Eat Slower and Feel Full Quicker
Do you savor or do you shovel? Your food, that is.
If you eat slowly and savor your food, chances are you eat less and enjoy it more.
On the other hand, if you shovel your food, cleaning your plate in record time, you are likely to eat bigger portions and return for seconds. Yet, you may not be taking the time to enjoy your food.
Our bodies have their own “inner wisdom”. Instinctively, our bodies know when to stop eating due to built-in checks and balances. We have hormones to tell us when we’re hungry. And other hormones signal satiety, or fullness.
But there’s a catch to this. The full signals take time. They don’t immediately shout “Step Away from the Buffet” in a megaphone voice. When you take the time to eat slowly, you will give the satiety mechanisms a chance to kick in.
Some dieters have found that if they put down their fork between bites, or take time to chat with their dinner partners (without a mouth full of food, of course), they can prolong eating time. And give them time to enjoy the whole dining experience.
The most important technique is to stop eating BEFORE you feel full. Then, be patient. You will likely feel relatively satisfied 20 – 30 minutes after starting your meal. We’re not talking about stuffed. Just comfortable. It’s important to stop before you get that full-to-the-brim feeling. Tell yourself that you can have a snack or (small) dessert later if you feel hungry. No need to panic about not getting enough food!
How does this feeling of satiety work? Several hormones get into the picture. Hormones made in your digestive tract can spell the All-Full signal to your brain.
True hunger is driven by an empty stomach as well as a brain and muscles that need fuel. When your stomach feels empty, it produces a hunger hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin causes your stomach to growl, so to speak. Ghrelin goes to the appetite center of the brain to stimulate the familiar feeling of hunger.
To turn off ghrelin, you simply need to fill your stomach. You actually feel less hunger as soon as you have even a little food in your stomach.
Your stomach knows it’s full mostly by stretch receptors. So any food that takes up space will fill you up easier. Foods that add bulk contain either fiber or water. Fiber works by attracting water molecules and then binding them. Soups, salads, fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains have fiber. Most of these contain water as well.
Note that fat does NOT take up a lot of space and does not make your stomach feel full. Unfortunately, you can eat a lot of fat calories before you have a chance to realize that you’ve had enough.
Fat does help satisfy appetite in its own way, however. Both fat and protein stimulate another hormone that is important for immediate feedback control of satiety. That is CCK, or cholecystekinin. CCK is produced by the small intestine, and in turn, turns off appetite by affecting the brain. CCK also keeps you from emptying your stomach, so it prevents ghrelin from growling again for a while.
Proteins and fats both stimulate CCK, but again, this takes time. The food needs to get through the stomach and in to the small intestine. This may take 20 – 30 minutes.
So, savor your food, sloooowly. Chances are, you will be satisfied with less. And lose weight effortlessly in the process.
