Food is the fuel our body needs for its journey through the day (and night). We ingest that fuel (in the form of food), and once it is digested, it releases the fuel that our body cells need. Digestion is a process and not a pit stop. When we eat quickly, we are essentially “outrunning” our body’s satiety signals. We are finishing the race before the referee (our brain) even knows we’ve started.
Think of time as an ingredient. When we eat fast, we don’t put “time” on our plate, and our body does not count the calories because it will miss that window. Let’s dig into the science for a bit.
The “20-Minute Gap”
- The Ghrelin Suppression: When we begin eating, there is a lot of ghrelin in our stomachs (the “hunger hormone”). It takes time for it to decrease in quantity. When we eat too fast, it stays high even though we are filling up the stomach, which sends a signal that we are starving. And so we continue to eat more than needed.
- The Satiety Cascade: Food entering our small intestine leads to a cascade of events through the release of satiety factors (essentially chemical messengers) such as Cholecystokinin (CCK), Peptide YY (PYY), and more.
- The Traffic Jam: These chemical messengers have to travel via the bloodstream to reach the hypothalamus in the brain to send out the “Stop Eating” signal. This takes about 20 minutes.
Let’s say if we took only 5 minutes to complete our meal, we have a 15-minute window in which the body has had sufficient fuel, yet our brain has gotten no signal whatsoever about this. We keep eating, in this case, and hence the 15% extra intake.
But when we eat slowly, we are not only helping avoid these chemical messengers enough time to make their way to the brain and work their magic bit also we will take fewer bites. Essentially, the calorie intake decline is a function of the lag time needed between the gut and the brain. The lag time is known as the “Gut-Brain Axis.”
In one such research study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on eating rate showed that eating slowly is an effective method of lowering calorie consumption. In the experiment, people cut their calorie intake by 10% (around 88 calories) per meal, just by eating more slowly, while feeling fuller. Individuals who ate their lunch slowly were able to reduce their subsequent snack intake by 25% compared to those who ate their lunch quickly.
Here are some fun and creative ways you can slow down and be more mindful while eating.
- Trying to be ambidextrous. If you are right-handed, hold your fork in your left hand (and vice versa). This one really works, and it's fun. 🫷🫸
- Try the Uptown-Downtown Loop. Think of driving from uptown to downtown and back. You will hit a red stoplight and stop-and-go traffic. Follow a similar loop while eating: Bite —> Put your spoon down —> Chew —> Swallow your food —> Pick up your spoon again. 🚘🚦
- Try the No-Screen Way. Turn off the TV, put the phone in another room, and close the laptop. ❌️📱💻📺
So next time when you sit to eat, just think of a traffic jam, and hopefully that helps you slow down a bit.
