with each mouthful of food = increased chance of sufficient time for satiety messages to be sent = less food consumed which, for many people, would be a good thing.
The chewing bit is the one I’m skeptical of. I don’t currently chew this way.
While scepticism is a trait I encourage the fact you don’t chew this way is irrelevant to whether chewing food to a liquid before swallowing is beneficial or not.
If I did, what life outcomes would be better for me?
You could try it and see. Do rationalists like to find things out for themselves?
I don’t know what effect on your life outcome chewing your food will have. It should improve your digestion and that seems a positive.
It is harder to do than it sounds. It takes attention to change eating habits. Remembering to fully chew every mouthful. The basis of “mindful eating” sort of stuff.
note: I didn’t mean to be coming across as adversarial. I’m asking because you expressed very strong confidence in a claim that was surprising to me.
I tried chewing that way once and it felt gross so I stopped and I’d need a compelling reason to do it again. “people reliably feel better / get more energy / something” is a plausible reason. I’m not asking for you to fully justify the idea here, I just wanted a sense of whether your belief came more from “I tried it and it had a small effect, or a large effect, or I read some studies“ or whatnot. There’s a huge number of things to try.
I have a background model on why satiety matters, which I’m assuming we‘re on the same page about. I agree that eating slower is good for ‘detect satiety’ reasons, but I can do that by just pausing more.
I also do try to eat mindfully, which I find intrinsically enjoyable, but not when I’m chewing things until they’re liquid
:) liquid/paste/pulp … mechanically processing your food with your teeth to increase its surface area is a good thing. Chewing increases the production of saliva so more enzymes available and more time for them to mix with the food. Although I dislike the expression, it’s a “no-brainer” to me hence the confidence.
I was expecting more of a push-back on food that’s grown not manufactured. A visceral belief but I’d struggle to form a rational argument—there’s a lack of scientific proof for something so hard to test. Nature’s hard to beat.
My full confidence as being correct/right/true:
Chew every mouthful of food until it’s liquid (edited to add: a pulp, paste)before swallowing.
Stop eating as soon as you have the thought “that’s enough” - satiety has been reached.
This I believe:
It’s better to eat food that’s been “grown” rather than “manufactured”.
What good thing happens to me if I do the first thing?
Chewing is the first step in the digestive process, prepping food before it enters the stomach but it is a step that is easily skipped.
Thorough chewing means your food is physically broken down—decreasing size of bits and increasing surface area so maximising exposure to its contents/nutrients.
Chewing also means the food is mixed with a lot of saliva which contains digestive enzymes to start the processing of food pre-stomach.
Catch yourself when you go to swallow a mouthful of food—how liquefied is it?
Better chewing = better digestion = better.
Satiety ~ the stomach telling the brain it’s full - 20 min is the touted time for that process. Chewing properly slows eating speed so satiety is reached with less food consumed. Stopping eating when your body signals ‘that’s enough’ will prevent excess consumption.
I’m with you on the satiety thing. The chewing bit is the one I’m skeptical of. I don’t currently chew this way. If I did, what life outcomes would be better for me? (you say “better digestion = better”, but why? and why do you believe it?)
We are one unit of many parts—complex and interconnected.
Simply put, improvements in digestion = better absorption of nutrients = benefit of the whole.
I believe it because of:
observation that I feel better after eating when I’ve fully chewed my foods.
my knowledge of basic human physiology.
I don’t know what your knowledge base is but if you don’t believe that the thorough chewing of food is a good idea, it’ll be more productive for you to do a search for “benefits of chewing” and work from there rather than me trying to explain the digestive (and related) processes from mouth to rectum.
Why? What is this belief based on?
If you are happy with the concept of stopping eating when the body says “full” then more chewing = longer time with each mouthful of food = increased chance of sufficient time for satiety messages to be sent = less food consumed which, for many people, would be a good thing.
While scepticism is a trait I encourage the fact you don’t chew this way is irrelevant to whether chewing food to a liquid before swallowing is beneficial or not.
You could try it and see. Do rationalists like to find things out for themselves?
I don’t know what effect on your life outcome chewing your food will have. It should improve your digestion and that seems a positive.
It is harder to do than it sounds. It takes attention to change eating habits. Remembering to fully chew every mouthful. The basis of “mindful eating” sort of stuff.
note: I didn’t mean to be coming across as adversarial. I’m asking because you expressed very strong confidence in a claim that was surprising to me.
I tried chewing that way once and it felt gross so I stopped and I’d need a compelling reason to do it again. “people reliably feel better / get more energy / something” is a plausible reason. I’m not asking for you to fully justify the idea here, I just wanted a sense of whether your belief came more from “I tried it and it had a small effect, or a large effect, or I read some studies“ or whatnot. There’s a huge number of things to try.
I have a background model on why satiety matters, which I’m assuming we‘re on the same page about. I agree that eating slower is good for ‘detect satiety’ reasons, but I can do that by just pausing more.
I also do try to eat mindfully, which I find intrinsically enjoyable, but not when I’m chewing things until they’re liquid
:) liquid/paste/pulp … mechanically processing your food with your teeth to increase its surface area is a good thing. Chewing increases the production of saliva so more enzymes available and more time for them to mix with the food. Although I dislike the expression, it’s a “no-brainer” to me hence the confidence.
I was expecting more of a push-back on food that’s grown not manufactured. A visceral belief but I’d struggle to form a rational argument—there’s a lack of scientific proof for something so hard to test. Nature’s hard to beat.