We are constantly bombarded by advice on what to eat. But what about how to eat? It turns out that this, too, can have a big impact on your waistline and your well-being.
Take mealtimes. Many of us eat our largest meal in the evening. It is worth rethinking this habit. Our bodies are more sensitive to insulin in the morning, meaning the postprandial spike in after an early meal than after one late in the day. As a consequence, front-loading your daily food consumption is likely to reduce your risk of developing diabetes. It is good for gut health and digestion too. “Gastric emptying and overall gut motility are faster and many enzymes, peptides and bile acids are higher in the morning,” says Leonie Ruddick-Collins at the University of Aberdeen, UK.
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You will also benefit from regular mealtimes. Eating helps regulate the genes that control your body clock, and the processes coordinated by it become disrupted if you change the times at which you eat. If weight loss is your aim, you can benefit even more from this by confining your meals to a shorter window. Simply by delaying breakfast for 90 minutes and having dinner 90 minutes earlier, people lost twice as much body fat over 10 weeks as those who kept to their usual mealtimes.
Find out how to eat healthily, lose weight, and sort the fads from science facts at
How fast you eat matters too. Chewing each mouthful 100 times may be overdoing it, but , probably because it takes about 20 minutes for hormones released in response to eating to kick in and make you feel full. in their blood, a key marker of metabolic syndrome. It isn’t clear why. Nevertheless, Indira Paz-Graniel at Rovira i Virgili University in Spain, who led the research, has some tips for guzzlers. She suggests that you focus on your food: sit down and avoid distractions such as television, computer and mobile phones. Eat foods high in fibre that require more chewing. And serve meals that need cutting up, putting your knife and fork down after each mouthful.
Finally, there is the tricky question of whether it is best to eat alone or in company. Busy lives and single-occupant households mean that solo eating is more common than in the past. This might be a good thing. Helen Ruddock at the University of Liverpool, UK, has found that we eat more when . But there is more to life than cutting calories. “There is also evidence that and more satisfied with their life than those who eat alone,” she says. One solution is to dine with strangers. We tend to go for smaller portions then, perhaps .
Alternatively, exploit the power of social contagion. “Our dietary habits converge with the habits of other people in our close social network,” says Ruddock. So maybe find a friend who eats well and likes to take their time over it. Anyone want to join me for a leisurely brunch?
Simple changes to your everyday habits could help transform your life. Follow our guide on how to do things better:
