Some of us tend to gulp down food as fast as we can while some actually chew, swallow and ingest it slowly. As per the University of Otago scientists, women who consume food slowly seem to have less chances of being overweight than those who eat speedily.
The Department of Human Nutrition team examined 1500 women from New Zealand in the age-group 40 to 50 for gauging the link between BMI and self-reported speed of eating. And notably, such middle-aged women seem to be highly susceptible to weight gain. After adjusting certain factors like age, ethnicity, smoking, physical activity and menopause status, the scientists found that the women who reported eating at a faster pace seemingly had a greater BMI.
“For every one-step increase in a five-step scale ranging from ‘very slow’ eating to ‘very fast’, the women’s BMI increased by 2.8 %, which is equivalent to a 1.95 kg weight increase in a woman of average BMI for this group,” cited study principal investigator Dr Caroline Horwath.
As the study by itself did not put forward this link, the participants were followed to check if those who consumed at a faster rate put on more weight over time. As per the analysts, if this relation between body mass and speed of consumption is causal, then decreasing the speed of eating may help in losing weight. The result could be similar to the one attained in weight loss programs.
If the information from the 2 year follow-up discloses a causal relationship, then the investigators will include therapies that urge women to consume food slowly. They believe that it could be used with other non-dieting ways for which certain sessions were conducted with obese women. These avenues seemed to prohibit weight gain in women those who were at risk and also apparently resulted in substantial weight loss for some of them. These therapies included relaxation training, and ways to identify as well as avoid binge eating or other stress related inducers for eating.
According to Dr. Horwath, such non-dieting means are being well accepted by dietitians as other methods like limiting calorie intake and certain foodstuffs does not help maintain weight loss in the long run. Some studies have revealed that many individuals who diet tend to regain their lost weight and may even add more kilos than they previously had.
The study is published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.