Many think that preventing Type 2 diabetes requires a major overhaul on your lifestyle. For many, this IS true, but sometimes some incredibly simple changes can have powerful results.
I have always felt that food is, and should be, a celebration of life. Think of the events, meetings and dinners that you have gone to in your life. Many times food is at the center of this experience. And this isn’t just today–this hedonistic experience has been at the heart of celebrations for as long as we have been keeping records.
But part of that celebration should, arguably, be actually enjoying the food that you are eating. Let me rephrase this a little more clearly…
Slow down when you eat.
How can you enjoy your food if you’re scarfing it down like the smallest child in a family of 12 at dinner? Quite frankly, you can’t.
But besides enjoying the experience more, there are distinct health benefits associated with this behavior. Merely chewing more has been shown to have very positive anti-diabetic properties. This includes better absorption of healthy fats from a meal, higher levels of GLP-1 in the bloodstream (a very potent anti-diabetic hormone in your body) and greater satiety (the people who chewed more felt more full after eating).
All pretty good things.
But let’s take this out to a lifetime of eating our meals rapidly without enjoying them to their fullest. This particular study looked at the risk of developing diabetes in slow versus fast eaters.
Here’s what they found:
A pretty startling 252% increased risk of developing diabetes in someone who described themselves as a fast eater.
That’s pretty dramatic for an aspect of diet that few ever consider.
Think on this just before you take a bite of that Big Mac or Egg McMuffin as you are driving on your way to work…