Eating Fast May Cause Weight Gain
A new study suggests that eating your food at a fast pace blocks the body’s natural appetite-control process.
"Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food over consumption and obesity, and in fact some…studies have supported this notion," Dr. Alexander Kokkinos, the lead researcher on the study, said in a written statement.
According to Kokkinos and his colleagues at Athens University Medical School in Greece and the Imperial College London in the U.K., what has been missing is biological evidence that a leisurely meal is better for appetite control.
During the study, the researchers had 17 healthy men eat a big portion of ice cream under two conditions. The first condition was that they ate the treat in two servings over 5 minutes, and the second was that they ate it in small servings over 30 minutes.
The researchers found that although the groups’ feeling of being full and hungry did not seem to be different, the men who ate slower showed higher blood levels of two hormones — peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) — for about three hours after eating.
Both of these hormones are released from the digestive tract as a "fullness" signal to the brain, helping to curb appetite and calorie intake.
The researchers found that this gave more weight to the conventional wisdom that people should savor their food.
Previous research has shown that when people take their time to chew their food thoroughly, then they tend to eat fewer calories than when they have that same meal at an eat-and-run pace.
However, the reasons for that have been unclear.
"Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating," Kokkinos said.
According to Kokkinos, the findings are particularly relevant in a time when many people are relying on fast food and regularly eating on the run. The researchers found that slowing down at mealtime could help aid appetite control, while ultimately controlling weight.
They are a possible scientific explanation for "the warning we were given as children that ‘wolfing down your food will make you fat,’" Kokkinos said.
The study is scheduled to be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in January 2010.
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