10 Health Benefits Of Eating Food Slowly

1. Digest food better

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Your digestive system really benefits from you eating slowly, it has time to properly start to digest your food whilst you are eating and it means that the food doesn't hit your digestive tract all at once. So if you have digestive problems, a definite way to help is taking time for your food.

2. Feel full for longer

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When you eat super fast, your brain doesn't have time to send signals to your stomach the same way it does when you eat slowly. It actually takes time to register that you are full, meaning that while you are eating you need time to relax. This also helps afterward, and your brain will assume you've eaten more and help you feel fuller.

3. Absorb nutrients more effectively

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Our bodies cannot absorb all the nutrients we need from our food if we eat in a rush. It takes time. Eating slowly allows the body to be able to acquire the full benefits of the nutrients and vitamins from what you are eating so it really does make sense to eat slower, for a healthier body.

4. Help with weight management

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As we mentioned, eating slowly helps us feel full faster - even if we haven't eaten as much food. So this means that you eat what you need to, rather than what you want to. The majority of people statistically overreact according to what they want to eat, rather than stopping when they feel full.

5. Properly taste foods

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How can you actually properly even taste food if you eat it too fast? The receptors in our tongue have to communicate through chemicals to our brain to process the tastes we are experiencing. This cannot happen instantly. You'll notice you can taste a lot more flavors when you start eating slower.

6. Better gut health

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Eating too fast is also detrimental to your guy's health. Eating slowly puts less pressure on your gut and helps your gut microbiome to flourish. Our gut microbiome is best when we have lots of different kinds of bacteria and this is helped by eating slowly. Our gut health is also important for our entire

7. Improved awareness of hunger cues

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When you start to eat slowly your body's awareness of hunger will start to improve. This is because we can shape the way our body views hunger. For example, it gets used to the times and amounts we eat. But slowing down on eating helps your body be more aware of its natural hunger cues.

8. Reduce bloating

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When you gulp down a meal and bloat, it's to be expected. Bodies do not naturally cope well with having to process a big meal that you ate too quickly. So as a consequence, you bloat. Slowing down your eating will help to reduce your problem and may also relieve some discomfort from the bloating too.

9. Reduce choking hazards

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Eating slowly and massively reduces the risk of choking. Often, choking can happen when we eat a large piece of food too quickly and have not chewed it properly. Taking your time and chewing your food a lot before swallowing it is a good practice to get into as it will massively reduce the risk of choking hazards.

10. Break down carbs better

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If you have a carb-heavy diet it is even more so in your interest to slow down on your eating as our bodies can process carbohydrates much better when we eat slowly. It allows your body to break down the carbs more effectively, which is much better and healthier for our body.

11. Get more satisfaction from food

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Alongside all the health benefits there's also the important matter of enjoying your food. While it's normal to sometimes be in a rush, it's super important to have meal times where you can enjoy the food. Eating slowly will help you to appreciate what you are actually eating.

12. Reduce stress on your body

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It's stressful for our body to have a big meal being consumed super quickly. It's not natural for your body to have to process things so fast, and it cannot physically do it. To reduce the stress that you are putting on your body and allow it the time it needs!

13. Help reduce acid reflux

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If you have problems with acid reflux, there could be a simple solution that you may have been overlooking, or at least a remedy that could help or ease it somewhat. Eating slowly can massively reduce the amount of acid reflux we produce, according to a variety of studies!

14. Balance blood pressure

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Another surprising benefit to eating slowly is balancing your blood pressure. Eating your food slowly can help you to consume your food without your blood pressure rising as drastically, due to there being less food at one time for your body to have to process.

15. Release more digestive enzymes

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Many of us probably new realized that when we eat slowly, our body triggers the release of digestive enzymes which help to break down our food and in turn, help our gut and digestion. These enzymes need time to be released, which relies on us eating more slowly.

16. Digest fats more effectively

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Slow eating also helps our body to properly digest fats. Fats can take longer for the body to break down, meaning it is much better if you eat slower and give your body time to start processing these fats. Rather, than eating a fatty meal quickly which is one of the reasons you may feel bad afterward.

17. Improved oral health

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Eating slowly actually really helps our oral health! Who knew, that even our oral hygiene was affected by the time we took over our meals? In fact, chewing more slowly and eating slower can actually lead to better or fresher-smelling breath rather than the alternative.

18. Regulate your metabolism

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You may also be able to improve your metabolism by eating slowly as it can help to regulate your metabolism and release your energy slowly. It can even help to increase your energy levels. All of these things we never realized we could change by simply taking longer over our meals.

19. Better portion control

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You may notice that you eat the most and make worse choices when you are super hungry and eat everything really quickly. If you consciously make an effort to take your time with your food you'll soon start to realize that you have much better portion control!

20. More regular bowel movements

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Having regular bowel movements is an important factor in feeling good within ourselves as well as being good for our body rather than storing up our bowel movements. And, eating slowly can really help to promote bowel movements and make you more regular.

21. It promotes a healthier relationship with food

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Our relationship with food can vary according to what we've got going on in our lives. But eating slowly can help combat things like emotional eating because we are eating whilst allowing our brain time to process the food. This means that we are not eating, just because we feel like comfort.

22. Less stress on your digestive system

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Imagine dumping an entire plate of food on your digestive system, rather than spoonfuls of food at a time. This can pretty much help you imagine the difference in how your digestive system receives and responds to food. It relieves a LOT of stress on your body!

23. Better protein digestion

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Each different food group takes a slightly different process to break it down, including different amounts of times to break it down. So eating slowly will also really help to break down your protein, and help you to get the benefits of the protein from your food.

24. Reduce mindless snacking

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How many times do we wander to the kitchen for a snack out of pure boredom? If we're honest, the majority of us! This is by no means a terrible thing to do once in a while. But eating slow does help stop this mindful snacking which may not be the healthiest of habits.

25. Lower risk of food allergies

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Studies have also suggested that eating our food slowly can help to reduce the risk of food allergies. This correlates to developing food allergies, and to triggering them. So yet again, eating slowly poses another very important benefit to our body that we need to know about.

26. Experience less heartburn

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Some people are super prone to heartburn. But, there are lots of other factors which make heartburn occurs more commonly. For example, what you're eating of course affects it. But also HOW you are eating it - eating slowly will massively reduce the risk of heartburn!

27. Lowered risk of indigestion

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Similarly, if you are a sufferer from indigestion, perhaps you are bolting down your food far too quickly rather than taking the time to properly savor it and chew it. If you chew properly and eat slowly then you may find you are a lot less likely to get indigestion!

28. Reduced risk of metabolic syndrome

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Metabolic syndrome is a serious condition that can have huge detrimental effects on your entire body and health. One way among many factors of reducing the risk of developing metabolic syndrome is eating slowly. This is because of the multiple benefits that we have discussed!

29. Appreciate food variety

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If you're gulping down one plate of food to the next you're not actually thinking or enjoying WHAT you are eating. You'll find that it's all more similar than if you took your time to appreciate the different kinds of foods which only happens when we eat our food slowly!

30. Increase mindful eating

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Mindful eating isn't all about weight management. It's about our body and watching the kinds of things we consume that are really good for us and our health. So eating slowly will help you to mindfully consume food, including thinking about what it is and where it came from.