Health

From childhood we are fed up with advice, the most annoying of which seems to be next tip – Eat slowly, chew food thoroughly. However, many of us do not even think to follow this rule. Moreover, the reason for such carelessness is very simple - it's just that no one explained to us why it is so important to chew the food we eat thoroughly. Perhaps this advice will be heard by a lot more people who will begin to follow it regularly if they really realize how much better it will be for their health. bite off a small piece while eating and chew it for a long time. In fact, there are a lot of reasons why it should be done this way and not otherwise, but they can all be summarized in five different categories.

1. Digestion begins in the mouth

Most people believe that the food they eat begins to dissolve only when they swallow it. However key moment the entire digestive chain begins when the food is in the mouth. Chewing, as such, is a signal to our salivary glands to the production of saliva. In addition, this is a signal for our entire body, warning it that now food will begin to flow into our stomach. This signal allows our stomach, in the literal sense of the word, to prepare for a meal. The longer you chew your food, the more saliva it mixes in your mouth before being swallowed. This, in fact, is one of the benefits of slowly chewing small pieces of food.

Despite the fact that human saliva is 98 percent water, it is an extremely beneficial substance. and contains great amount enzymes. In addition, our saliva contains many components that have antibacterial properties including mucus and electrolytes. Enzymes contained in saliva chemical process splitting food as soon as our teeth closed for the next portion of food. The teeth themselves at this moment also perform essential function, grinding food and reducing its size in such a way that our digestive system, which will soon receive chewed food, can more easily cope with it. Enzymes in our saliva break down carbohydrates and starches into simple sugars. This means that the longer you chew, the less work to release these components remains in your digestive system.

2. The digestive system should not work for wear

Remarkably, but most often the best, most effective and a simple means against indigestion, caused by too much food, is preventive measure, in which you eat the same amount of food, only for a slightly longer amount of time. Chew each little bite longer, as this will greatly simplify the work of your digestive system in general, and your intestines in particular! The smaller the pieces of food that enter our digestive tract, the less gas we absorb. That is why, by swallowing small, thoroughly chewed pieces of food, we reduce the risk of gas accumulation in the stomach and get rid of the feeling of bloating after a heavy dinner or lunch. As for large pieces of food, then another problem for the digestive system is that it is quite difficult for our body to move such pieces along the digestive tract.

3. Maximize Nutrients with Every Meal!

Having achieved what your chewing process becomes close to ideal and necessary for your health, you will begin to regularly supply your body with smaller pieces of food that it can digest much faster and, very importantly, more efficiently. The smaller piece of food you swallow after chewing, the less surface area of ​​the digestive system is exposed to digestion (digestive) enzymes. This, in turn, means that the less time it takes for a given piece to break down into its constituents, and the more nutrients will be absorbed by your body.

4. No gluttony and overeating!

Once upon a time little known fact who now knows everything more people, says: our brain needs about twenty minutes, so that it receives a signal from our body that the stomach is full. If someone absorbs food too quickly, then such a person has every chance of eating much more food than he really needs to feel full. As a result, such an eater will remain with bad feeling Satiety is a very unhealthy feeling that all of us seem to be familiar with. On the other side, if you stop fidgeting with your spoon or fork, and give yourself the opportunity to thoroughly chew each portion of food put in your mouth before swallowing it, the process of eating food will take you more time. This means that you have the opportunity to feel that you are full before you overeat. In other words, your stomach will not get that extra amount of food that you do not need, and because of which every lunch, dinner or breakfast turns into an extremely unhealthy and unhealthy event for your body, threatening various problems for your health in general, and for your digestive system in particular.

