More than once someone from your environment will have recommended that you eat slowly, without any rush. Well, you don’t know how healthy that advice was, because people who eat slowly are less likely both to become obese and to develop metabolic syndrome, a set of conditions that put us at risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes and that it has also been associated as a risk factor in stroke.
This is what indicates a study released at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, which are the scene of one of the most important appointments of researchers and doctors, worldwide, to present the latest advances in cardiovascular science. This particular research has been carried out at the University of Hiroshima (Japan) and the cardiologist Takayuki Yamaji, lead author of the study, was in charge of communicating the conclusions.
To reach them, they had the participation of 1,083 people (642 men and 441 women), with an average age of 51.2 years and who in 2008 did not have metabolic syndrome. In the experiment, they proceeded to divide them into three different groups, according to the speed at which they considered that they habitually ate: slow, normal or fast .
After five years of research, the scientists came to the conclusion that those individuals who ate faster were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome (it occurred in 11.6% of the people who were part of this group) than those who ate at a normal rhythm (of this, 6.5% ended with said syndrome) or than those who took food more slowly (only 2.3% of these were diagnosed). They also associated eating faster with greater weight gain, a higher blood glucose level, and also an increase in waist circumference.
“A crucial lifestyle change”
“Eating more slowly can be a crucial lifestyle change to help prevent metabolic syndrome,” explained Takayuki Yamaji, a cardiologist at Hiroshima University. “When people eat fast, they tend not to feel full and are more likely to overeat. Eating fast causes more fluctuation in glucose, which can lead to insulin resistance,” he continues. The researcher believes that the research, although it has been carried out with a Japanese population, can also be applied to the United States and, therefore, to the rest of the Western world.
At this point, you will ask yourself a most pertinent question: am I one of those who eat too fast? According to experts, the ideal is that you dedicate at least 30 minutes – since, according to Harvard Health magazine, 20 minutes is the time it takes the brain more or less to recognize that we are full and, if you eat fast, the signal of that you have eaten enough will be late, when you have eaten too much food. Likewise, you should chew between five and ten times more food than you normally do and, to ensure proper digestion, always eat sitting down.
The American Heart Association, in charge of organizing these Scientific Sessions, is a maximum scientific reference in Cardiology both in the United States and in the rest of the planet .
