Are you someone who's a fast eater? Well, it's time to slow down, savor your food and take lots of bites. That's advice you can glean from this intriguing new study from the Journal of Clinical Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Essentially, eating quickly may trigger weight gain, because it curtails the release of hormones (you need) that help regulate your appetite, which could cause you to overeat, according to the researchers, headed up by Alexander Kokkinos, MD, PhD, of Laiko General Hospital in Athens, Greece.
As MedPage reveals, patients who ate a meal in 30 minutes had higher levels of two peptides that signal satiety — peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) — than those who wolfed down their food in five minutes.
In nother words, this study suggests that there's truth to the "old wives' tale" that eating quickly leads to weight gain.
"Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food
overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working
and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past,"
Kokkinos says in the news release.
"The warning we were given as children that
'wolfing down your food will make you fat' may in fact have a physiological
explanation."
"Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and
obesity, and in fact some observational studies have supported this notion,"
Kokkinos says in a news release. "Our study provides a possible explanation for
the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate
at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the
brain to stop eating."
Listen to the quick interview with Dr. Kokkinos below.