In this whole week, I have been sick due to sore throat, and even swallowing saliva hurt so much, much more eating something. However, this unpleasant experience helped me to realize a good lesson: to chew foods sufficiently (to prevent the pain from my throat).
When I looked into the benefits of chewing food, I came across many articles that talked about the common issues, which are as follows (To see the detail, see this article),:
1. Absorbing More Nutrients and Energy
Longer chewing has been shown to increase the amount of protein and others your body can absorb from foods
2. Easier to digest
Your food gets more exposure to your saliva, which contains digestive enzymes necessary for the first phase of digestion
3. Good for Your Teeth
The bones holding your teeth get a ‘workout’ when you chew, helping to keep them strong.
4. Less bacteria
Chewing discourages food-borne bacteria from entering your gut on plus-sized food particles; overgrowth of detrimental bacteria in your gut may lead to gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramping, and other digestive problems
5. Healthy Weight and appreciation towards food
It is said that it takes around 20 minutes for the brain to understand that you are full. So chewing more slows down the pace of your meal, which prevents overeating, and you can even enjoy from this (we all know that overeating causes some suffering)
In conclusion, chewing your food more thoroughly can improve your nutrition, digestion, teeth, body function from bacteria and shape, followed by the appreciation towards foods.
Honestly, I think we all know or heard about at least some of these benefits, but many people including me don’t appreciate them (don’t chew enough) unless something happens (sickness like my case). That’s why it is important to remind ourselves occasionally that we need to make conscious efforts to live healthier and better.
Also, in the same article, there is a section of “How to Chew Your Food Properly” which I thought would be helpful. Besides, what I thought is interesting is that this rule can be applied to other daily tasks! That is, foods can be a metaphor of our task!
- Take smaller bites of food to begin with (starting small)
- Chew slowly and steadily (doing slowly)
- Chew until your mouthful of food is liquefied or lost all of its texture (consistency)
- Finish chewing and swallowing completely before taking another bite of food (focus)
- Wait to drink fluids until you’ve swallowed (small treat after the task)
At least, those who read this can try chewing more and eating slowly with next meal.
Making juice is also a good option.
This time, I learned that
Having unpleasant experience such as having sore throat reminded me of the importance of chewing foods.
The rule of chewing can be applied to our daily tasks, (beginning with small, slowly and consistently, and focus then give you treatment after finishing the task)