Slow chewing ‘can help prevent weight gain in children’

Parents could help their children to avoid excessive weight gain simply by encouraging them to chew more slowly.

This is according to a new study from the University of California, San Diego, which indicated that waiting 30 seconds in between bites of food allows children to realise they are no longer hungry before they overeat.

Eating habits were monitored among 54 children aged six to 17 in Durango, Mexico, for a year. The study group was asked to eat more slowly, with a control group allowed to stick with their usual habits.

The weight of the students in the compliant group fell by between two to 5.7 percent after six months and 3.4 to 4.8 percent after one year, whereas the non-compliant group saw their weight increase by 4.4 to 5.8 percent after six months and 8.3 to 12.6 percent after a year.

Study co-author Geert Schmid-Schonbein, bioengineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, said: "You can adopt this slow eating approach for yourself and keep it up for the rest of your life. You can teach this approach to your children and they can teach it to their children in turn."