Chewing foods thoroughly benefits good-looking face and overall health!

Unfortunately most people don’t realize the importance of properly chewing food.
Chewing food thoroughly has numerous benefits, such as improving digestion, reducing
appetite and cravings, eliminating bad breath and excessive gas, and strengthening
the immune system, along with many others. You must also chew food to have
good-looking face!

The mandible or lower jaw is the key bone in the face that determines the shape of
the rest of the face. All the muscles of mastication or jewing relate to moving the mandible
or lower jaw. If you lose your teeth and stop chewing the following catastrophic
events happen:

1. the jaw will atrophy causing the chin to protrude and the mouth to recede
2. the upper jaw, or maxilla, will atrophy and the mouth will assume a turtle-like
shape
3. the cheekbone will no longer need to support the major chewing muscle, masseter,
so it will atrophy and give the face sunken-in appearance of a very old face
4. the temporalis muscles anchord to the head, will no longer need a strong
anchoring point so the skull will thin out and become smaller.
The result is a small head, shrunken face and turtle-mouth. Save your teeth and keep
chewing!

In average you should chew each bite of food 25-30 times before swallowing.
Meat is harder to digest and it’s advised to chew each bite of meat in average 35
times.

Chewing food thoroughly promotes good oral hygiene:
The saliva that is produced by the extra chewing helps to kill harmful bacteria, and
washes away food particles from around your teeth. Additionally, saliva contains
hydrogen carbonate which helps to neutralize plaque buildup.

Chewing food thoroughly promotes growth and repair in the body:
Food is complex and contains many types of molecules including proteins. Proteins
are broken down into amino acids which are the building blocks for growth and
repair. They are essential for life – we cannot create or store amino acids in our
body and lack of chewing creates a barrier to the digestion of proteins and
ultimately to the digestion of amino acids. Aside from water, proteins are the most
abundant kind of molecules in the body.

Chewing can be relaxing. It forces you to slow down, focus on the act and can reduce
stress. It certainly reduces the stress on your digestive organs, too, and that can
help prevent disease and discomfort.

A series of recent studies conducted on chewing have established connection between
chewing and weight control. Speed eating contributes to unhealthy weight gain. The
studies confirmed chewing every mouthful for longer helps you lose weight because it
allows your brain more time to receive signals from the stomach that it’s full.
Therefore, the slower you chew, the lesser you eat. Besides, when you chew
thoroughly and longer, your digestive system is told of incoming food. Digestion starts in your
mouth were certain enzyme are released that start the breakdown of the food. This
triggers it to produce digestive acids and helps the body absorb nutrients.
Inadequately digested food means inadequate absorption of nutrients.

Next time you’re eating, count how many times you chew each bite. It was quite a
surprise for me when I discovered that I chew less than 20 times each bite. Most
people chew between 5 and 10 times at most! Test yourself and be aware!

References:

Physiology of the Skin; Third Edition by Peter T. Pugliese, MD and Zoe Diana Draelos, MD.

Transform Your Skin Naturally by Ben Johnson, MD.