We are all very much aware that certain foods are fattening and certain foods are not so fattening. For example we all know that a blueberry muffin is laden with calories and that a stick of celery is not. However, we should be aware that the different texture or consistency of foods can also define as to whether a food is fattening or not.
Soft foods tend to be more fattening. This is because you require less effort to chew the food and therefore you will use up fewer calories in digesting them. This means that the good old blueberry muffin that has fewer calories than a flapjack for instance will actually be more fattening as it is far more easy to digest.
Tests have shown that women who ate harder foods in their diet had significantly slimmer waistlines than those that ate softer more easily digestible foods. This test concludes that food texture may be as important in preventing the spread of obesity as the taste of food or the nutrients in it. So raw food weight loss is a reality.
Scientists also conclude that the way food is cooked can affect the calorie content and the amount of energy that our body uses to digest it. This is because cooking alters the state of the food by softening it and making it much easier to digest and ultimately making the process of eating less time consuming.
A little known fact is that our ancestors developed more quickly when they learned to cook food. They did not have to spend half of the day chewing and digesting raw food and this saved energy was then channeled into brain development and physical activities. Today, because our food is cooked (over-cooked) we are not chewing enough and therefore despite our brains benefiting we are growing fatter as the calories that are not used to chew and digest food are stored around the body as excess fat.
As an example of the above theory, scientists fed animals raw and cooked carrots. The raw carrot required twice as much chewing than the cooked ones which resulted in a 40 per cent decrease in calories used up. Processed foods were also looked at and tests showed that all the calories in processed foods were absorbed and stored as fat by the body.
So, stay away from processed foods. Steam any vegetables leaving them a little al dente. And as my parents always told me at the dinner table, “chew each mouthful 32 times”.
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