The hidden health benefits of eating slowly | BBC Global

Transcript

many of us lead busy lives and eat quickly on the go when we're hungry it's tempting to satiate our appetite fast but it's not just what we eat that matters there's a hidden health benefit to taking your time slowing down while we eat helps us feel full for longer snack less and improves our digestion longer term it can lead to maintaining a healthier weight research shows that those who speed through their meals tend to eat more and therefore consume more calories in 5-year long study researchers followed over a thousand people and found that fast eaters were 11.6% more likely to have at least three of the following risk factors obesity high blood pressure high triglycerides and high blood sugar the reason why eating fast can have these effects is because it takes about 20 minutes for our stomach to signal to our brain that we're full one study gave participants ice cream and asked them to eat it in 5 minutes or 30 those who ate it more slowly released more of the hormones that help to regulate their appetite another small study asked participants to eat more slowly and found that they felt Fuller remembered how much they ate and ate less later their brains also showed activity in areas relating to fullness and reward eating slowly can also reduce your blood sugar's response to food in a Japanese study of healthy participants those who ate a meal in under 10 minutes showed an increase of blood sugar compared to when they ate the same meal in 20 minutes when our blood sugar remains High it increases the risk of inflammation as well as type 2 diabetes all this shows is that the speed at which we consume our meals and snacks really does impact our health so perhaps the next time you eat you'll choose to slow it down a little for