Fast Eating Increases Fatness

Wolfing your food and at the same time eating until you feel full cause a near tripling of the risk of being overweight, according to a recent study from Japan's Osaka University.

The researchers, who published their work in the British Medical Journal, used special questionnaires to analyze the eating habits of 1,122 men and 2,165 women ages 30 to 69. The subjects assessed their speed of eating (very slow, slow, medium, fast, very fast) and reported whether they ate until full.

The questionnaires showed that 50.9 percent of men and 58.4 percent of women said they ate until fully satiated, and 45.6 percent of men and 36 percent of women said they ate quickly. The study found that for both men and women, those who reported eating until full and eating quickly had the highest values for weight, body mass index and total energy intake, adjusted for age.

The researchers further adjusted for total fiber intake, alcohol consumption, smoking and physical activity and still found that eating quickly made people fatter. Study leader Hiroyasu Iso noted that, for patients who ate both quickly and until full, there was a "supra-additive" effect on overweight.

People eat quickly generally for four reasons: 1) Food is inexpensive, readily accessible and present in larger portions. 2) Fast food is available. 3) Eating is not done together as a family. 4) Eating is done while being distracted, such as while watching TV. Scientific observers speculated that deliberately slowing down the rate of eating at mealtimes can decrease the amount of food consumed.

"If you eat quickly," said Ian McDonald of Nottingham University, "you basically fill your stomach before your gastric feedback has a chance to start developing. You can overfill the [stomach]. The old wives' tale about chewing everything 20 times might be true. If you did take a bit more time eating, it could have an impact." Thus, parents might be well-advised to encourage their children to eat slowly, and when youngsters say they are full, to allow them to stop eating.