Did you know that digestion starts in your mouth!? Further, did you know that you should chew your food 30 times?
When you chew your food, you are essentially grinding the food into smaller parts and mixing it with Saliva, so that it can pass easily down to the stomach through the food pipe (esophagus). According to experts, one should chew soft food (eg – watermelon), 5 to 10 times, while you should chew hard food (chapati, meat etc) 25 – 32 times!
Chewing 30 times looks like a big number, but most of us actually chew it nearly 30 times! You don’t believe us? Count and check for yourself
While chewing/grinding the food in our mouth, the salivary glands secrete saliva into the mouth which is mixed with the food. Saliva contains enzymes Amylase & Lipase. Amylase breaks down starch into sugar, while lipase breaks down fat. In other words, the digestion starts from our mouth itself while chewing.
If the food is not chewed properly, it can cause improper digestion, bloating and acid reflux. Chewing the food also increases its alkalinity, thereby reducing acid refluxes.
According to research, chewing the food also reduces the probability of overeating!