I am going to share with you possibly the most important piece of advice you will ever receive about nutrition. This piece of advice is not about supplementation. It is not about what you should be eating. However this piece of advice affects every other dietary choice that you make.

Are you ready?

Chew your food!

Chewing is the first step of the digestive process. The fancy word for it is mastication. What it means is that what you put in your mouth is ground up into smaller pieces and mixed with some digestive enzymes to begin the digestive process.

What is the digestive process? To understand the process, it’s best to first understand the purpose. The purpose of digestion is to extract beneficial materials from what you eat and expel the rest. This process involves breaking down your food into smaller and smaller pieces. When some of those pieces are small enough they are absorbed into your bloodstream. Other components, like insoluble fiber, continue on through your intestines and help to expel other waste products and to clean the surfaces of your intestines.

So what does this have to do with chewing? If you do not properly to your food, what you have eaten will go through your digestive system as large pieces of food. You do not have teeth anywhere else in your body. After you swallow your food, there are no other opportunities to break up large pieces of food. The acid from your stomach and the enzymes from your small intestine will only be able to act on the exposed surfaces. Chewing properly is the only way to grind up your food so that it is small enough to allow the rest of your digestive system to extract as many of the available nutrients as possible.

So the next time you eat, put a little thought into the first step of digestion. Chew your food.

Failure to chew your food can leadLead poisoning to weight gain only because you are eating more than you would if you took the time to chew. The act of chewing activates glands under the tongueTongue tie that have enzymes to start the digestion process. The less chewing you do, the longer it takes the stomach to break down the food. Food stays in the stomach longer before passing into the small intestines. This can food to ferment in the stomach which leads to gas, bloating and acid reflux. If you don't drink water with your food, but soda or milk, then the food is dryer when it leaves the stomach and minerals, and other nutrients may be left unabsorbed. As the food travels through the large intestines, the lack of water in the diet can lead to constipation, hard stools, and scraping of the intestine which can lead to bleeding in the rectum.

I am not sure that the text above really belongs in dentistry as it is really more of a comment on the systemic damage that can be done by not chewing properly rather than teeth per se. However, you will be unable to chew at all if you do not look after your teeth! Most people with healthy teeth tend to take them for granted and visit the dentist only when problems occur, especially in the UK where dental treatment can be very expensive and is a bitter pill to swallow when we are used to free health services. The problem is that by the time that you get to the dentist with your problem, it may represent the tip of the iceberg and you may end up facing a problem that has developed slowly over years. If regular check ups are routine then these problems will be spotted early.

On the subject of brushing teeth, how many people who do nut have a timed electric tooth brush, brush for the 2 minutes recommended? not many I bet, so even if you sue a manual brush, make sure you brush for 2 minutes each time.

Chewing food well is very important to transport and supply your body with nutrients. It also helps to start the process of digestion and makes you feel full. Failing to chew the food thoroughly could cause side effects like:

-Poor digestion and absorption of nutrients to the body.
-Damages the throat lining and oesophagus.
-Causes heartburn, discomfort such as constipation and abdominal spasms.

Hi Katherine, that is sooo interesting. I really had no idea how important chewing well was. My mother always used to say when I was young that my food 'did not touch the sides' meaning that I sued to gulp it down in such a hurry that I had not time to chew. Now that I have read your comment I will make sure that I do chew properly,. some of the consequences of not doing so sound horrible!

It makes sense though we would not have been given such elaborate teeth configurations if we were not meant to sue them!