Prevent Weight Gain Or Increase Weight Loss By Doing This . . .

Received an informative newsletter from Chet Day this morning (I have been getting his newsletters for years and they always have something to say), here's a taster of an article on how eating slower benefits weight loss, and then a link to the rest of the article below.

Slow Eating May Prevent Weight Gain
by Craig Weatherby
Courtesy of Vital Choice Seafood

Last May, we profiled the Slow Food movement, which started in Italy in reaction to the arrival of McDonald’s in central Rome, and has been gaining American adherents. (See 'Slow Food’ Movement Gains Momentum'.)

The five-point mission statement of Slow Food USA encapsulates the purpose of this grass-roots movement:

* Stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production;
* Revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community;
* Invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions;
* Creation of a collaborative, ecologically-oriented, and virtuous globalization;
* Living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

Implicit in the last goal – and the Slow Food movement’s very name -- is a desire to pay greater attention to the act of eating: an approach that the research we’re reporting today suggests could help halt this country’s fast-growing obesity/diabetes epidemic.

Following up on our story about the weight control benefits of using smaller dishes and bowls to achieve portion control – see 'Portion Control for Weight Control' – we’ve found substantial evidence that it makes sense to savor food more slowly than Americans typically do.

Advice posted on the National Institutes of Health Web site, under the heading “Get The (Fullness) Message” puts the point succinctly: 'Changing the way you go about eating can make it easier to eat less without feeling deprived.' (NHLBI 2007)

This line refers to the fact that it takes about 15 minutes for your brain to receive hormone-borne “I’m full” signals from your gut. So it’s logical to presume that eating fast lets you eat too much before you’re fully aware of it.

For instance, all of the few studies on the subject suggest that people eat more when they are doing other things at the same time, such as talking, reading, or watching TV (Liebman M et al 2003; Salmon J et al 2000).

But only recently has anyone looked for links between the rate at which people eat and the risk of becoming overweight.

Slow Eating . . . continued