April 11, 2024 – You are what you eat, because the saying goes. However, there may be growing evidence that it's not only what and the way much you eat that impacts your health. How quickly and whenever you eat also plays a job.
Research now suggests that these two aspects may influence the chance of gastrointestinal problems, obesity and sort 2 diabetes. Because the timing of meals and the speed of consumption may be modified, they provide recent opportunities for behavior modification to stop and potentially combat these diseases.
Not so fast
Most individuals are accustomed to the short-term gastrointestinal effects of eating too quickly, which include indigestion, bloating, bloating, and nausea. But eating too quickly regularly can have long-term consequences.
Feeling full is vital to avoiding overeating and excessive calorie intake. However, it takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to alert the brain to a sense of fullness. If you eat too quickly, the satiety signal may not kick in until you will have consumed more calories than intended. Research associates this habit with obesity.
In the long run, the practice may result in gastrointestinal illnesses, as overeating causes food to stay within the stomach longer and due to this fact the gastric mucosa, the liner layer of the stomach, is exposed to stomach acid for longer.
A study of 10,893 adults in South Korea reported that those with the fastest eating speed (lower than 5 minutes per meal) were 1.7 times more more likely to have a variety of gastritis than those with the slowest eating speed (greater than or equal to quarter-hour per Have a superb meal). . Eating faster was also linked to an increased risk of persistent indigestion study Participants involved 89 young adult female military cadets in South Korea with relatively controlled eating habits.
At the intense end of the spectrum are researchers who perform an assessment of a competing fast feeder speculated that the observed expansion of the stomach to form a big sac makes fast feeders prone to morbid obesity, gastroparesis, intractable nausea and vomiting, and the necessity for gastrectomy.
The risk of metabolic changes and eventual development of type 2 diabetes also appears to be related to the speed of food intake.
Given these potential problems, the excellent news is that individuals can decelerate the pace of their eating in order that they feel full before they overeat.
A study from 2019 In a study wherein 21 participants were instructed to eat a 600-calorie meal at a “normal” or “slow” pace (6 minutes or 24 minutes), it was found that the slower group reported feeling full to feel and at the identical time devour fewer calories.
However, this approach may not work for all people. There are Evidence that suggests this that tactics to decelerate eating may not limit the variety of calories people who find themselves already chubby or obese devour.
According to Dr. According to Dr. Michael Camilleri, consultant within the division of gastroenterology and hepatology on the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, patients with obesity could also be physiologically different in how they process food.
“We have shown that about 20-25% of people with obesity actually have rapid gastric emptying,” he said. “As a result, they don't feel full after eating, and that would impact the general amount of food they eat before they really feel full.”
The ideal time to eat
It's not just the speed at which someone eats that can affect results, but also when they eat their meals. Research shows that eating earlier in the day to align meals with the body's circadian metabolic rhythm provides health benefits.
“The emphasis is on eating a meal that is timed to the hours of the day,” said Collin Popp, PhD, a researcher at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York. “I normally suggest patients eat their largest meal within the morning, whether it's a big or medium-sized breakfast or a big lunch.”
A Recent study of 2,050 participants found that eating the largest meal at lunch protected against obesity, while eating it at dinner increased the risk of obesity and led to a higher body mass index.
Consuming most calories through meals earlier in the day can also have a positive impact on metabolic health.
Time-restricted eating, a type of intermittent fasting, may improve metabolic health depending on the time of day.
Patients may profit from behavioral interventions
Patients who could also be affected by eating too quickly or too late may profit from behavioral interventions to counteract these tendencies. To determine whether an individual is a candidate for such interventions, Popp recommends starting with an easy conversation.
“When I meet patients for the first time, I always ask them to describe to me a typical day in terms of their eating habits – when they eat, what they eat, the quality of the food, who they are with – to see if “There are social aspects. Then try to make recommendations based on that,” Popp said.