Can Chewing More Really Help You Burn More Calories? Here's How It Works

Perhaps your parents told you to chew your food thoroughly when you were younger: "Chew well!" But why? Does it really help you extract more nutrients from your food, as is often claimed? Or do you even burn calories, as is sometimes suggested? Chewing well and slowly is more important than you might think. It can not only improve digestion but also contribute to an increased feeling of fullness and even help prevent obesity.

Researcher Guido Camps from Wageningen University is investigating this phenomenon and explains why chewing is apparently so good for your health.

Camps of the University of the Netherlands can confirm that chewing burns more calories . "Chewing can actually be a kind of precursor to satiety. The question then is: when do people stop eating? We already understand the beginning of a meal: people eat because they're hungry and enjoy something. But the moment they stop is much harder to predict."

When you chew, your jaws send signals to your brain. Camps explains: "Crushing the food provides immediate feedback: you're now eating. That signal helps your brain register that you're starting to feel full. The texture of your food acts as a kind of cue: your brain receives information about how long you've been eating and when it's time to stop."

A tip from the researcher: " Choose food with a good bite: the rest is then taken care of by your teeth and your brain. The more structure or crunch the food has, the more actively your jaws are working."

Besides burning calories, Camps mentions other positive effects of better chewing. "When you should stop eating now, without chewing, is much harder to determine. And if we have a better understanding of that, we can also ensure that people eat a little less and therefore stay a little slimmer. And that's simply a major challenge right now."

So what's a good thing to look out for? Camps explains which foods require minimal chewing. "What we saw was that people were essentially eating the same sandwich, yet we saw different health benefits. The difference was only in texture: one sandwich was crunchy, the other soft."

The soft bun requires less chewing, so you eat it faster and feel less full. According to the researcher, food is therefore more than just calories: "Texture plays an important role. The crispier the bun, the more it makes you chew, and the more this influences how much you ultimately eat. Conversely, if food has little texture, you can consume a lot of calories in a short time."

Camps explains the importance of this research: "Worldwide, 4 million people die each year from obesity . In the Netherlands alone, half of all adults are moderately to severely overweight. It doesn't help that the supermarket is full of high-calorie products you can barely bite into, like a soft candy bar."

"You almost unknowingly consume a product like that, consuming a lot of calories. This makes you more likely to overeat, and in the long run, this leads to weight gain. You see this in many products: they deliver too many calories too quickly, even though you don't have to chew much," says Camps.

So what are some products that can unknowingly contain a lot of calories ? "A good example is the difference between a smoothie and a piece of fruit, or whole wheat versus white bread: the more you have to chew, the slower you eat, and the better you can register satiety signals," Camps emphasizes.