3. Eat Slowly, and Stop When you are Full

Your mother was right – eating slowly really is better for you! For one thing, the chemical messages that tell your brain that food is in your stomach take about 10 to 15 minutes to start relaying after you start eating.  This means that your brain is always about 15 minutes behind in assessing how full your stomach is. If you gobble down your food, you can end up stuffing yourself with way more calories than you actually need to feel perfectly full before your brain even realizes that you’re eating. Eating slowly allows your brain to more accurately assess how much food you are taking in, and adjust your appetite accordingly.

When you do overeat, especially when you overeat by eating quickly, it can, surprisingly, result in your becoming more hungry. Eating way beyond the threshold of satiety (the point at which you feel full – between 400 and 1000 calories in any given meal for most people) can push your brain into a sort of binge mode, in which you become almost compelled to eat everything in site. At this point all of the excess calories you consume are going to go straight to fat and you won’t finally feel full until your stomach is next to bursting. Doing this every once in a while at a good buffet (is that an oxymoron?) is ok, but given the ridiculous portions that abound these days, especially in restaurants, many of us eat like this all of the time. The hideously high rates of obesity, diabetes, and general ill health in the US today are the result. If you eat natural foods, eat slowly, and stop when you’re full, the odds are you will not gain weight and, if you are overweight, you will start losing weight. Add in a rational exercise program, and weight loss will almost invariably follow.