The maternal advice was wise to eat more slowly: a new study suggests that devour food blocks the natural process of appetite control.
“Most fast food hear that promotes excessive food consumption and obesity, and some studies supported this idea,” said Dr. Alexander Kokkinos, lead author of the study.
But what was unknown was the biological evidence that a quiet meal is better for appetite control, said team Kokkinos, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Greece, and Imperial College London, in the United Kingdom.
To study the authors reported them to 17 healthy men eating a generous portion of ice cream in two different situations: in one, in two portions over 5 minutes in the other, in small portions over 30 minutes.
Although the feeling of satiety and hunger in both groups did not differ, the researchers found that men who ate slowly, suffered an increase in the blood of two hormones, peptide YY (PYY) and Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) – for three hours after eating ice cream.
The PYY and GLP-1 is released into the digestive tract as a sign of “fullness” to the brain, reducing appetite and calorie intake.
The results, approved for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, support the popular wisdom that you have to taste the food.
Some previous studies have shown that when people take the time to chew food and enjoy it, they tend to eat fewer calories when they eat the same food at full speed.
But is not known why this difference.
“Our study offers a potential explanation of the relationship between eating quickly and overdoing it by showing that the rate at which a person eats alter the release of gut hormones, which tell the brain to stop eating there,” said Kokkinos.
The results are particularly relevant when many people choose fast food and eat in a hurry, he adds. The study suggests that reducing the speed at lunchtime favor appetite control, and finally weight.
This is a possible explanation for “the warning they gave us children that ‘devour food fattens you,’” Kokkinos ended.