How much do you chew before swallowing?

October 18, 2017 11:43 AM

I've realized I don't chew very much and actually enjoy the feeling of little food chunks going down my gullet. Apparently, soft foods should be chewed 5-10 times and tougher foods (meat, raw veggies) should be chewed up to 30 times! I probably chew most foods 5 times max. My tummy and bowels are fine, I'm not gassy/belchy, and my teeth are fine, so this seems to work for me. Does anyone else do this, or go to the other extreme and chew, say, 50 times before swallowing?
posted by stillmoving to Grab Bag (20 answers total)

I chew about as much as you, definitely never more than like chews.
posted by Grandysaur at 11:45 AM on October 18, 2017

According to some paywalled 1956 study, you should at least chew your meat and veggies.
posted by aniola at 11:48 AM on October 18, 2017

I think if it works for you youre likely to be totally fine. I had a friend in college who counted his chewing because he had read that 40(?) was the optimal number of times to chew - something about giving enzymes in saliva sufficient time/exposure to being breaking down food to make nutrients more available. It seemed rather compulsive to me, although it was probably not even in the top 50% of this particular persons' eccentricities.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:53 AM on October 18, 2017 [5 favorites]

In the Robert Heinlein book, Space Cadet, I remember a line where the young recruits are being instructed in table manners and are told that they should always take bites small enough that no more than 7 chews are required. I've tested that at various points in my life, and I definitely chew more than that on average. I don't have any more exact numbers for you...
posted by slide at 11:54 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

*definitely never more than like 10 chews
posted by Grandysaur at 11:57 AM on October 18, 2017

Some things aren't digested as well if they aren't chewed thoroughly. Is that bad or good? Probably depends on how much you eat in the first place. If you're already eating more calories than you need - like most of us are - then my guess (backed up by no research whatsoever) is that chewing less might do you some good.
posted by clawsoon at 12:05 PM on October 18, 2017 [3 favorites]

Although maybe not chewing will give you dementia (with a grain of salt).
posted by clawsoon at 12:07 PM on October 18, 2017

I also do not chew well at all. I find the sensation both gross and boring, particularly when the food gets too mushy. I do have some digestive issues and choke more often than most people, which is not ideal, but I find chewing so offputting I can't bring myself to do much of it. Five chews max for most things.
posted by terretu at 12:08 PM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

As long as all those physical qualities stay fine, I don't see a huge issue.

Choking is the obvious and most consequential issue with not chewing. As you age into later life this could become an issue to watch out for, but aside from that *shrug*
posted by French Fry at 12:08 PM on October 18, 2017

No # rule since every food is different. But definitely chew more, it's the first line in breaking down food into its component energy/nutrient units. Your guts don't have teeth. There's nothing unhealthy about not chewing your food, but it requires you to eat more of it for the same level of nutrient extraction, so not doing so is inefficient and causes you to eat more than is necessary.
posted by smokysunday at 12:41 PM on October 18, 2017

I could have written this question but from the opposite end of the scale. I did informal tests with my family one Thanksgiving and found that I am an extreme super chewer. Where most people could take a mouthful of dry turkey/stuffing and swallow it with under 15 chews, I was more like 60 chews! Unless my food is ground down to a slurry, my throat doesn't feel ready to swallow. Yes that is a lot of extra chewing and I often wonder if my jaw or teeth will have trouble later in life.
posted by oxisos at 1:06 PM on October 18, 2017

Apparently, soft foods should be chewed 5-10 times and tougher foods (meat, raw veggies) should be chewed up to 30 times!

According to who? I mean this article implies it's "according to science" but then doesn't cite any science. Here is some science

- more chewing can decrease meal size, if you have issues with portion control
- chewing more may decrease hunger more
- salivary intake increases (with associated benefits) with chewing but mostly with muscle activity not just random chews
- chewing a lot is good for patients who have had recent surgery

So realistically, it's a good idea for all the reasons, but people's guts are different. If it's not solving a problem for you and you don't have dentures, gastric issues or aren't managing your weight, it seems like you can chew how you want. I never pay attention to how much I am chewing.
posted by jessamyn at 1:14 PM on October 18, 2017

I have to pay attention to how much I'm chewing when I eat meat, otherwise I swallow after four or five chews and it gets stuck in my throat.
posted by Chenko at 1:29 PM on October 18, 2017

I read this question while eating and discovered that I chew spinach leaves covered with a thin veneer of dressing and goat cheese 17 times on average.
posted by xyzzy at 1:47 PM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

But how many times do you chew a plate of beans?
posted by clawsoon at 4:01 PM on October 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

Apparently, soft foods should be chewed 5-10 times and tougher foods (meat, raw veggies) should be chewed up to 30 times!

