Guest Author - Alegra M. Bartzat

Mastication, or the chewing of food, is an important part of digestion, and one that is often nearly skipped in this day and age. While we rush to and from our jobs, hobbies, and social events, food is all too often squeezed in between. And I’m not just talking about “fast food,” although it is certainly the epitome of this syndrome: going through the drive through, grabbing whatever is cheap, and stuffing our faces as we speed off to the next scheduled event. But even for health-minded individuals, it is hard to make time for your food. Throwing together a salad or simple meal of vegetables and whole grains is great, but if you can’t make time to chew it you are doing yourself a disservice.

The process of digestion actually begins before food ever touches your tongue. The cephalic stage of digestion is the stage when you see or smell food. Your body actually begins to produce digestive enzymes when you just think about food! Remember Pavlov’s dogs? Their salivary glands got going by the sound of a bell, but only because they associated the bell with food. And the thinking is aiding by the first senses the detect food, the nose and eyes.

Complex carbohydrates, such as grains and legumes, are converted into simple carbohydrates through the process of digestion, beginning in the mouth. Chewing your food does the obvious task of breaking down food into smaller particles. This creates a larger surface area, so food is more easily exposed to the chemicals of digestions. But guess where those first chemicals come in? That’s right, in your mouth!

Mixing with saliva, the food becomes more liquefied, and this makes it easier to swallow the food itself, and reduces risk of s train on the esophagus. But saliva also contains digestive enzymes, such as alpha-amylase and lingual lipase. These two enzymes help to break down starches and fats, respectively.

The process becomes even more amazing when you learn about the pylorus muscle. This muscle is located at the end of your stomach, just before the small intestine. In order for food to pass into the small intestine, this muscle must relax. Since we can’t consciously control this muscle, how does it know when to relax? The pylorus actually senses the level of salivary enzymes, and when these are high enough, the muscle relaxes on its own, allowing digestion to proceed.

Chewing also signals the stomach to produce more hydrochloric acid and the pancreas to secret a variety of enzymes. All of these digestive processes are helped along by more thorough chewing practices.

Slowing down enough to chew your food well will also help you develop a relationship with your food and your eating habits. Choosing whole, fresh foods will help you develop your mastication habits because the foods are not already processed, and as you chew them they become more flavorful and usually sweeter. The opposite is true with refined, processed foods; they generally taste worse the longer they are chewed. As you make conscious choices about your food and re-learn the art of mastication, you will begin to eat less, as you enjoy more.