5. Spend more time evaluating every bite you eat!

In a hectic modern world For most people, the desire to eat is much more frequent than it once was. If you start spending more time chewing food, then you will gradually begin to appreciate much more the time that you spend on food in general. The longer you chew, the tastier and sweeter (literally!) each piece will seem to you. This is because saliva, as mentioned above, breaks down the complex components of any food into simple sugars. Further more! The flavor and texture of food will become more pronounced as soon as you focus all your attention on food and start appreciating the taste of every bite you eat. Slow chewing can open the door for you to absolutely new world, which has always been with you, but to which you did not pay due attention. Thus, you involuntarily begin to take more care of what exactly to put in your mouth to saturate! This will help you eat healthier and get more pleasure from every slow meal. You will never again pounce on food with greed, because you will no longer need it!

How long does it take to chew food?

There are a lot of opinions about the time that should be given to chewing each piece. Great practical way identify the time required for each piece of food that you put in your mouth is as follows: you need to chew until it is difficult for you to tell, based only on the texture of the chewed food, what exactly you are chewing. However, speaking in numbers, for solid food, 30 to 40 chews per bite are optimal. A dense and liquid mass, such as porridge, fruit smoothie, or soup, should be chewed at least ten times. Despite the fact that chewing food that cannot be chewed into small pieces looks pointless, the chewing process itself will prevent possible disorder in the stomach, caused by eating a lot of food when your digestive system is prepared by not chewing only to consume water or juice. In addition, saliva mixed with food makes it much easier for your body to digest food, regardless of the consistency of what you have consumed. But what to do if you consider it impossible to slowly absorb and chew food for the simple reason that you do not have enough time for this? Perhaps this is just a matter of habit, which means it makes sense to try the following few tips. that can help you learn to chew much more slowly:

-- Try to use chopsticks.

-- While eating, sit up straight, breathe deeply and slowly.

-- Concentrate only on food, not paying attention to anything around you.

-- Eat only in designated areas(for example, in the kitchen, and not in the room, sitting at the computer).

-- Devote the time you spend eating to contemplating this process along the way.

-- Try to cook on your own, as this will help you learn to appreciate every bite of food you eat.

Take the time to chew your food thoroughly, and you will do wonders for your own digestive system in particular, and for your overall health. Among other things, you will get rid of the discomfort felt before after each meal. Finally, treat every bite of food you eat as a real gift, and give your body a real chance to digest food exactly as it should - without the slightest feeling of discomfort.

Have you ever thought about the meaning of the proverb, "when I eat, I am deaf and dumb"? But in vain. It contains deep meaning. The thing is that you can’t eat, talk on the phone, watch TV, read a book, work on a computer at the same time, unless, of course, you want to get gastritis or a stomach ulcer. And all because in this case you will not be able to chew food thoroughly, which will cause significant harm to your body.

With this, of course, you can not agree. After all, it would seem that this has nothing to do with health. But if you think like that, you are making a huge mistake. You can't eat while running. You need to eat slowly, chewing food thoroughly. Let's see why?

First, it must be done to normal operation digestive system. In anticipation of breakfast, lunch or dinner, a person begins to secrete abundant saliva, which is involved in the process of preliminary digestion of food. Well, if so, then it should properly mix with it. This can only be achieved if the foods you consume are well crushed in your mouth. Well, for this they need to be chewed thoroughly, and only then swallowed. If food is swallowed in pieces, then the stomach will not be able to digest it. Hence the fermentation increased gas formation, heartburn, bloating. In the end, everything will end with gastritis, an ulcer and a trip to a gastroenterologist.

The danger lies in the fact that when eating poorly chewed food, the esophagus can be injured. Only when thoroughly chewed, it will easily pass through the digestive tract, quickly digested, and absorbed by the body without any problems. As a result, from food will be extracted maximum amount useful substances. If in stomach hit a poorly chewed lump, then, most likely, he will not be able to cope with it, and the body will not receive the vitamins and minerals it needs.

