Reflection on Mastication
The importance of good mastication is commonly known to all. It is less common to think that hasty mastication can lead to serious effects on the body. The time devoted to mastication is for most people, very limited. For various reasons, mostly due to bad habits, we tend to keep the food in our mouth for a short time, not giving due importance to the need to start a proper digestion by thoroughly chewing and salivating correctly. Ironically we tend to make fun of those who do not clean up every plate of food at supersonic speed, and on the contrary, we praise the person who demonstrates a good appetite by swallowing everything without restraint.
The lack of mastication is definitely a result of negative conditioning that is often acquired at a very young age when the child is often told to hurry up and finish what they have remaining on their plate, the meal is almost a formality to be completed quickly without any delays. Furthermore, the first meals provided to the child consist of food which is soft and easy to swallow; this is because we try to supply meals that are appropriate for an underdeveloped chewing apparatus and a digestive system that is not yet mature.
But then, when the teeth are formed and digestive glands are efficient, there is no reason to continue to administer baby food and smoothies. Instead almost all foods from childhood to adulthood are particularly refined and consist of liquids, creams, pies, cookies that melt instantly, white pasta and white bread, white rice, cakes, jams or spreads and anything crispy made with a soft filling and a light crust outside. Rarely children are forced to eat fruits and vegetables, foods that would constitute a real exercise in chewing, being made also of cells which do not dissolve quickly and need to be partially crushed in order to swallow.
The speed in which food is introduced and swallowed prevents the exercise of taste, which requires food manufacturers to offer distinctly strong tastes, particularly sweet or savoury, significantly reducing the taste and promoting the need to ingest large amounts of food in the effort to prolong the pleasure of eating as much as possible.
Soon the child learns that food is not nutrition, but the need to satisfy hunger and this influences the sense of fullness to an exaggerated filling of the stomach.
What more could be said to explain the digestive disorders of adulthood?
What could we say to those who suffer from heartburn, gastro-oesophageal reflux, gastric distension, bile reflux, prolonged digestive times, stomach ache, bloating, sleepiness after meals, etc.? Well, to answer honestly would seem too simplistic, yet most of these problems could be reduced or resolved with proper mastication. Unfortunately, it seems more logical and easy to take antispasmodics, prokinetics, antacids, antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors and so on and so forth.
The advantages of good mastication are numerous. First of all, chewing and crushing up the food to reduce it to mush benefits the proper digestion of nutrients that are more readily available to the enzymes present in the saliva and digestive juices that the food meets gradually along the digestive tract. Activating salivation means allowing digestive enzymes to break down starches, fats and proteins. This causes the food to reduce the time of permanence in the stomach and promotes the natural occlusion of gastric acid, being that saliva is rather basic in pH. Increased salivation through chewing maintains healthy teeth and periodontal tissues. In this regard, notice that in the USA, periodontitis is an enormous problem and is actually caused by the use of processed foods, soft drinks which are being ingurgitated too quickly. In addition, the mixing of food with saliva allows the bite of food to slide down the esophagus easily, avoiding dysphagia stemming from anxiety.
Positive conditioning towards correct mastication is very difficult.
Firstly, there is not enough time.
Meals which are eaten during rushed lunch breaks, quick brunches at a bar, and noisy meals in cafeterias, are not being eaten properly and in turn are not being digested properly. We then follow the same routine even when dinner is prepared at home with all the convenience and time at our disposal.
Secondly, it is difficult to justify our slowness to another.
In a business lunch, digestion is secondary to the importance of the topics being dealt with. And in the family, the lack of behavioural rules forces diners into submission by unruly children.
Thirdly, there is always something more important to do.
The articles we are reading in the newspaper, the news on TV that we are listening to, planning the work ahead of us after the meal, are reasons enough to distract us from what is really important... proper chewing and digestion.
So then, once we realize that, perhaps, some of the ancestral digestive problems that do not seem to have a solution could be improved if we were more attentive to mastication, we just have to make the commitment to change.
It would be useful to have a dining companion who eats slower than we do. If we engage in a kind of silent race to see who finishes last, we succeed in our goal.
A note with the words "go slow" in front of our plates, like the ones that were placed on the dashboard of cars in the 60's, may get us back on track if we accidentally get distracted for a moment.
Avoid noisy places to eat our lunch, where they force us to leave as soon as possible.
Talk about work in the appropriate places and reserve mealtimes for lighter topics and socializing.
Avoid eating hurriedly on your feet.
Teach children to behave properly at the table.
Contribute to the organization of meals so as not to force one family member to take care of everything, neglecting their own pleasure of dining with loved ones.
Avoid distractions such as the TV or newspapers. Now you can find the news anywhere at any time of the day.
Savouring the food and chewing it well makes it possible to better perceive if it is doing us good or not and refines our control over the amount of food ingested.
