We have pedometers to count our daily steps, maybe it’s time to have a device that measures our bites – a biteometer, maybe? That’s because a new study out of China says there is an ideal number of bites you should take in order to lose weight.
While we already knew that we shouldn’t eat our food fast, the latest research pins it down to 40 bites as the ideal number. The researchers got 16 lean and 14 obese young men to participate in the study. Before they started, the researchers believed the obese participants would chew less per bite, which proved to be true.
After fasting for 12 hours, the volunteers went to a laboratory to eat a typical Chinese breakfast of pork pie while they were recorded on video to see how frequently they chewed each bite. They were all given the same amount of food and were allowed to ask for more.
On a later date they were asked to eat the same food again, chewing 15 times per bite, then on another day they were asked to chew 40 times. Whether the person was obese or thin, they consumed about 12 percent less calories when they chewed each bite 40 times than when they chewed 15 times. Their ghrelin levels, the hunger hormone produced in your stomach, were also lower.
The scientists put an interesting spin on the results: “Chewing less is a risk factor for obesity.”
This isn’t the first study to find that 40 chews is the magic number. Check out what I wrote back in 2024:
(via: The Body Odd)