Chewing food thoroughly, we not only moisten it abundantly with saliva, but also bring it to a comfortable temperature at which it is best digested. The intestinal microflora easily copes with such food. But in insufficiently chewed, they will probably breed pathogenic bacteria, which will cause the fermentation process. The whole point is that gastric juice will not be able to penetrate inside the piece, which means it will not be able to destroy the harmful bacteria that may be in it. And this is already fraught with poisoning.

Doctors say that poor chewing of food is the cause of most intestinal diseases. Among them, for example, include: diarrhea, constipation, stomach cramps, flatulence, gastritis, ulcers, pancreatitis, dysbacteriosis. This is not only unpleasant, but also dangerous. After all, all these diseases significantly worsen the quality of life, and have a lot of side effects. In particular, they threaten nervous disorders and depression.

Now let's focus on the benefits of chewing food thoroughly. By doing this, you not only help the intestines to digest it, but also solve a number of other equally important tasks:

1. Strengthen your gums.
2. Satisfy your hunger with much less food.
3. Allow the stomach to work more productively and produce enough gastric juice for digestion.
4. Don't break acid-base balance in organism.

Abundant wetting of food with saliva allows you to:

1. Save and Strengthen tooth enamel. The thing is that in addition to enzymes, saliva contains potassium, sodium, fluorine and calcium, which have a beneficial effect on the teeth.
2. Provide preliminary disinfection of food, affecting the harmful bacteria contained in it with lysozyme, which is part of saliva.

Ultimately, you reduce your heart rate. After all, with each next swallowing of food, the number of contractions of the heart increases.

According to scientists, the human body begins to extract energy from food already at the stage of chewing it. It turns out that the longer you chew, the more energy you get.

If you do not want to gain weight and want to lose weight, chew your food thoroughly. You may not believe this, but facts are stubborn things. Try to follow our recommendations and see for yourself how effective they are. After all, a person gets better as a result of constant overeating, which, in turn, is due to frequent snacks and fast consumption food. Instantly swallowing a pie, you are unlikely to satisfy your hunger. Half an hour later, you will want to eat again. As a result, the amount of food consumed will increase significantly. But the body does not need it, and therefore all food surpluses will definitely be deposited in the form of fat.

Hello dear readers.

Do you know that there is a very simple technique healing, which cures many diseases, especially diseases gastrointestinal tract. , duodenitis, diseases of the gallbladder, pancreas are difficult to cure without the use of this method.

So, get acquainted - therapeutic chewing.

The essence of this technique is so simple that you might be surprised that it can cure diseases. But do not rush to conclusions, read the article and try it. You will quickly feel beneficial effect therapeutic chewing.

Of course, if you have a disease, for example, gastritis, already running, you cannot defeat it with one method, I already wrote about this in an article. But without chewing your food thoroughly, you won't be able to fully recover.

In today's world, people have forgotten how to do it right. Eating on the run, overeating, eating leads to obesity and development chronic diseases all organs and systems. For supporting excellent health and detoxification are often used. The combination of the method of proper chewing of products with one of the methods contributes to the prevention of diseases and speedy deliverance from many diseases. Let's talk about how to chew food properly.

An excursion into the history of the emergence of the technique

The founder of the method of proper chewing of food is the American physiologist Horace Fletcher. After 40 years, his health began to crack, diseases appeared one after another, worsening general state and reducing performance. He was diagnosed with a "bouquet" of ailments from the side of digestion, cardiovascular and endocrine system had psychological problems. Sharp deterioration health led to the refusal of insurance companies to pay medical insurance for long courses of therapy.

Despite the difficult streak in life, Fletcher did not become depressed, but tried to find the roots of his problems. He came to the conclusion that the deterioration of health arose as a result of malnutrition - snacking on the go, violation of the daily routine, fast eating while watching the press and television programs. Thanks to his knowledge of physiology, the doctor described in detail the causes of ailments in malnutrition. Based on scientifically based conclusions, he created effective methodology therapeutic chewing, which is called fletcherism.

