{"id":5380,"date":"2021-12-29T17:43:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fitsw.com\/blog\/?p=5380"},"modified":"2021-12-30T16:58:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T16:58:46","slug":"how-many-times-should-you-chew-your-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fitsw.com\/blog\/how-many-times-should-you-chew-your-food\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Times Should You Chew Your Food"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Listen, I know what you\u2019re thinking, \u201cI already know how to chew my food\u201d. But did you know the way we chew our food plays a huge role in our digestion? It\u2019s all about setting up the rest of your digestion process for success. Knowing how many times should you chew your food, can actually help your entire digestion process. What do you think is easier for a blender to blend: a pineapple you chopped up before putting in the blender, or a whole pineapple that you throw in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we aren\u2019t blenders, we can apply this analogy to this situation. Chewing breaks down food into very small chunks. This way when it enters our large and small intestine, they don\u2019t have to work as hard to pull the nutrients out of the food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is important because everyone today is extremely busy. Because of this, people need to place extra emphasis on certain things that might not seem that important. These seemingly unimportant things have taken a back seat to other things. Many people fly through their day and don\u2019t bat an eyelash at how well they chewed their food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Start of the Digestion Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we dive into chewing our food, it\u2019s important to understand the digestion process. If asked, many people would say the stomach and our intestines are where our digestion occurs. However, many of us miss out on one of the major tools of digestion, our mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your teeth<\/strong>, tongue<\/strong>, and saliva<\/strong> play major roles in the initial digestion of food<\/strong>. Your teeth mash your food up, your tongue helps place food that needs to be chewed where it needs to be to get chewed, and your saliva starts the early process of actually digesting food into a form that can be easily processed by organs later in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once it gets into your stomach and intestines, enzymes get to work breaking the food down and extracting nutrients from the food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Chew Your Food Properly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s widely advised and accepted by nutrition experts to chew your food a total of 32 times before swallowing it. The goal is to mash your food into a paste where the food loses all texture from what it was before you started chewing it. Additionally, this depends specifically on what food you are eating. For softer foods, you may not need to chew as much. On the flip side, for foods with a tougher texture, it\u2019s recommended you chew as much as 40 times to ensure the food is chewed properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you have it chewed to the correct texture, swallowing should feel natural and not forced. If you have to take a swig of water to get your food down, you probably aren\u2019t chewing enough. It\u2019s recommended that you chew, swallow, and then take a drink of water after the act of swallowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequences of Not Chewing Your Food Properly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t chew your food properly, the consequences can actually be somewhat substantial and could be the factor in any digestion issues you may have. Not chewing your food enough offsets the rest of the digestion process and can reduce the efficiency of digestion. Here are some consequences of not chewing your food properly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n