In short, there are far more reasons to eat slowly than there are excuses for being superficial and rushed.
I hope this article has had the same effect on you as a carefully prepared delicious dish that was perceived as tasty to the intellect and hopefully, thorough chewing is being implemented.
Enjoy chewing!
The lack of mastication is definitely a result of negative conditioning that is often acquired at a very young age when the child is often told to hurry up and finish what they have remaining on their plate, the meal is almost a formality to be completed quickly without any delays. Furthermore, the first meals provided to the child consist of food which is soft and easy to swallow; this is because we try to supply meals that are appropriate for an underdeveloped chewing apparatus and a digestive system that is not yet mature.
But then, when the teeth are formed and digestive glands are efficient, there is no reason to continue to administer baby food and smoothies. Instead almost all foods from childhood to adulthood are particularly refined and consist of liquids, creams, pies, cookies that melt instantly, white pasta and white bread, white rice, cakes, jams or spreads and anything crispy made with a soft filling and a light crust outside. Rarely children are forced to eat fruits and vegetables, foods that would constitute a real exercise in chewing, being made also of cells which do not dissolve quickly and need to be partially crushed in order to swallow.
The speed in which food is introduced and swallowed prevents the exercise of taste, which requires food manufacturers to offer distinctly strong tastes, particularly sweet or savoury, significantly reducing the taste and promoting the need to ingest large amounts of food in the effort to prolong the pleasure of eating as much as possible.
Soon the child learns that food is not nutrition, but the need to satisfy hunger and this influences the sense of fullness to an exaggerated filling of the stomach.
What more could be said to explain the digestive disorders of adulthood?
What could we say to those who suffer from heartburn, gastro-oesophageal reflux, gastric distension, bile reflux, prolonged digestive times, stomach ache, bloating, sleepiness after meals, etc.? Well, to answer honestly would seem too simplistic, yet most of these problems could be reduced or resolved with proper mastication. Unfortunately, it seems more logical and easy to take antispasmodics, prokinetics, antacids, antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors and so on and so forth.
The advantages of good mastication are numerous. First of all, chewing and crushing up the food to reduce it to mush benefits the proper digestion of nutrients that are more readily available to the enzymes present in the saliva and digestive juices that the food meets gradually along the digestive tract. Activating salivation means allowing digestive enzymes to break down starches, fats and proteins. This causes the food to reduce the time of permanence in the stomach and promotes the natural occlusion of gastric acid, being that saliva is rather basic in pH. Increased salivation through chewing maintains healthy teeth and periodontal tissues. In this regard, notice that in the USA, periodontitis is an enormous problem and is actually caused by the use of processed foods, soft drinks which are being ingurgitated too quickly. In addition, the mixing of food with saliva allows the bite of food to slide down the esophagus easily, avoiding dysphagia stemming from anxiety.
Positive conditioning towards correct mastication is very difficult.
Firstly, there is not enough time.
Meals which are eaten during rushed lunch breaks, quick brunches at a bar, and noisy meals in cafeterias, are not being eaten properly and in turn are not being digested properly. We then follow the same routine even when dinner is prepared at home with all the convenience and time at our disposal.
Secondly, it is difficult to justify our slowness to another.
In a business lunch, digestion is secondary to the importance of the topics being dealt with. And in the family, the lack of behavioural rules forces diners into submission by unruly children.
Thirdly, there is always something more important to do.
The articles we are reading in the newspaper, the news on TV that we are listening to, planning the work ahead of us after the meal, are reasons enough to distract us from what is really important... proper chewing and digestion.
So then, once we realize that, perhaps, some of the ancestral digestive problems that do not seem to have a solution could be improved if we were more attentive to mastication, we just have to make the commitment to change.
It would be useful to have a dining companion who eats slower than we do. If we engage in a kind of silent race to see who finishes last, we succeed in our goal.
A note with the words "go slow" in front of our plates, like the ones that were placed on the dashboard of cars in the 60's, may get us back on track if we accidentally get distracted for a moment.
Avoid noisy places to eat our lunch, where they force us to leave as soon as possible.
Talk about work in the appropriate places and reserve mealtimes for lighter topics and socializing.
Avoid eating hurriedly on your feet.
Teach children to behave properly at the table.
Contribute to the organization of meals so as not to force one family member to take care of everything, neglecting their own pleasure of dining with loved ones.
Avoid distractions such as the TV or newspapers. Now you can find the news anywhere at any time of the day.
Savouring the food and chewing it well makes it possible to better perceive if it is doing us good or not and refines our control over the amount of food ingested.
In short, there are far more reasons to eat slowly than there are excuses for being superficial and rushed.
I hope this article has had the same effect on you as a carefully prepared delicious dish that was perceived as tasty to the intellect and hopefully, thorough chewing is being implemented.
Enjoy chewing!