Briefly about the process of digestion

According to the physiology of digestion, food begins to be digested already in the oral cavity. Food contains essential nutrients that are essential for the life of the body. These are proteins, carbohydrates and fats. For absorption into digestive tract Nutrients must be broken down into smaller particles that can enter the bloodstream. In this condition they are delivered transport system blood circulation (special proteins) to cells and tissues.

Food components are broken down by the digestive juices of the mouth, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, and liver. They contain enzymes that break down large nutrient molecules into smaller particles. Carbohydrates begin to break down already in the oral cavity, and then in the duodenum 12. Thus, the body prepares them for further digestion in the digestive tract. Proteins and fats are broken down mainly in the stomach and small intestine. For proper digestion food must be mechanically crushed with teeth, chemically treated with saliva. And the more the better.

The essence of the method of therapeutic chewing

Method medical nutrition is based on the physiology of digestion and is aimed at maintaining the health of all organs and systems. Fletcher proved that chewing one portion of food in the oral cavity should account for at least 30 chewing movements, ideally about 100. As a result, the food bolus is completely saturated with saliva, softens, liquefies and enters the esophagus without swallowing movements, as if sliding down the throat and without spasms moves along the esophagus. This phenomenon has been called the "Fletcher food probe".

Of course, you don't have to go to the point where food passes without being swallowed, but remember, the more you chew, the better.

The technique of chewing food thoroughly was known in oriental medicine. It was actively used by yogis. Thanks to the right way eating, they were satisfied with a small amount of food, healed physical and spiritual ailments, life expectancy was at least 100 years. With a small amount of food consumption, yogis maintained a cheerful state during the day, and maintained a healthy sleep at night.

There is another aspect here.

The fact is that when we chew slowly and focus only on food (we don’t get distracted, we don’t talk, but we feel the food, its taste), we energetically interact with it. All this leads to the fact that we take more nutrients from food, energetically and physically saturate faster. We need less food now.

The digestive organs become healthier and stronger.

Yogis knew about all this. No wonder there is a legend that the stomach of a yogi is able to digest even a rusty nail. There is a deal of truth in it.

Have you noticed that when someone cooks food, tastes it, they get satiated faster? And he no longer wants to sit down and eat with everyone. He just energetically interacted with food. Draw your own conclusions.

Every person who wants to maintain good physical shape throughout life should know how to chew food properly. Here are the main principles of the healing technique:

• do not fill your mouth with food, you must put food in oral cavity in small portions, filling it halfway;
• chew food slowly - the number of minimum chewing movements can, for example, be calculated by the formula: one movement for an existing tooth, three for a missing or diseased tooth. For example: if you have 32 healthy tooth, then chew food 32 times, you can increase the number of jaw movements 2-5 times. But that's about all. Main principle- the bigger, the better;
• during meals, try to achieve maximum contact food bolus with a tongue that has a large number of receptors. This allows you to activate the work of the digestive glands through nerve impulses into the central nervous system;
• eating should take place in a calm environment, provided there is no irritability and anger. Negative emotions disrupt the process of splitting food;
• the meal should not be accompanied by other activities (reading, talking, watching TV), while eating, you need to concentrate on palatability dishes, smells, the process of chewing and saturation. Those. energetically interact with food.

Fletcher suggested a 5-week course of the technique, during which a person uses therapeutic chewing at each meal. For this period useful way nutrition is fixed at the reflex level and then maintained for a long time. With the extinction of skills, the course can be repeated.

Scheme of a 5 week course of healing chewing:

1. The first week - each serving of food in the mouth is crushed for 1 minute.
2. Second week - 2 minutes.
3. Third week - 3 minutes.
4. Fourth week - 2 minutes.
5. Fifth week - 1 minute.

The technique must be used at every meal, otherwise the effect will be reduced to zero. In this case, all Fletcher's recommendations should be followed.

