Move over, zero-carb diets and juice fasts, chewing may be the next big weight-loss fad.
A new study says that chewing and chewing — and, yes, still more chewing — before swallowing their food makes people lose weight.
Ideally, a person should masticate 40 times before swallowing, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
That’s more than double the 15 times the average American chews each bite.
People who chewed 40 times ended up consuming 12 percent fewer calories, according to researchers at Harbin Medical University in China.
It didn’t even matter how big the bites were.
If the average person cut his calorie intake by 12 percent, he would lose nearly 25 pounds in one year, said Adam Drewnowski, director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research in Seattle.
However, that doesn’t take into account nonchewable foods like ice cream and soup, he said.
Chewing more was associated with lower blood levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, as well as higher levels of CCK, a hormone believed to reduce appetite, the study found.
In effect, these hormones “tell the brain when to begin to eat and when to stop eating,” said co-author Shuran Wang told Reuters.
It’s not the first time researchers have explored the link between chewing and weight.
Several previous studies have also shown that eating faster and chewing less contribute to weight gain, though some others have been inconclusive.
Scientists in the Chinese study cautioned, however, that their conclusions are limited because their sample size was small — they gave a typical breakfast to 14 obese men and 16 men of normal weight — and was limited to young men.
A new study says that chewing and chewing — and, yes, still more chewing — before swallowing their food makes people lose weight.
Ideally, a person should masticate 40 times before swallowing, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
That’s more than double the 15 times the average American chews each bite.
People who chewed 40 times ended up consuming 12 percent fewer calories, according to researchers at Harbin Medical University in China.
It didn’t even matter how big the bites were.
If the average person cut his calorie intake by 12 percent, he would lose nearly 25 pounds in one year, said Adam Drewnowski, director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research in Seattle.
However, that doesn’t take into account nonchewable foods like ice cream and soup, he said.
Chewing more was associated with lower blood levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, as well as higher levels of CCK, a hormone believed to reduce appetite, the study found.
In effect, these hormones “tell the brain when to begin to eat and when to stop eating,” said co-author Shuran Wang told Reuters.
It’s not the first time researchers have explored the link between chewing and weight.
Several previous studies have also shown that eating faster and chewing less contribute to weight gain, though some others have been inconclusive.
Scientists in the Chinese study cautioned, however, that their conclusions are limited because their sample size was small — they gave a typical breakfast to 14 obese men and 16 men of normal weight — and was limited to young men.
