Chewing Well Prevents Stomach Woes :: Health and Disease

Chewing Well Prevents Stomach Woes
by author Kelly Reith, BA, RHN

How you eat is as important as what you eat and the simplest method for improving your digestion and overall health is to chew your food well. Chewing thoroughly not only allows you to fully experience the taste and aroma of your meal but it also allows your digestive system to function healthfully and efficiently.

Most of us tend to chew each mouthful of food a few times so we can swallow it and get on to the next bite. This isn’t the best way to eat. Chewing well–20 to 50 chews per mouthful-leads to digestive efficiency. When food is kept in the mouth, the taste on the tongue is prompting the release of hormones, digestive enzymes and gastric juices specific to the digestion of the food being chewed. Chewing well also keeps the food in your mouth where it will be mixed with saliva. Saliva helps to soften the food and prepare it for the next stage of digestion–the trip to the stomach via the esophagus.

A series of muscle contractions called peristalsis moves the food from the mouth to the stomach. Well-chewed, saliva-coated food tends to glide through the esophagus to the stomach, whereas unchewed, dry food sticks in this passageway. More effort is required to move dry food to the stomach. The delay creates problems because the stomach prepares for food by releasing very acidic gastric juices which have nothing to work on but the stomach itself. Digestive problems are often the result.

Gnash Those Teeth Often

Chewing well is very important to good health. Well-chewed food has more surface area for the gastric juices and enzymes to work on to digest the meal in your stomach. At the same time, your meal is pummelled and churned until it’s a paste called chyme which then enters the duodenum portion of the small intestine. A lot of energy is required to do this--up to 70 per cent of your body’s total energy. If food reaches the stomach in small, well-chewed bits, less work is required to make a paste. Less energy is needed for digestion and can be used by the body for other things such as detoxifying tissues or boosting the immune system.

Chewing well decreases the chance that food is going to sit in the stomach fermenting and causing gas. Because the process of digestion is made more efficient by chewing well, nutrients are delivered more quickly to the cells where they are needed. You might think of chewing well as a kind of juicing. Just as juicing extracts the nutrients from vegetables and fruits, delivering them more quickly to the cells where they are needed, chewing well accomplishes the same thing. As a bonus, chewing also stimulates the parotid glands in front of each ear. These glands are part of your immune system and stimulating them can give you a health boost.

Our bodies like to chew and swallow quickly and should you decide to commit to chewing well, you will have to learn how to use your tongue to keep food in your mouth until it is chewed properly. There is no special way to do this and it might take some practice. Once you have mastered not swallowing chunky food, I suggest that for the next week or 10 days, you concentrate your efforts on chewing each mouthful of food 20 times. You will probably have to count but as you gain the habit of chewing and reach 30 or 40, it becomes habit.

Note how it feels. From now on you can chew carrot without counting because you know how a well-chewed carrot feels. Do this with whole grain breads, rice, vegetables or anything you eat regularly. If your soup contains chunky bits of vegetable or pasta, chew them. When chewing becomes a habit you can probably stop counting. Just aim for the feel.

Chew Even When on the Fly

What if you eat hurriedly in your car or at your desk and haven’t got time to chew well? In a society where faster is better, chewing seems an outmoded idea. The highly processed foods we face every day require little chewing. Perhaps the food manufacturers don’t want us to chew their food and taste their chemical additives. However, every little bit helps so chew well when you can. Perhaps chew every other bite really well or chew one meal per day really well. You may only have the time to chew well on the weekends. Do the best you can.

Chewing well is the cheapest and easiest method of improving digestive efficiency that I know of. If you chew well you will find, over time, that you need fewer digestive aids like antacids or other supplements. A simple thing like chewing can also improve your general health as more nutrients released by efficient digestion reach the cells of your body. Less energy required for digestion means more energy for you and your healthy body.

Kelly Reith is a registered holistic nutritionist, natural health and nutrition writer living in Toronto, ON.

Source: alive #223, May 2001

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