Food historian speaking - there is a lot of pseudoscience around this notion of needing to chew a set number of times. Particularly when people cite numbers of chews, they're building on a century's worth of Fletcherization and other quackery, passed down through lay 'science.' Yes, it's stage 1 of the digestion process, but the enyme and acid bath your food is going to take in your gut for hours to come can be counted on to do a pretty darn good job of breaking food down. I don't know anyone who poops chunks of food, do you? It gets digested.

The only reliable recent research I know of says that chewing food more results in a slight increase in calories burned daily (like 10-30 - from the chewing action itself) and that it may contribute to bringing about satiety earlier by slowing down the ingestion of food, making you feel fuller sooner and perhaps consume less as a result, which may help control weight gain. But that's a long chain of "may" and "might" - the important part seems to be the slowing down, not the chewing itself - and nutrition-wise there doesn't seem to be any support at all for the notion that more chewing results in increased nutrition absorption.
posted by Miko at 6:11 PM on October 18, 2017 [7 favorites]

Chewing is important, as is taking the time to taste, taking the time to enjoy. These things are not ephemeral values. Taking this time, lets the ptyalin an enzyme that starts the breakdown of some carbohydrates to go to work. It gives the stomach time to go to work, it most importantly gives the stomach time to tell you it is full. If you took seconds or even a minute between bites of cold food, then you would have an experience, and get full at your stomach's pace. You can shove food down, unchewed, at a high rate, and your stomach has no choice but to stretch, to accommodate. Taking your time is more respectful of the resource you are using, and the body you own and care for.
posted by Oyéah at 7:08 PM on October 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

I bolt my food and I enjoy it. I generally finish in a third of the time of anyone else at the table but it's because I get absorbed in the experience of eating. I don't think it takes me more than a few chews to break a mouthful of anything down to digestible sizes except maybe really a heavy rind on bacon or a piece of gristle in a blade roast but those are outliers.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:43 PM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't know what their rationale was, but, my grandmother went to Cheltenham Ladies' College (classmate, for an idea of how long ago this was: Helen Mirren's mum) and was taught there to chew every bite exactly twenty times, a habit she never lost. Apparently this was pretty important at the time, and she was forever apologising over eating slightly more slowly than everyone else -- though she certainly shouldn't have felt the need to apologise; I slow down and eat at a more leisurely pace whenever I remember this anecdata, though trying to count every bite is a good way to go mad and end up with cold food -- I think it only works if you are schooled into it as a younger person and do it, like chewing with your mouth closed, automatically forever after. This was, so far as I know, strictly part of good table manners; no health whatnot was believed to go along with the 20x.

If it's working for you I think I would only worry if I was forever the first to finish at every table; I don't think many people are on the lookout for poor table manners in the form of...underchewing, but make sure you're not wolfing stuff down and cramming it in too quickly. If you are wearing just underpants and eating out of a jar over the sink, well, wolf away, but I think most home cooks might feel that you found their efforts distasteful and ate quickly to taste as little as possible -- that, and someone eating too quickly is usually sort of distracting. Pause between bites in company, so you're not out of synch, not making people feel rushed, not insulting a host, and able to participate in the social pleasures of eating.

(Also, are you sure you are not eating lousy food? When I am indulging in, say, an ultra-rich Indian dish or a just-perfect in-season peach, I want that in my mouth and I want to savour it, sort of in the same way you wouldn't normally upend a glass of wine and chug away as you do with water when feeling dehydrated. That would be my knee-jerk if a friend asked; I would want to know if they were living off discount microwave burritos or something sad like that and trying to avoid tasting their depressing and tasteless meals.)
posted by kmennie at 9:34 PM on October 18, 2017

In the movie Bernie, Shirley Maclaine's character insisted on chewing her food at least 25 times before swallowing it, whether it's steak or refried beans. This was ultimately one of the things that led Bernie (awesomely played by Jack Black--seriously, if you haven't seen this already, I recommend it) to snap.

I've never really kept count, but I kind of just chew until I feel like swallowing my food would be easy. I think as long as what you're doing works for you, keep at it. :)
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:39 AM on October 24, 2017