Chew & Stay Slim

Ah, the joys of good food! I rejoice at the mere thought of a delicious meal and eat five times a day, but thanks to Mother’s wise council I never gain weight.

I grew up in Germany during World War II when food was severely rationed and we children were always hungry, especially after our tiny meals. I still remember Christmas dinner, a year and a half after the war, as a very happy and special event because we were allowed to eat all the potatoes with salt we wanted.

It must have been torture for Mother not to be able to feed her kids. So she came up with a Golden Rule: we had to eat everything with utmost awareness and great gratitude. “Take smaller bites,” she would admonish us, “and chew each bite at least thirty times on each tooth!” And we did.

Mother’s plan worked well; the food on our plate lasted longer and we felt less hungry when we got up from a meal. Her Golden Rule may well rank as one of the best ways to enjoy food and stay slim.

Doctors will tell us today that there are two good reasons for eating slowly:

   1/ Many vitamins and minerals are absorbed right in the mouth, and

   2/ it takes about ten minutes for food to reach the stomach and signal to the brain that it’s full. Eating slowly cuts down considerably on the amount we eat.

Early habit rarely change. I am still a very slow eater. And so is my brother. While others are on their third helping, we’re about halfway through with our first. We both love food, never diet and rarely gain weight.

The food shortages continued for many years after the war. When our school served us a bowl of noodle soup at lunchtime thanks to the wonderful American Marshall Plan, school became downright tolerable.

Sometimes I wonder whether it was the lack of cigarettes and the scarcity of food that kept people relatively healthy—sugar and fat, meat and diary products were practically unobtainable, and big meals were unheard of. Or perhaps it was just the lack of doctors during and after the war that we didn’t see a doctor for years.

Mother’s Golden Rule may be simple, but it certainly works: Take small bites and chew each one 30 times on each tooth.

Happy mealtimes,
Rosi McIntosh