Of course, in the modern world with a frantic pace of life, it is difficult to constantly adhere to the recommendations for long chewing. Do then, at least periodically, such courses, and during breaks try to chew based on the availability of free time. When you feel beneficial changes and learn to eat with energy benefits, you will enjoy chewing thoroughly, and you will no longer want to stupidly quickly swallow food, like animal.

Benefits of therapeutic chewing

Positive changes in the body are noticeable after the first course of application of the technique. The attitude towards food is radically changing - a person enjoys dishes, enjoys a meal, gains strength, emotional upsurge, feels true happiness.

The positive impact of the Fletcher method on health:

• Effect separate power supply without difficulties in compiling a diet - nutrients are split sequentially during slow chewing;
• a decrease in the volume of food consumed by 2-5 times - proper chewing contributes to the normalization of the satiety center in the brain, which prevents malnutrition and obesity;
• a set of natural body weight. Fat people lose weight, thin people gain weight;
• small energy costs for the digestion of a small volume of products - energy goes to the recovery and healing processes in the body;
• improvement of the work of digestion and other body systems - nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, urinary, sexual;
• getting rid of many diseases;
• maintaining the correct biorhythms - active daytime wakefulness, calm and uninterrupted sleep at night;
• maintaining Have a good mood and emotional states.

Now you know how to chew food properly. Use the technique at every meal and enjoy good health, good mood, good performance. For amplification healing effect combine proper chewing with or wet (with water) fasting.

And then you will be healthy and happy! What do you want!

I suggest to look interesting video about therapeutic chewing:

