Eating food more slowly will not only allow you to gain less weight but also less chance of falling ill.

More than once someone in 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 in the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, which is the scene of one of the most important appointments of researchers and doctors, worldwide, to present the latest advances in cardiovascular science. This specific research has been carried out at the University of Hiroshima (Japan)  and the cardiologist Takayuki Yamaji, the main 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 had no metabolic syndrome. In the experiment, they proceeded to divide them into three different groups, according to the speed at which they considered that they ate habitually: slow, normal, or fast.

After five years of research, the scientists concluded that those individuals who ate faster were more likely to develop the metabolic syndrome (it occurred in 11.6% of people in this group)  than those who ate. a normal rhythm (6.5% ended this syndrome) or that those who ate food more slowly (only 2.3% of these were diagnosed). Likewise, the associated eating faster with greater weight gain, a higher blood glucose level, and also with an increase in waist circumference.

“Eating slower can be a crucial lifestyle change to help prevent metabolic syndrome,” who practices as a cardiologist at the University of Hiroshima. 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 one of the most pertinent questions: am I one of those who eats too fast? According to experts,  ideally, you should spend at least 30 minutes  – since, according to Harvard Health magazine, 20 minutes is the time it takes for the brain to recognize that we are full and, if you eat fast, the signal to that you have eaten enough will be late, when you have eaten too much food. Also, you should chew five to ten times more food than you normally do and, to ensure proper digestion, always eat while sitting.