People in one study lost weight without exercise or major diet change.
Eating slowly helps people feel more full from consuming the same amount of food, research finds.
In fact, chewing each mouthful for 30 seconds can double weight loss, one study has found.
When people eat slowly, it gives more time for the gut to secrete hormones that tell the brain to stop eating.
In contrast, eating quickly reduces the release of these hormones, causing people to carry on eating past the point where they have had enough.
It takes around 15 minutes for the message that the stomach is full to arrive in the brain.
Dr Alexander Kokkinos, the study’s first author, said:
“Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and obesity, and in fact some observational studies have supported this notion.
Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating.”
For the study, 17 people ate 300ml of ice cream at different speeds.
Blood samples were taken to measure glucose, plasma lipids, insulin and gut hormones.
The results revealed that those who took the longest to consume the ice cream felt most full.
They also had higher levels of two critical gut hormones called peptide YY and glucagon-like peptide.
These are released by the gut after eating and signal feelings of fullness to the brain and that eating should stop.
Dr Kokkinos said:
“Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past.
The warning we were given as children that ‘wolfing down your food will make you fat,’ may in fact have a physiological explanation.”
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Kokkinos et al., 2019).