Long and thorough chewing of food. Why is it important to chew food thoroughly? Beneficial effect on the heart Since childhood, many of us have been taught various things by our parents and one of the most annoying advice, for sure, was the advice to be more attentive to how you eat. People eat food quickly, not having time to enjoy either its taste or the very process of satisfying hunger, because they are always late for something. However, the habit of chewing food thoroughly hides a lot of useful things, and everyone should know about it. Eating fast and on the go is a bad habit! Thorough chewing of food hides in itself really a large number of advantages, which, unfortunately, not everyone knows. Thorough chewing of food has a positive effect on work digestive system. Well-chopped food is digested faster, the body receives from it large quantity nutrients, and it is also cleared of various harmful microorganisms that enter the body with food. Thorough chewing as a way to lose weight Thorough chewing as a method of losing weight In many cases, weight problems happen due to frequent overeating. People who work long hours and come home pounce on food and consume much more of it than the body needs. Slow eating, chewing it thoroughly allow you to leave the place of the meal with a slight feeling of hunger, avoiding overeating - this allows you to forget about problems with overweight. Constant overeating leads to an increase in the volume of the stomach, which is constantly stretched due to the excessive amount of food entering it. Chinese researchers conducted an interesting experiment among people of different weight categories. Thirty young men took part in it. One half of the subjects chewed the food they received 15 times, the other - 40. After some time, they took a blood test in order to check the amount of the hunger hormone in it. It turned out that people who chewed more carefully had less of this hormone - ghrelin. Yogis, known for their long lifespan, say: "Eat liquid food, drink solid food." It should be understood as follows: even relatively liquid food still needs to be chewed first so that it mixes with saliva, and only then swallowed. Solid food needs to be chewed for a long time until it becomes liquid. During various scientific research it has been found that people who chew food for a long time feel full faster than people who chew less. This is due to the fact that when food enters the mouth, the body starts a special hormone responsible for saturation. It enters the brain twenty minutes after the start of a meal, so eating slowly makes it possible to saturate with less food than eating it quickly. In addition to being responsible for satiety, histamine also improves metabolism, which leads to the burning of excess fat in the body. Thorough chewing allows a person to eat the amount of food that he needs and avoid overeating. Overeating - known cause overweight problems, because as a result of the rapid absorption of food, an amount of food enters the stomach that exceeds its volume and therefore the organ stretches, becoming larger and larger over time, forcing a person to eat more and more. Correct eating habits 40 times - how much you need to chew food There are many tips on how long to chew each serving of food. In practice, any person can independently determine the time that he spends on chewing one piece of food, simply chewing it until it is impossible to determine what kind of food got into the mouth before. Modern man is sorely lacking time, he needs to have time to do everything and go everywhere. Everyone knows that you need to chew your food thoroughly, but not everyone does it. Some are accustomed to fast swallowing, others to snacking on the go, and others simply have nothing to chew on due to lack of teeth and lack of time for prosthetics. Meanwhile, not only our health, but also the harmony of the figure depends on the amount of chewing food. Rapid ingestion of food causes the development caries, gastritis, stomach ulcers and obesity. The longer we chew food, the less we eat, which means we lose weight faster. As studies by scientists have shown, if a person chews food 40 times instead of 12 times, then the calorie content of his diet is reduced by 12%. This reduction in calories thorough chewing food - the most cheap way for weight loss. After all, in this way average person can achieve a loss of extra 10 kg per year. However, in this way, those who prefer to follow a diet consisting of foods that do not need to be chewed will not be able to lose weight. For example, those who eat exclusively yogurt, puree soup, juices and liquid cereals. During the experiments, scientists found that who is longer chews, he eats up faster. In the hypothalamus of our brain there are neurons that need the hormone histamine, which begins to be produced only after a person begins to chew. Histamine sends satiety signals to neurons in the brain. But these signals reach the hypothalamus only after 20 minutes from the beginning of the meal, so until this time the person continues to eat. And if he swallows food quickly and big chunks, then before the signal of saturation is transmitted, he already manages to gain extra calories. In case of careful chewing food, we do not give the body the opportunity to overeat. Histamine not only serves to signal satiety, but also improves metabolism. Therefore, paying attention to chewing, a person not only begins to eat less, but also helps to accelerate the process of burning extra calories. To lose weight, you need to eat slowly and chew thoroughly food, and you need to stop eating, leaving a little free space in the stomach. As the Japanese advise, eat until you have eight parts of the stomach full out of ten. When a person constantly overeats, his stomach stretches, and more food is needed to fill it. So there is a vicious, harmful to the harmony of the figure and health vicious circle. Avoid distractions while eating, such as reading or watching TV. In this case, it is very difficult for the body to determine when to stop eating. Thorough chewing of food favors more fast digestion and absorption of food. After all, digestion does not begin in the stomach, but in. The better you chew food, the more it interacts with saliva. Saliva contains a protein called amylase, which helps break down complex carbohydrates in simple already in the mouth. In addition, saliva is rich in various enzymes, hormones, vitamins and biologically active substances that contribute better chewing food and rapid advance it through the digestive tract. Prolonged chewing of food releases large amount of saliva, which favorably affects not only digestion, but also improves the condition of the teeth. The components of saliva form a protective film on the teeth and strengthen the enamel of the teeth. Chewing for teeth and gums is a kind of muscle training in gym. When chewing solid food on the teeth is strong pressure, which enhances the blood supply to the gums and teeth, which is the prevention of periodontal disease. To load the gums and teeth with work, try to include more apples, carrots, cabbage, nuts, barley porridge and other foods that require prolonged chewing. Chew food, evenly loading all teeth, alternately with the left, then right side jaws. Do not drink milk, tea, juice, drinks, water, or other liquids with food. By swallowing food along with liquid, you do not chew it and thereby deprive it of the possibility of interacting with saliva. Based observing the life of a cow, we can safely say that you can chew non-stop around the clock. Such thorough chewing food for people is certainly not acceptable. How many times do you need to chew food to achieve better weight loss? Someone advises - 100-150 times, and some - 50-70 times. It really depends on what you're chewing. If it is difficult to grind a carrot for 50 times, then a minced meat cutlet can be done for 40 times. Yes, and the condition of everyone's teeth is different. So chew until your teeth turn the food into a homogeneous liquid mass! - Return to the section heading " "