Your days of scarfing down your dinner, within minutes may be over.
According to the Huffington Post, a new study suggests that eating food at a slower rate can lower a person's chances of being hungry again, after their meal.
Researchers from Texas Christian University, found that among people with normal weight, eating at a slower rate would also lower the number of calories consumed from the meal. Meena Shah, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and the study researcher said that the calorie effect is not the same for individuals who considered overweight and obese.
"A lack of statistical significance in the overweight and obese group may be partly due to the fact that they consumed less food during both eating conditions compared to the normal-weight subjects," Shah said in a statement. "It is possible that the overweight and obese subjects felt more self-conscious, and thus ate less during the study."
Researchers used 70 individuals, 35 of the normal weight and 35 overweight to complete their study. Within the two day study participants were given lunch. They were first instructed to eat slowly by taking small bites and imaging that they "had all the time in the world." Participants were later instructed to eat their lunches quickly, as if they has no time to waste.
For the study participants were placed in a metabolic kitchen. According to the study participants energy speed, rate and density were all measured. Participants in the normal weight group took in 88 fewer calories after eating slowly. Overweight participants took in 55 fewer calories.
The study found that both groups were not hungry 60 minutes after eating their previous meal slowly, but the normal weight participants had a "greater feelings of fullness." Along with the food participants drank more water while eating slow then eating quickly. Researchers have stated that the water intake have an impact on calorie consumption.
"The slow eating condition may also have allowed subjects to eat more mindfully and better sense their feelings of hunger suppression and satiety," researchers wrote in the study. "Another mechanism may be that foods that are eaten slowly remain in the oral cavity for a longer period of time and lead to increased orosensory exposure that may be related to lower food intake."
The study has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
