Rebeccah Todd writes in the Waikato Times about research being undertaken by Lincoln’s Plant & Food Research scientists into how the composition of food, as well as how we eat it, affects the extent to which it satisfies us.
They have discovered, for example, that chewing less and taking bigger bites is probably better for those wanting to lose weight, and have emphasized again the importance of carbohydrates in the diet.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“Team leader food structure engineering Marco Morgenstern said taking bigger bites and chewing less was better for people watching their weight as the food was broken down more slowly in the stomach. This meant people felt fuller for longer and the slow release of energy could be burned off over time. However, sportspeople wanted the quick energy hit you got from partially digesting food in the mouth, so would be better off eating softer foods and chewing for longer.
“”The way people chew the food depends more on the food’s properties, not the individual, so you can design food which people won’t chew much and [food they] will chew a lot,” Morgenstern said.
…
“Their findings included the benefits of eating whole-oat muesli and wholegrain bread which made people feel satisfied for longer. Pasta was also found to have a slow-release energy.”